From the videos I saw - it looked like they all were having a blast and genuinely enjoying having Fred and John with them. The little jam song/intro to Make Damn Sure that they've been playing on tour makes me wonder if they have toyed with writing anything while on tour? Probably not but a guy can dream!
As much shit as they get for not being a “good” live band or sounding good, it’s definitely fun to see them all playing together and the “showmanship” they have together
i really hope they don't do another anniversary tour. i know that's what 75% of TBS fans want, but god i'm sick of hearing some of the songs off those albums live.
We're coming up on the second anniversary of 152, I'd love for them to announce they're just working on new material. Especially considering that album had almost a half year rollout too, I hope they've started cooking something up, because there is just so much potential at play now.
I think there's something in the works to acknowledge it, but I don't think it will be a full tour. I can imagine them being one of the album plays on Riot Fest (like they're doing for Slam Dunk) and maybe one or two shows in like NYC or LA. At least, I'm hoping that's the case. I understand When We Were Young is a festival kind of rooted in nostalgia, but it's wild to me that the setlist from the fest only had 3 songs written in the past two decades. I could do without My Blue Heaven being in every setlist lately. This doesn't surprise me. In that podcast they did, I think he mentioned this being an ongoing pain issue for about 3-ish years for him. That would probably really impact his ability to sing the way people wanted him to sing night after night. I think the Straylight setlist from the weekends were all John vocal songs. Impressive he was doing that and then also playing with Taking Back Sunday for three days. Good for him. I hope he's not feeling it too badly today.
While things are still in legal limbo with Mark, I don't see them doing anything official with Fred. The wording of all the posts and everything from this weekend are Taking Back Sunday with Fred, referring to it as a super group, etc. and all the press images are just Adam, John, and Shaun (that I've seen anyway). I wouldn't be surprised if they were hesitant to add a member back into the band full time after all this. Maybe an EP or a couple of songs "featuring Fred Mascherino" ? I also...don't know what people are hoping will happen with Fred contributing. A majority of people seem to think we'll get Louder Now Part Two: Electric Boogaloo, and I have a feeling they'll be sorely disappointed with anything they put out because it won't be that. Fred's a very talented guitar player, but he hasn't worked with Adam for nearly 20 years and as far as I know he hasn't written with John and Shaun (and he hasn't exactly spent an extended period of downtime with John, since obviously he wasn't on tour with them). I have to imagine that trying to make anything organic would take a while if that's what they're interested in doing. John's Music For Everyone Vol. 2 compilation comes out Friday, and that allegedly has a new Taking Back Sunday song he worked on within the past year, and that's intriguing to me personally, especially after hearing the new Straylight Run song (and thinking that sounded very good).
I don’t think an album with Fred would sound like more Louder Now, and I wouldn’t want that. I mostly just want an album with both him and John because both have contributed to some really good TBS songs over the years. After absolutely loving 152, keeping that direction and momentum going & doing so with another strong contributor in the mix is very appealing to me. Especially since we’ve never seen what Fred in a room with John and Shaun could produce.
152 was a swing and a miss for me but having fred back in the mix is exactly what i needed to get excited about new stuff again. as long as they dont work with apte again im s'old, think he was the biggest problem for me
yeah I don’t think it would either, but I think a majority of people online want it to. There’s a huge amount of people who act like anything they’ve put out post-louder now is not good or not “taking back sunday.” (I think people hoping they start sounding like that again after 20 years of putting out things that don’t sound like that are wasting their time and should just find a band they actually do like, but I digress). The idea of Fred contributing to TBS again doesn’t really excite me because I haven’t really disliked anything they’ve done since he left. There are a few tracks here and there that I think could be better, but I as a whole, I really like what they’ve put out since 2010, and I loved 152. I also loved straylight run and John’s solo work (as a lyricist, I don’t think John gets enough credit—Abendigo was fantastic). On the other hand, I did not care for much of what Fred has done since leaving TBS and breaking Pangaea also wasn’t for me, so my feelings are that the two records he did contribute to were kind of lightning in a bottle for them. …but this is all just my personal opinion that doesn’t matter much in the long run, and as of right now the only think that I’ve heard confirmed is that they’re doing a louder now show in the UK and cooking up something for the louder now anniversary but nothing is set in stone yet.
Well, I don’t care what they want, lol. I’m maybe more mixed on TBS’s output than you are, though I think there’s been ups and downs to every version of the band. And, I haven’t cared about any of the Fred stuff since he left the band. But, I still think, if you put Adam and John and Fred in the same room after they did some playing together, they’d bounce off each other in ways that’d be interesting to see. Also, Fred’s whole personality since parting ways with the band seems to have been “hey, it’s me, from TBS!” So might as well go back full time, lol.
Fred’s writing style just seems so different from John and Adam, I do wonder how it would mesh…but yeah would be very interested in hearing the results
It'll also be their first time writing without Mark, the fact they're in such uncharted territory with this line-up makes this an exciting prospect. I don't want them to come up with Louder Now Part 2 or anything like that, but expanding on 152 with added influences brought by Fred's involvement could be interesting. I loved Apte's production work so I wouldn't mind them going back to him too. Speaking of Mark, I know he's now become a laughing stock but I'm going to miss his drumming. If they don't intend on ever bringing a full time replacement, I wonder if they're going to have someone from the scene do session work. Nate Young?
Fred’s last solo album instrumentally sounded in the same vein as Louder Now. He’s just not the greatest lead vocalist or lyricist. An album like that but with Adam’s voice/lyrics/melodies would kill.
This is actually, to me, the most grating thing about him, haha. He was in a band for about four years nearly two decades ago. I know he has to pay the bills somehow, but it's a little sad to me how that's his entire personality. I've been curious about this. I don't think they will bring somebody on full time, but they probably have a bunch of people they can tap to lend a hand in the studio (they're still very much in touch with Will, even though he'll be touring with the Format, but John just worked with him on that new Straylight song and apparently did a lot of protools work with Will's drums for that). Mark's drumming was really underrated in the "scene," and I think it's going to be impossible to recreate and very noticeably missing on whatever they put out next. It is such a bummer what happened, and I hope that he can figure things out and find work on a project that isn't as laughable as whatever he and Eddie are (were? is it even still happening) attempting with "me."
Now I’m imagining a TBS album written and recorded by Adam, John, Shaun, Fred, and Will, which I think would be neat and also kinda funny.
I like this song a lot. Forget if this was already said, but do we know when they wrote and/or recorded it?
During one of the interviews from this past weekend, John said he wrote the three songs (assuming he means his solo one, straylight, and this one, and isn’t including the fuckin whatever one) during the past year. His Instagram post regarding it also says it was written and recorded for this compilation, so I think it’s definitely post-Mark. Nathan is in the credits (not the drums, but apparently for “amazing musical and mixing contributions” which is fun).