Show Review: Boys Like Girls

PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY EMILY ARMITAGE

The second to last date of the Boys Like Girls comeback tour (after a 12 year hiatus) came to the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland on Halloween this year with costumes encouraged. This massive tour featured an all-star line up with new acts such as Senses and LOLO and veterans to the pop punk scene, The Summer Set and State Champs for this leg of the tour.

I was unable to cover Senses and LOLO but I’m sure that they were amazing. The Summer Set also recently went on a comeback tour after a long hiatus, so this really felt like a nostalgic tour for a lot of people. The Summer Set set the bar with some crowd surfers and a small mosh pit after the lead singer, Brian Dales entered the crowd for their final song, “Lightning in A Bottle”. The Summer Set had a very iconic costume reveal, they stepped out on stage in regular clothes and after their third song, revealed that they had all been wearing Spider-Man costumes under their clothes the entire time. They even posed for the famous multiple Spider-Man meme, you know the one I’m talking about. State Champs raised the bar once they hit the stage, with the crowd erupting into an even bigger mosh pit that lasted for the entire set with an insane amount of crowd surfers that increased as their set went on. Evan (drums) and Tyler (guitar) were both dressed as the main characters from Wayne’s World, Ryan (Bass) was a nun, and I’m positive that Derek (vocals) was dressed as himself because he always wears a sports jersey, lol.

Finally, Boys Like Girls took the stage in what seemed to be group costume of different Kens. Their set was 30 songs long, according to Martin (vocals) and he announced that they would be playing all of the songs that fans came to hear. Boys Like Girls just released their new album Sunday at the Foxwoods, which features the singles “Blood and Sugar”, “Language”, “Miracle” and “Cry”, which were all performed in addition to old favorites such as “Five Minutes to Midnight”, “Heart Heart Break”, “Love Drunk”, “Heels over Head”, and more. The setlist was so perfect for a Boys Like Girls fan who has waited 12 years to see them again, they certainly played all of my favorites. The energy did not stop when they took the stage, the mosh pit was consistent and there were still an insane number of crowd surfers. Everyone was so happy to be there and Martin took notice of the crowd’s energy. The two stand out moments in the set are when Martin mentioned those of us who had illegally downloaded their music from websites like limewire to burn to a memorex, specific CD with handwritten sharpie and when they restarted their hit song “The Great Escape” and requested that there be no phones because there were no phones in the air in 2006. Everything from the supporting acts on the tour, to the production and the performance, although there were currently only two original members of the band on stage, Martin (vocals), and John (drums), was incredible and it felt like they never left. The tour is over now but the band assured us that they would not wait 12 years to tour again.