Taking Back Sunday | Rams Head Live | Baltimore, MD

Photographs and review by Christa Rae Settle.

On March 28th, Taking Back Sunday performed for a sold out crowd at Rams Head Live with support from The Menzingers and letlive. This was definitely not a show to miss! 

Taking Back Sunday’s hour and a half set consisted of songs from their latest album released in 2014, Happiness Is, to their debut album from 2002, Tell All Your Friends. The American rock band from Long Island, NY opened their set in a comical way, with an 80’s pop song blaring through the speakers in total darkness. A lot of concert goers pulled out their lighters and cell phones to light up the room and waved them back and forth as they chanted the lyrics of the 80’s pop song and giggled during this comical preface. Taking Back Sunday is always a great show when they are in town. Baltimore fans love coming out to support the band, even the ones who don’t like their recent album.

Setlist:

1. Preface
2. Flicker, Fade
3. What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?
4. Number Five with a Bullet
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. Liar (It Takes One to Know One)
7. Stood a Chance
8. Timberwolves at New Jersey
9. You Got Me
10. Ghost Man on Third
11. A Decade Under the Influence
12. Bonus Mosh Pt. II
13. Faith (When I Let You Down)
14. Spin
15. You’re So Last Summer
16. Better Homes and Gardens
17. Error: Operator
18. You Know How I Do
19. It Takes More

Encore:

1. Call Me in the Morning
2. Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)
3. MakeDamnSure

The Menzingers performed before Taking Back Sunday. This American punk rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania was the least hardcore band of the night.  If they had opened, I feel their set would’ve seemed a bit more enthusiastic but following a band like letlive, it’s hard to compete with such a high energy post-hardcore band. Don’t get me wrong, The Menzinger’s performance had energy, but I feel their order in the lineup was wrong.

Post-hardcore rock band, letlive. from Los Angeles, California opened the night off with a bang. Seriously, it was hard to fathom that there were more bands to see perform after letlive.’s performance. Their set was headliner worthy material, with lead singer Jason Aalon up to his usual antics of climbing things and joining the crowd. About four or five songs into their set, Jason jumped into the middle of the pit and started a circle pit around him while still singing into his microphone. Fans went absolutely nuts over being able to mosh with Jason. After jumping back on stage and performing a few more songs, Jason climbed practically to the top of the back lighting fixture of the stage, still singing and screaming into his microphone. Towards the end of their set, Jason jumped from the stage onto a very thin ledge of the second floor balcony and hung off the balcony, performing almost a full song from there overlooking the crowd. I was so amazed at how much energy Jason and the rest of his band mates have while performing!