"Cold Air" by Acceptance + Reaction to When We Were Young Festival Announcement+ Playlist, Thursday, January 20, 2022


Yesterday, I woke up to an announcement in my Instagram feed: a dream concert in Las Vegas later this year in October. Headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore, and featuring over 60 emo and punk bands over the span of one day, this one-day event is quite mind-blowing. Of course there's no way I'll be in Vegas on October 22nd, but this is pretty much my dream concert, other than Cornerstone magically resurrecting. In fact, the concert line-up seems a little too good to be true for many scene fans, leading to online speculation that this is the Emo Fyre festival. I thought it would be fun today to make a playlist for this festival with one song representing each band. I thought it would be fun also to see 1) how many bands I've talked about in my blog post, 2) how many I haven't listened to in years, 3)how many I'm only kind of aware of, and 4)how many I've never heard of. And that's the order we'll proceed. First of all, I'm sad that Las Vegas-based band The Killers aren't playing. Although they've never been classified with the emo scene, "When You Were Young," "When We Were Young," right? Anyway, here's the Spotify playlist:

I'll probably run out of energy as I go through this list, and of course the lineup is subject to change. With the bands I'd never heard of, I simply added the first song that came up on Spotify. So, let's get into it:

Tier 1: Bands I've blogged about:

1. "Cold Air" by Acceptance, the song of the day.

2. "Ain't It Fun" by Paramore, the co-headliner of the festival.

3. "Futures" by Jimmy Eat World, also a headlining act.

4. "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects. 


The official poster to the below:

5. "Death of Me" by Pvris

6. "Island" (Float Away) by The Starting Line

7. "Two Graves" by Anberlin

All but Pvris I've written about multiple times. I chose the most relevant song I blogged about. "Ain't It Fun" was Paramore's biggest hit, though it was not their most Emo song.

Tier 2: Bands I haven't listened to lately, or haven't blogged about.

8. "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance is maybe their biggest song.

9. "I'm with You" by Avril Lavigne. She's had her ups and downs as an artist, Avril Lavigne certainly was a powerhouse of an influence on women in rock in the 21st century. Of course "Sk8er Boy" or "Complicated" were bigger hits, but I chose to go with listenability over hits with this one.

10. "Cute Without the 'E'"(Cute from the Team) by Taking Back Sunday. You don't get more emo than this song.
11. "Movin' Right Along" by Alkaline Trio. Maybe not their biggest hit, but it's how I know them, from Muppets: The Green Album, a rock tribute to the Muppets.
12. "Racist, Sexist Boy" by The Linda Lindas almost made song of the day last year. It's not ear candy, but certainly worth a watch on YouTube. Be sure to check out my AAPI Heritage playlist.

13. "Miss Murder" by AFI
14. "Doomed" by Bring Me the Horizon
15. "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional
17. "Blank Space" by I Prevail comes from Punk Goes Pop, Volume 6 . Many of these groups became known because of a punk-rock cover of a pop song. 
18. "Love Drunk" by Boys Like Girls. Speaking of Taylor Swift, this group had a duet with the then teen star. 
19. "Duality" by Bayside. I checked out this band after I heard that they were on the Cities tour with Anberlin and Jonezetta. I listened to The Walking Wounded most. 

20. "Becoming the Bull" by Atreyu. A metal-core band that had a bit of mainstream success in the mid- '00s
21. "Changing" by Saosin. By the band's third album, their original lead singer rejoined the group.
22. "Don't Trust Me" by 3Oh!3 is the douchebag anthem of 2008. The video is...well. And it's especially offensive to Hellen Keller. Moving on.
23. "Check Yes, Juliet" by We the Kings. Lazy lit-rock, yes. But what else is going to (shamefully) bring you back to 2007. Surprisingly, the band has other albums.


24. "Saying Sorry" by Hawthorne Heights. This band isn't huge like My Chem. Romance, but they're certainly well-respected.
25. "Face Down" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. According to an interview with Shane Told, mentioned later, on Lead Singer Syndrome, this band strategically crossed over to Christian Rock later in their career. 


Tier 3: Bands I've heard of, but I can't name a single one of their songs.
 
