I’ve been a fan of Bayside for about 20 years now. After discovering them on one of those free DVDs Victory used to include with their CDs (I found so many great bands this way!) I was hooked, and I swear I used to listen to their self-titled album so much that I’m surprised I didn’t wear it out. For some reason, and I can’t fathom why, I stopped keeping track of them after The Walking Wounded (perhaps it was around the time Myspace died off?) but when I noticed this show whilst trawling through Manchester gig listings, I absolutely couldn’t help myself!
The Errors tour is a special one. Celebrating 25 years of Bayside’s existence, the night consisted of two sets – one featuring songs from their first four albums (the Victory Records years) and one featuring songs from their newer releases (Killing Time and Hopeless Records years).
The first of the two sets was the one consisting of newer songs, the ones unfamiliar to me. Opening up with Already Gone, the roof of the venue was practically lifted with everyone singing along. The vibes in the room were amazing – everyone in the crowd was so happy, and the reception Bayside received right from the get-go was incredible. Lead vocalist Anthony’s reaction when first addressing the crowd was great, saying he loved the fact that there were so many people smiling even though the weather was dismal and the music was sad! You could really feel the love between the band and the crowd, which remained strong throughout the entire night.
One of my personal highlights of the first set was Castaway; despite not knowing the song prior to hearing it live, the song immediately got under my skin with its massive chorus and strong emotions. There was just something about this song that was special, and made me want to immediately buy all the albums in their back-catalogue that I’m missing (side-note: am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of them all in the post)!
Despite the fact I didn’t know any of the songs in the first set (although I will soon be rectifying that), it didn’t seem to matter in the slightest. I just got lost in the music and had an absolute blast. Bayside is one of those bands that can seemingly do nothing wrong, and the absolute raucous response they got is testament to that. I saw someone mention that Bayside don’t need to do one of those ‘play the album in full’ anniversary tours because their entire back-catalogue is so strong, and I definitely agree with that.
Admittedly I did enjoy the second set of older songs a little more, but I think that was solely because I knew the majority of this setlist. Hearing songs such as Montauk, Masterpiece and Blame It On Bad Luck felt like a real treat due to how ingrained in my brain these songs truly are, and it was definitely worth the wait to finally witness them in a live environment. The Walking Wounded was a great inclusion – I loved the passion in its performance.
One of the best songs in the latter half of the performance was Don’t Call Me Peanut, an acoustic number which had several moments where the crowd was simply left to sing the words alone, and it felt so good to be a part of such a spectacle – it gave me goosebumps.
Closing with Devotion And Desire, it was a very satisfying end to a performance which consisted of nothing but strong songs. The fact that a 22-song set didn’t feature a single ‘miss’ is truly testament to how good of a band Bayside is. Now, hopefully it won’t take me another 20 years to see them for a second time!
Leave a Reply