TVD Live Shots: When We Were Young Festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, 10/19

LAS VEGAS, NV | When We Were Young Festival returned to the Las Vegas Fairgrounds for the third year, inviting emos of all ages to a weekend of their favorite bands. With five stages (four that rotated for virtually non-stop performances) and over 60 bands, it’s no wonder the organizers added a second day for the die-hards to get the full experience. The hook this year? Band reunions, surprise guests, and full album play-throughs including My Chemical Romance playing The Black Parade in its entirety for the first time in 17 years!

In order to make this work, the organizers opened the gates at 10:30AM and had the music kick off promptly at 10:40AM as the queue outside only seemed to grow longer. Kudos to the festival team for keeping the crowds moving as fans bolted to either the barricade to set up for their favorite band(s) or the merch line which never seemed to wane as long as the band merch was available. And in spite of a blustery Friday and a few raindrops earlier in the day, the Saturday weather proved perfect for a long day in the sun.

From the get-go it became clear that the album play-through format was going to introduce certain challenges for some bands. In some cases the album was longer than the band’s assigned slot forcing them to drop tracks. In other cases the set felt rushed as the band tried to cram it all in. And while it was certainly amazing for fans to hear these seminal records that put bands on the map including rarely played tracks, many of those albums came with some true stinkers that only resonated with the hardcore fans. Bands took it all in stride and delivered, but special kudus must go out to Bayside for breaking it all down in an easy to read bumper sticker format, “HONK LOUDER! I’M BLASTING THE 2005 EMO MASTERPIECE BAYSIDE BY THE BAND BAYSIDE, FROM BAYSIDE, QUEENS, NEW YORK. ALL HITS. NO SKIPS. LFG.”

This year the buzz outside the festival gates was the 2025 return of the Vans Warped Tour, announced only days earlier. Hard to miss were the fistfuls of leaflets being passed out and the ads on massive hotel screens which overlooked the festival grounds; the media blitz quite ironic given it was happening around the festival that literally stepped in to fill the gaping hole left when VWT ended in 2019

The rapid-fire sets of the early hours took an abrupt turn when Cobra Starship took the stage at 3:30PM. Returning to the stage after a 10-year hiatus, the band pulled out all the stops to make their reunion as memorable as possible. From emerging from an airplane to numerous costume changes, their energetic performance which had Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump joining on vocals for “Kiss My Sass” set a high bar for every band to follow that day. Unfortunately the band’s exuberance resulted in a knee injury for their guitar player who had to finish the set sitting down.

From there, Simple Plan kept the energy high and brought out massive amounts of lighting from their touring setup even as they played directly into the beating sun, ending their set with ridiculous amounts of confetti that sat in drifts for the remainder of the festival. The Used took a similar approach during an album play-through celebrating the 20th anniversary of In Love and Death, unleashing belches of fire that were absent during their previous night’s sideshow. Not to be outdone, Sleeping With Sirens got the prize for the most guest appearances during their playthrough of Let’s Cheers to This including Jason Butler (Fever333).

In a long day of epic performances, there was no doubt that Fall Out Boy stole the show. Bucking the album play-through theme, FOB blasted through a best-of set covering material from all their albums in chronological order—all killer, no filler. And while the setlist itself was enough to cause exultation, the accompanying production was completely over the top. A giant futon, spewing flames (including Pete Wentz’s bass flamethrower), Patrick playing piano atop a volcano, and a “Magic 8-Ball” to usher in Wiz Khalifa on vocals for “See You Again.” Still not enough, why not end the set with a massive fireworks display!

My Chemical Romance ended the night with a markedly understated approach for The Black Parade, draping the interior of the stage with white cloth through which LED panels shone. The diehards cramming the barricade didn’t give a hoot about the production, gleefully singing along to the kings of emo as Escape The Fate, Nada Surf and Pretty Girls Make Graves simultaneously competed for attention on the smaller stages as 11PM came and passed. With another hour of MCR ahead, it seemed a massive amount of people decided to call it a (long) day and head home.

DAISY GRENADE