26. "The Taste of Ink" by The Used. Yes, I'm a bad emo kid.
28. "King for a Day" by Pierce the Veil ft. Kellin Quinn. "Oversleeping like a dog on the floor."
29. "Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most" by Dance Gavin Dance. This band expands the genre to a poppier direction.  This song comes from their 2008 self-titled album.

30. "In the End" by Black Veil Brides. They’re kind of a polarizing band. Their dark aesthetic is perhaps stereotype-making. But are they the real deal? There’s an interesting episode with their frontman, Andy Black on Lead Singer Syndrome.
31. "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Ice Nine Kills. On the list of band concepts that are cool but not for me, Ice Nine Kills' horror-film-inspired punk/emo/screamo would come in the top ten. This spooky Elvis cover, is kind of cool, though. Perfect for a horror film set in an alternate timeline.




32. "Can't Be Saved" by Senses Fail. Album covers like this (pictured to the left) made me very hesitant to embrace Emo as a genre fully when I was a teen. 
33. "Miserable At Best" by Mayday Parade. I've listened to this sad-boy album a few times, but I can't remember it.
34. "Into Your Arms" by The Maine from their 2008 record, Can't Stop Won't Stop. From a cursory listen, this is a band I could have gotten into. I'll have to listen to them some more.


35. "My Heroine" by Silverstein. I'm a fan of lead singer Shane Told's Lead Singer Syndrome podcast, but I've never listened to his music. Weird, right?
36. "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes
37. "Moaning Lisa Smile" by Wolf Alice. This band comes highly recommended by the critics. One of my favorite theory YouTubers, David Bennett Piano, placed Wolf Alice's Blue Weekend in his best of the year.  I guess they're huge in the UK.

38. "If You Can't Hang" by Sleeping with Sirens
39. "Until the Day I Die" by Story of the Year. I've definitely listened to this album, Page Avenue, but I couldn't hum a single song from it. Fun fact, the band recorded one of their albums with Aaron Sprinkle.
41. "Came Out Swinging" by The Wonder Years

Tier 4: Bands I heard about for the first time today. 

42. "Drunk Drivers/ Killer Whales" by Car Seat Headrest. This seems more like indie music than punk/emo/screamo, so it's kind of a nice change up. Of course we can call Death Cab for Cutie and David Bazaan emo. We certainly call Dashboard Confessional emo. So, I guess these guys fit.
43. "Angels & Demons" by jxdn. This is the most mainstream-pop sounding artist so far. Despite the trap beats, there's definitely a scene-sound in the mix. A twenty-one-year-old Chattanooga-native, jxdn got famous thanks to Tik Tok. And guess what? This track was produced by Travis Barker like every punk/emo/rap song is these days.

44. "Clairvoyant" by The Story So Far is the band's first acoustic ballad. Their second and third most popular songs are also acoustic. Their 4th and 5th song, I guess sound more like their original style.
45. "Counting Worms" by Knocked Loose up-and-coming hardcore band. From their 2016 album Laugh Tracks.
46. "Edward 40hands" by Mom Jeans. Warning: Spotify link NSFW, but funny. What a band name! Check out the link for the SNL clip.
47. "A Part of Me" by Neck Deep ft. Laura Whiteside. Take some voice lessons, dude. Blink 182/Angels & Airways at their worst. Oh well, it's only punk rock.


48. "Lonely" by Palaye Royale more gothic aesthetic 
49. "I Disagree" by Poppy
50. "i hope ur miserable until ur dead" by Nessa Barrett. This song is like a rawer "good 4 u."This song comes from her album, pretty poison. 
51. "Ape Dos Mil" by Glassjaw
52. "21st Century Vampire" by LILHUDDY
53. "Lovers Rock" by TV Girl from the album French Exit. 


56. "Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die" by Four Year Strong from their 2007 album Rise or Die Trying. Chunky guitars with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and gang vocals. Next.
57. "overwhelmed" by Royal & the Serpent. Ryan Santiago goes professionally by this moniker.
58. "Love Like Woe" by The Ready Set
59. "Walk Like a Zombie" by Horrorpops a kind of gothic take on rock 'n' roll/rockabilly.
female fronted hard rock group with 158,000+ monthly listeners. Maybe this is one to watch.

And that's the sampler. Happy listening!

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