The New Jersey vs, The World tour has finally made it’s way to Manchester, a dual anniversary tour dedicated to the releases of landmark albums from two New Jersey scene icons Saves The Day’s Through Being Cool (Equal Vision) which is now celebrating 25 years and of course, Senses Fail’s 20 years-young iconic Let it Enfold You (Vagrant Records) album.

Joining the duo on this tour is Vancouver, BC project Youth Fountain. A creation of frontman Tyler Zanon, the band’s brand of emo-laced pop punk kick starts the evening in style.

Although still early doors Zanon manages to get the gathering crowd moving early with his on stage energy backed with the clearly very personal songwriting that switches between fun bounciness as well as more emotional sections. Zanon is visibly delighted and grateful to have the opportunity of sharing a stage with bands he clearly holds dear stating as such a number of times. Overall by the end of the short but lively set it’s hard not to be won over and get caught up in the group’s joyous energy.

The first part of this double-header tour is up next with Saves The Day taking to the stage.

Through Being Cool being the shorter of the two albums on tonight’s bill presents the group with the opportunity to load their set with seemingly as many songs as possible. The band play the album’s 12 tracks quite literally straight through with only the smallest of pauses, choosing to lock into the energy of the crowd and ride that wave throughout a set of wall-to-wall songs. 

Once the final chords of “Banned From The Back Porch” ring out, we are treated to a selection of nine more tracks from the group’s back catalogue, including “At Your Funeral,” “Anywhere With You,” and “Firefly.” As you would expect from a band with as long a history in the scene, the songs are sung back loud and often, leading us perfectly into the final instalment in tonight’s proceedings.

Proceeded by the rather sinister whistling of Bernard Hermann’s theme from Twisted Nerve as an intro the band launch into the energetic beginning of album opener “Tie Her Down.” And thus we kick off our next full album run-through of the evening and Senses Fail are clearly not holding back tonight, the unpredictable bursts of energy from frontman Buddy Nielsen see him leaping in the air, diving across stage or even popping the occasional handstand on the bass drum. The sense of controlled chaos on stage is infectious as the pits open and the crowd surfers start to make their way towards the barrier.

And that raucous energy continues into an encore of “Calling All Cars” and “Can’t Be Saved” which rounds off the night. But as a final surprise of the evening Neilsen welcomes Saves The Day’s Chris Conley back on stage for a grand finale as they dive into a cover of My Chemical Romance’s stone-cold classic “Helena,” a song close to the hearts of a large majority of the audience I would bet. A fitting send-off as the final lines of “so long and goodnight” ring out.

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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY BILL MAWDSLEY
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