The Camera Affect

Monumentour | July 18, 2014

Hey y’all!

Only one word comes to mind when I think about Monumentour: incredible. I had the privilege of seeing New Politics, Paramore and Fall Out Boy on July 18^th at Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland. The three bands have been playing arenas and will continue to play all summer. A tour with Paramore and Fall Out Boy has been long awaited in the music world and the groups did not disappoint.

New Politics, a band originally from Denmark, has been playing what they consider to be punk and alternative rock music since 2009. Although the three piece group knows what it feels like to headline shows and play festivals, lead singer David Boyd told the crowd they still feel so privileged to be opening for Fall Out Boy and Paramore. Fun fact: Pete Wentz recently signed New Politics to his record label Decaydance, along with Lolo.

The group opened with “Give Me Hope”, followed by”Berlin”, “Fall Into These Arms”, “Just Like Me” and “Tonight You’re Perfect”. Boyd sang “Fall Into These Arms” while standing on the crowd, and the transition between “Fall Into These Arms’ and “Just Like Me” featured his insane break-dancing and signature headstand.  About halfway through “Tonight You’re Perfect”, the band began playing a cover of Panic! At the Disco’s Miss Jackson, featuring Lolo. At this point, a majority of the crowd was on its feet, full of energy and ready to sing along with the band’s hit single “Harlem”. Their sent went off without a hitch, featuring many jokes, one regarding the fact that the band’s current drummer, Louis Vecchio, is the only American in the band. New Politics closed their set with a song called “Yeah Yeah Yeah” off their first album.

Paramore’s set started with “Still Into You”, which is one of their biggest songs, hitting #24 on Billboard’s top 100. Out of ten songs that have been on Billboard’s top 100, only one song has hit number one.  The band is currently comprised of Haley Williams, Jeremy Davis and Taylor York, and the touring addition of Aaron Gillespie, Justin York and Jon Howard. The band started making music in 2004, when they put out their first album All We Know is Falling through Atlantic records. This tour has been recognized as a comeback tour because the band has been through so much, including the loss of two lead members in 2011. Haley’s neon outfit and strong stage persona alongside York’s high energy guitar riffs carried the band through “That’s What You Get,” “For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic,” “Ignorance,” and a slower paced, less optimistic “Decode.” The band slowed it down to play “The Only Exception” complete with cell phone lights shining all around the pavillion and “Last Hope,” to speed things up again with “Brick by Boring Brick,” “Misery Business” followed by the very drum heavy “Let the Flames Begin” and “Part ll.” Paramore closed their set with “Proof” and only #1 Billboard hit, “Ain’t it Fun.” Hopefully Jeremy Davis’s hernia feels much better soon!

Fall Out boy went on stage at 9:30, and even though it was late, no one was tired quite yet. This is the second time I have seen Fall Out Boy since they came off of their 3 year hiatus in February of 2013. They began their set with the 1^st song off their latest album Save Rock and Roll called “The Phoenix,” followed by some older songs, “The Take Over, the Break’s Over,” “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me” and “This Ain’t a Scene, it’s an Arms Race.” Bassist Pete Wentz’s stage banter led us into Alone Together, Death Valley and the certified triple platinum song “Sugar, We’re Going Down.”

The band went on to play “Miss Missing You,” a fan favorite “Young Volcanoes” and an old but still extremely popular “Dance, Dance.” Then they played “Just One Yesterday” and my favorite song off of their first album Take This to Your Grave, “Grand Theft Autumn,” continuing on with a cover of “We Are the Champions.”   The show was equipped with pyrotechnics and Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman played a part of the set in the middle of the arena, between the lawn seats and the pavilion seats. The show must go on and it of course did, with a killer rendition of “Save Rock and Roll,” followed by the oh-so-sassy “I Don’t Care” and closing their set with “My Songs Know What You Did in The Dark.” The band came back on for their encore to play their high energy “Thanks fr th Mmrs” and the same song they always close with, which is an absolute classic, “Saturday”! My personal favorite part of the show was when Pete was throwing beach balls at Andy for a good couple of minutes while he was trying to drum. They are such a great live band and I hope that some of you have had the chance to see them live!

Lexi Oser

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