New Found Glory and Four Year Strong brought the Sticks and Stones’ 20-year tour to Dallas to a sold-out crowd.
First up was Four Year Strong. The band is from Worcester, MA. They are a very good fit on this tour since they are heavily influenced by New Found Glory and both are considered easy core, which is a combination of hardcore and pop punk. The bearded frontmen of the group took to stage and immediately captivated the crowd with the very in-sync back and forth singing and alternating guitar parts. Most of what was played were from 2020’s Brain Pain, the band’s most recent album. The band also played the cover they recently put out of Green Day’s “Brain Stew / Jaded.” The crowd reacted well to the cover and it really helped bring the punk elements to the show that much more. Four Year Strong also played “Wasting Time,” “It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Now,” “We All Float Down Here,” “Go Down In History,” and more fan favorites.
New Found Glory was who everyone was here to see. The lights dimmed and there was an audio recording of late-night talk shows the band did back when Sticks and Stones first came out. It was followed by “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton. The band didn’t take any time to jump into it and lead singer Jordan Pundik was all over the stage, running from side to side, entertaining the crowd, and making sure everyone was singing along to the pop-punk songs of years passed. The band was playing the album that got them recognition, Sticks And Stones, from front to back. Guitar player Chad Ball was missing, though, and Pundik let everyone know he was having some back problems and needed to drop off the tour. Instead, Dan O’Connor from Four Year Strong was filling his shoes and did an amazing job. He played a total of thirty-two songs that night. There was a confetti cannon on “My Friends Over You,” adding to the extravaganza of the performance. Bass player Ian Grushka was the clown of the band, always doing goofy things and sticking his tongue out at people.The band finished Sticks And Stones before running off the stage. The lights dimmed again and the backdrop was reset. There was a new banner that resembled the Vans Warped Tour logo but said New Found Glory instead as the backdrop. They came out for an encore but it was much more than that as they played “Hit Or Miss,” “Sincerely Me” (which was the first for this tour), “The King Of Wishful Thinking,” “Dressed to Kill,” “Vicious Love,” “Kiss Me,” and ended with another confetti cannon while performing “All Downhill From Here.”
At the end of the night, New Found Glory showed Dallas that they are not going anywhere and can still put on just as good of a show as they did in 2002 when Sticks And Stones came out. They clearly have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
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