When We Were Young Festival (Las Vegas) Tour • Page 105

A lot of people saying the crowds were pretty dead yesterday. Is this true?

 

It depends on where you were. Every band I saw had a little pocket of a circle pit but it wasn't overly wild. The closer to the stage the more engaged the crowds were which makes sense to me.

Also most people were probably over 30 and don't have the stamina to rage for 12 hours lol.

 

My two favorite conspiracies already being posted on TikTok are that the festival was a dud because there was no video being posted when it was happening when in reality it’s just there was no service there at all lol

and the second being some people thinking mcr paid a cover band to perform as them because they didn’t feel like they were the real mcr

 

The discourse around this festival remains unhinged and divorced from reality.

Bunch of folks who have never been to a music festival and it shows.

 

i believe it

 

Like no movement? Moshing and jumping etc? I thought it was lively enough. The crowds went deep back so people are bound to have different tales. It was also an older crowd, long day, long weekend etc.

 

i can almost guarantee you most of the people there went to several warped tours. i don't think it has anything to do with a lack of festival experience.

 

Critical thinking is actually dead.

 

This is amazing.

 

Coming back home after the Saturday cancellation is hard. Super depressing. I have to find something to lift up my spirits.
Seeing everyone come into town when I was in the airport flying back hit very hard.

Since you are here, I saw TIN at the Strange 90's show and he butchered the hell out of it. He was great when he did not sing. He did seem like a cool dude, though.

 

What did he play there? He’s definitely a cool dude, but his voice gets shot pretty quickly.

 

When these bands were in their touring prime 10-12yrs ago, you didn't have 75% of the crowd trying to record the entire set on their phone. It's not a punk thing, or a getting older thing, it's a lot of shows now...the energy is gone in part due to a lot of people concerned about recording every moment.

Shows without phones are magic, I can say that both the Jack White and Madonna shows I saw with no phones had some great crowd energy.

 

What was the deal with that Strange 90s thing? I can't find set lists for anybody but Goldfinger and Story of the Year. What was up with the Unwritten Law and "Sugarcult" sets?

 

He played on like 5-6 songs but he mainly sang on Everlong and he was wayyy of key and the timing was also weird. He seemed to be good buddies with Jaret from BFS.

It actually started with the Strange 90's set which was weird since there was a huge ass line outside and most people got in at least after7-8 songs (we were ahead in the line and got there by the 3rd song). There were musicians from a bunch of bands that were rotating and different vocalists. For some reason someone created a setlist for every single person's band that was there on setlist.fm. After they were done there was a surprise set by Goldfinger, they played 2 songs. After that The Summer Set played 30 minutes, SWS did an hour and SOTY did a 45 minutes set that started very late (1am). I am actually the one who updated the setlists on the website. Didn't do The Summer Set because we were outside eating a slice of Pizza. There were tons of musicians walking around the venue (Fat Mike was there, Shane from Silverstein, that guy from Emo Isn't Dead, MM@TA were in the crowd and we saw Will Swan and Andrew from DGD near the door as well) and Kevin Lyman gave a nice speech.

It was a very cool evening, it was packed as hell but by the time SOTY started half the people left.

Edit: That was the only positive experience about my weekend.

There was also one very cool moment, when everyone was outside in line and angry, there was a bar right next to it that was doing Emo karaoke. Someone did "Remembering Sunday" by ATL and everyone in line was singing together. It was such a surreal magical moment which made all the negativity fade away.

 

Yeah, he and Jaret are pretty tight. They released a cover/parody of "1985" together and it sure is something.

 

Honestly, that all sounds like a really fun and unique experience! Would be curious to know what songs Scott and Marko sang, if you can recall.

Also not shocked to hear that Fat Mike and Shane were both there because... That just seems like it's a few of their friends all in the same room.

I've also been thinking about it, and I think next year's WWYF will probably have some tie-in with the Punk Rock Museum that Fat Mike just opened up. The line-up next year is more "aligned" with it.

 

I tweeted this and thought I'd share what I found so cool about the fest.

 

Fuck yes everything MCR and Paramore did. That’s what I want.

 

I actually didn't see Scott and Marko there. We only got in during the 3rd song and it was sang by Joe from HIPV and after that we never saw him again so I am guessing he might have done at least 2 of the first 3 songs.

 

I dont know what this means. If people are willing and happy right now to enjoy, and pay to enjoy nostalgia, whats the problem? And what toxicity?

 

Truly had the best time yesterday. One of the best festival experiences I’ve ever had. Have a lot more I could say but my body is broken

 

People can enjoy nostalgia all they want - I do too, it's awesome - but there's also a downside to celebrating the past too much. MCR played into that with the old man routine that people have been posting about and I thought it was a valuable commentary on a giant company's commodification of that same nostalgia with this giant festival celebrating it, while also being part of it. I thought it was really clever and subversive.

As for the toxicity, go watch Hayley's speech she gave at the festival.

 

the pop punk/emo scene is riddled to the core with toxicity and predators.

 

This scene has chewed through young men and women in a way that is absolutely disgusting and sinister.

Misogynists.
Child predators.
Abusers.
Rapists.

All of the above are part of the emo/pop-punk culture. Just looking at the lineup for next year - there are five bands I don't even need to think very hard to recall what members in those bands did to people.

 

This is culture in general. But good for them for saying something. Being a huge metal and hip hop fan, I see these exact same issues in those communities as well, problem is, neither of those communities seem to care where as this one does, to an extent.