I'm also going to guess warped / wwwy. If you spend $1500 or so on a vacation to see these bands, it probably isn't worth another $150 (tickets + transport + drinks etc) to go see them again.
I've been on the fence about it for a while mostly because I really love seeing Story of the Year live and I'd love to hear Armor for Sleep do the hits, but it's a lot of money and Senses Fail just doesn't do it for me live anymore.
I’m still glad this tour is happening. SOTY is one of the best live bands in the scene and always kills it. They didn’t play any In The Wake songs on the page Avenue tour so I’m excited to hear some of those live. Before 2022 they rarely toured for years. I haven’t seen AFS since Warped 2006 so that will be a treat. Any enjoyment I get from Senses Fail will be icing on the cake. For what it’s worth, the setlist I’ve seen is not bad at all.
I think a lot of it has to do with venue-size. The room here in Boston is 3.5k people. Not sure how it's selling but... I'm also expecting a half-empty room. But what that tells me is that if it were at our HOB (~1.8k) it would be pretty close to sold out. Just feels like a swing and a miss for me. But I also can't help but wonder if the openers are playing a smaller roll here. As a package it just doesn't feel very 'stacked.' The Hot Mulligan tour that rolled through that same venue a few weeks back felt like an event. This just... Doesn't feel that way. They probably could have done better bringing on a younger, buzzier hardcore/emo band in place of Armor. That said: I'm really looking forward to seeing SOTY! It's been a long time since I've seen them play a set that had some of these non-Page Avenue songs so... I can't miss it. Senses Fail sounded atrocious at Riot Fest but I'm sure the songs will still be fun. And I don't really care about Armor For Sleep but definitely won't mind seeing the hits.
Well Hot Mulligan is super hot and would have sold out regardless of support. That lineup is amazing, but HM is a draw themselves. Way hotter than any band on the Scream Team Tour. Their support is just an added plus to make that tour unmissable for any modern emo/pop punk fan. It’s also targeted at a slightly younger demographic. I think this is more that SF hasn’t released anything popular in a very long time and SOTY has always been pretty mid as a draw outside of Anniversary tours. AFS has toured a ton the past few years. It just doesn’t feel special and feels like a random package you would have seen in 2005 when those bands toured regularly. Their fanbases are old and don’t want to take time to see them every year.
BTW, I’m seeing that Hot Mulligan tour on Saturday. It’s probably the closest thing I can think of to the awesome tours TWY did back in the day. Lineups like Modern Baseball, Citizen, Real Friends/Fireworks and TSSF, Transit/Polar Bear Club felt so special at the time. The crazy thing is HM is playing a venue here that is 2.5X the size of where TWY was playing on those tours and sold the show out months in advance. It’s crazy to see how big they’ve gotten. TWY at their peak wasn’t even doing these numbers for their shows.
Hot Mulligan also sold out the same venue in Portland on the last tour they did, months in advance (I think honestly the day of or at least week of on sale for both of them). The problem is at least for them is that they feel too big for people to have an opportunity to wait to get tickets when they play the Crystal and the next size up for venues here would be Theater of the Clouds, but they feel too small to make that jump right now. Portland just really needs another venue somewhere between 1500 and 6000 people.
Agree on all points. The new venue being built in the Lloyd Center that has a 2-4K cap will be perfect for shows like this in the future.
It seemed like SF were on an upward trajectory again with ITILIWFY back in 2018, but now they’ve kinda seemed to plateau again? They had a packed crowd at Warped in 2018 and it seemed like they were doing great after that. But now they’re kinda teetering on “nostalgia band” territory. Not in a Hawthorne Heights way though
I think Covid combined with Hell Is In Your Head not being well received has a lot to do with that. ITILIWFY got a lot of praise and is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite SF album, but the band didn’t seem to tour hard on it. That coheadliner with Amity Affliction wasn’t the best move in my option and started that downward trend.
that tour last year with saves the day played similar size rooms and was almost 100% sold out. Philly 3k sold out first weekend tickets were on sale. The small venue headliner they did in 2022? With LMTF was 100% sold out as well. I know next year they are doing two nights in small venues. One night still searching and one night the rest of the catalog.
That STD tour was only successful because both bands played their most beloved albums and it was STD’s first tour in a long time. Also 2022 is a long way from 2025/2026 in terms of how concerts are drawing. Post Covid everyone was drawing crazy since people wanted to get out after being stuck inside for two years. Now people can barely afford to go to shows and they are more expensive than ever lol
I feel like Senses Fail has given up on trying to push new music. The last 2 tours before this one being anniversary tours and the next one is likely Still Searching anniversary, lot of people see them as a nostalgia act.
Yeah there was that co-headliner with Say Anything that got pulled at the 11th hour too. Wonder what would’ve happened if it went through
I will say that I did not pay full price for my ticket to the SF x SOTY show. This economy has me waiting day of for any shows I’m interested in and buying right after doors. Had an absolute blast though! Maybe it’s because I just never get tired of those songs.
Restroyer is from here in SLC, they're my buddies. I just offered up myself to be a roadie for them if they want, cuz I'd kill to see Millencolin play that album haha.