New Found Glory at Sonar

Say what you want, I've always been a fan of New Found Glory. Hell I even liked them when they were still "A New Found Glory." I think I might even still have that shirt floating around somewhere. Anyway, I remember watching them at basement shows and tiny clubs in Philadelphia back when Nothing Gold Can Stay came out and then saw them grow over the years to their trl status and beyond. I'll admit that I lost a little interest in those years when they were huge but I still bought the CD's and enjoyed the songs.

Over the last year they released the 6 song EP on Bridge 9 Records called Tip Of The Iceberg which was more hardcore based and they also recently put out Not Without A Fight on Epitaph, which is their first full length in about 3 years. That didn't seem to disappoint the crowd last night though.

Local boys in Trapped Under Ice opened up the show and then Set Your Goals and Bayside got everyone pretty pumped for NFG to take the stage. One of the coolest things about New Found Glory is how they have such a wide range of fans. I expected that at 28 years old, I would be one of the oldest people there, but I wasn't. There was a good sample of people from all age ranges. Also, there's never really been a stereotypical NFG fan. When you see a kid walking around with skinny jeans and eyeliner on, you can assume they're a fan of Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance. If you were to accidentally walk into a NFG show you'd have a hard time figuring out of the crowd was there to see U2, Hatebreed, NOFX, or Blink 182 show.

Last night they took the stage at Sonar in Baltimore in front of about 900 people. A far cry from the size of the shows they were putting on a few years ago but that didn't slow them down at all. I actually think NFG was happier playing a smaller show like that than at a bigger venue. They're the kind of band that feeds off the energy of the crowd so it was the perfect venue. It was the best show I've seen in a long time and that's not to say anything negative about the others. There was just something special about the performance. NFG looked like they were back home again.