There seem to be very few certainties in life: death, taxes, and 12-year-old My Chemical Romance fans. Once a 12-year-old My Chemical Romance fan myself, I can attest that there is just something about that band that speaks to kids at that age who are learning how to navigate adult emotions and need something to latch onto. Even during the six years the band split up, they maintained that hold on the youth. My Chemical Romance meant a lot to me at that age, in a way that I don’t know if I could ever fully articulate. Now a 22-year-old My Chemical Romance fan (with a bit of disposable income), I jumped at the opportunity to see My Chemical Romance co-headline a festival with another band that shaped me as a person, Chicago’s very own Fall Out Boy.
When We Were Young Fest is a Las Vegas nostalgia-based festival, specifically featuring emo, alternative, and pop-punk acts from the 90s-2010s, with past headliners including Paramore, Blink-182, and Green Day. For their 2024 festival, they introduced a theme of full-album playthroughs of some of the scene’s most iconic records, including hits such as Cobra Starship (in their first shows in ten years) playing Viva La Cobra!, Neck Deep playing Life’s Not Out To Get You, Pierce The Veil playing Colide With The Sky (complete with a Kellin Quinn appearance during King For A Day), and of course, My Chemical Romance playing The Black Parade in full for the first time since 2007. Let me take you through my day at the fest, and my thoughts on seeing bands that have been so important to me live.
I made a point to first see Neck Deep play their 2015 album Life’s Not Out To Get You, in my opinion the quintessential 2010-era pop-punk album. I loved this album in middle school, and I love it more now, so seeing it played live in full (mostly) was a must for me. Neck Deep does not miss, and they honestly sound better live than they do recorded. Particular highlights were “Citizens of Earth”, “Kali Ma”, and my personal favorite, “Gold Steps”. Seeing “Gold Steps” live was healing and cathartic for me, as a relentlessly hopeful song that never fails to comfort whatever anxieties I have about my life.
The next two sets I saw were bands that I admit I only know the hits from, but man did they deliver on them. Despite being on a side stage, We The Kings had one of the loudest crowds of the day during their hit “Check Yes, Juliet”. Lots of bands would shy away from that one-hit label, but We The Kings owned it and used it to their advantage and honestly made me decide to check out the full album. Next up was 3oh!3, who came highly recommended by several people, and I was honestly blown away. The whole set felt like a huge party; pure unrelenting fun as no one took themselves seriously (if that’s even possible at a 3oh!3 set). “DONTTRUSTME” live is a life-changing experience, if you can excuse the misogyny.
My next must-see set was Cobra Starship, a band no one has thought about since 2012. Cobra Starship has been completely inactive for a decade (thirteen-year-old me was inconsolable when they broke up), so when I saw them on the lineup playing their 2007 album ¡Viva la Cobra! I knew I had to be there. Cobra’s set included an airline theme and incredible vibes as well as my first moshpit of the day. I did not expect to two-step to Cobra Starship, but I heard the intro to “Pete Wentz is The Only Reason We’re Famous” and became a woman possessed. When introducing the song “Kiss My Sass” frontman Gabe Saporta called a special guest to the stage, the producer of ¡Viva La Cobra!, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. Stump tore it up onstage six hours before his own headlining set. The best part of the set, other than “Guilty Pleasure”, was my friend Emily, whom I dragged to this set against her will, turning to me mid-set to tell me that she “got it”. Fangs up, baby!
After a break, we made our way to the mainstages to stake out our spots for the rest of the night, seeing The Used, Pierce The Veil, Jimmy Eat World, A Day To Remember, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance. I don’t have much to say about The Used because I don’t know much about them as a band, but I enjoyed their set. Pierce The Veil playing Colide With The Sky was a must-see for my friend Emily, who accompanied me to the fest. I will admit that Pierce The Veil is not my cup of tea, but they put on a great show and I could tell that for their fans this was a very special show and this album means a lot to them which made the energy in the crowd infectious. “King For A Day” with Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens appearing for his parts was a particular highlight of the set.
Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World is an album that I think everyone should listen to in full at least once because it is just such a masterfully done album all around, although it gets overshadowed by the biggest song on the album, (which is bigger than Jimmy Eat World as a band) “The Middle”. Most bands doing album play-throughs didn’t play them in order, instead opting to put their biggest songs at the end to finish their set on a high note. Jimmy Eat World elected to honor the original track list and play the set in order, a particularly bold choice because all of the big hits off of that album are in the front half, leaving deep cuts to close the set. For example, the third song in the set, “The Middle”, has over 1 billion streams, while the set closer, “My Sundown”, only has 6 million streams. I really liked that they played in order, as I feel this represented the album in its truest form.
Pictured: A Day To Remember
The next band up had been one I had been kind of dreading all day, A Day To Remember. I did not expect to enjoy the set, not a big fan of ADTR, but, since they were one of my friend Emily’s biggest must-sees, I sucked it up (also I owed her one after forcing her to see Cobra Starship). We met up with a group of her brother’s friends who took her to see ADTR when she was younger for what she described as a full circle moment. Seeing ADTR play their 2009 album Homesick completely changed my perception of them. Only familiar with their more hardcore-leaning songs, I was surprised at how melodic this album was, and seeing one of my best friends so excited to see this album, in particular, has convinced me that maybe the dudebro part of the scene has a point.
Pictured: Fall Out Boy, Photo by Emily Stipetic
On to the first Headliner of the night: Fall Out Boy. I am no stranger to Fall Out Boy–this was my sixth Fall Out Boy show–but they always deliver. They did not subscribe to the album play-through gimmick, instead opting for an eras tour-like set called Days Of Fall Out Past which had something for everyone. All of the big hits like “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”, “Centuries”, and “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” had their time, but the set was padded with deep cuts for the die hards, such as “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes”, “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, and” G.I.N.A.S.F.S.” which is a bonus track off of a seventeen year old album. Following the trend of special guests popping up during sets, Fall Out Boy brought Wiz Kahlifa out to perform his hit song “See You Again” which was something I don’t think anyone was expecting. Their set closed as every Fall Out Boy show has for the past twenty years: with the song “Saturday”, this time complete with fireworks.
Pictured: My Chemical Romance, Photo by Emily Stipetic
Closing out the night and my time at the festival, My Chemical Romance performed the first of only two shows of this year. Playing their 2006 album The Black Parade, they didn’t stray from the tracklist and I really think it was for the best. For those unfamiliar, The Black Parade is a rock opera/concept album following a man dying of cancer, known as The Patient, and follows his coping with dying, his death, and experiences in the afterlife, so the order of the songs is important to the story. Gerard Way is an incredible showman, and his crowd interaction was on point, blowing the crowd kisses and then demanding we bark before starting the track “House of Wolves”. This set was special for a few reasons, but particularly because it was the first time in over a decade that fan-favorite tracks “Dead!”, “The End.”, “The Sharpest Lives”, and “Disenchanted” have been performed live. “Disenchanted” is my absolute favorite song by My Chemical Romance song and it hadn’t been played at a single show out of seventy since the band reunited, so I wasn’t going to believe it until I saw it. It completely took my breath away, and suddenly, I was 12 again and The Black Parade was the greatest album in the world. I think many people are embarrassed by their 12-year-old self, but not me, and I am glad I took the pilgrimage for her sake. When We Were Young might be nostalgia bait, but nostalgia never hurt anyone.
