If you were a dude in high school during the mid-2000’s, Taking Back Sunday was a defining band in the era that defined the emo genre. Lead singer Adam Lazzara’s impeccable swag was the stuff every friend I knew wanted to emulate. His carefree long hair, impeccable vocal range, and stage presence that included him whipping his microphone cable above his head like a lasso before it circled around his throat while strutting around on stage like Mick Jagger all were, in a word, electric. And when you combined that with the gruff and rough full-throated earnest screams of backup singer John Nolan, whose kinetic low-end fury danced back-and-forth with Lazzara’s like a pair of preening peacocks, well shit man you had an absolute recipe for success. Tell All Your Friends was the definitive car sing-a-long soundtrack for my friends and I for that reason, with five of us packed in like sardines into my buddy’s white Jeep shoulder to shoulder, screaming our heads off and falling all over each other in a theatrical display of friendship that can never be replicated once you graduate high school. The memories of this time in my life still feel so real and tangible twenty years later, especially when those iconic chords of “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)” come in.
Tell All Your Friends is going to be even more special today as one of my friends who was in those testosterone fueled car sing-a-longs (and whom I played in a band with during my high school years) will be getting married tonight. I’m not sure if he has TBS on the playlist for the post-wedding dance party, but if he does, I know the boys will be ready to show up and show out.
Standout Songs: “You Know How I Do”, “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)”, “There’s No ‘I’ In Team”, “Timberwolves at New Jersey”, “You’re So Last Summer”
