The unique venue of Somerville Theatre was sold out, the room was already filled with fans before the opening act. The venue is also a movie theater and has a more intimate room than most other venues in the Boston area, all seated which was perfect for an intimate acoustic show.
The opening act was Leanna Firestone. Her musical style is different than New Found Glory‘s usual sound but with this being an acoustic tour, she was the perfect acoustic opener. The young female was a solo act this night but her personality and music both filled the room. Leanna took time to talk to the crowd in between every song she played, openly acknowledging most of the crowd had not heard of her or her music before and also giving some insight to her song meanings.
There was a few memorable moments where she made jokes and got the crowd to laugh. She pointed out quirky things in her song like making fun of snoring in her song “Smitten”, which got a handful of laughs out of the crowd when she sang the line ‘I think it’s so cute you can’t breathe right’ in said song. Leanna also played such songs as her new single “You Just Didn’t Like Me That Much”, “Love of my Life”, and “Right Person, Right Time”. The most memorable moment of all was when Leanna got more vulnerable when explaining the meaning behind her song “Tourniquet” was no longer having a parent in her life. When she was playing that song, the room was more quiet than any other song but it was clear that it was because the crowd was hanging onto her words, listening to the meaningful lyrics. With the big cheers after her songs and audience participation, it’s clear that Leanna won over some new fans with her set.
Next were the stars of the night, New Found Glory. It was clear most of the room was solely there for the pop-punk band headliners of the night, the crowd cheering before they even played anything. This night they had Dan O’Connor from Four Year Strong filling in on guitar and backing vocals for member Chad Gilbert. Chad has been battling a rare kind of cancer, Pheochromocytoma, which the band briefly mentioned and touched on the heavy subject. The band has been raising money and awareness for the rarer type of cancer with certain merch and also guitar raffles at each of their shows.
This wasn’t a usual New Found Glory show with it being acoustic. The band still brought energy and fun to their set, engaging and interacting with the crowd in between some songs and encouraging the fans to sing along to their classic hits such as “My Friends Over You” and “All Downhill From Here”. The fans singing along to the band’s older hits filled the entire room, one perk of the intimate room that the show was held in, all fans having a seat in a theatre setting.
It’s clear that the members have stage presence and are comfortable playing for a crowd, their experience of performing for over two decades shows. Their drummer Cyrus Bolooki had even learned acoustic guitar and keyboard to help play the songs in the acoustic versions for this tour, vocalist Jordan Pundik acknowledged Cyrus’ dedication and talent with learning the new instruments and then also made jokes about the bass player Ian Grushka playing the triangle for one song.
Other songs they played included “Understatement”, “Too Good To Be”, and “No News is Good News”. The band played a few covers that night which included “A Thousand Years”, “Iris”, and “I’ll Be”. The night ended with a five song encore, the very last two songs “I’ll Be” and “Dream Born Again” also included the opening act Leanna Firestone. Everyone who was at the show had a special experience with the more intimate acoustic show for this classic pop-punk band, the performance was very well received the entire night.
New Found Glory
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