New Found Glory live in Milan at Tunnel Club, 12/6/14

I would like to start this live report about the New Found Glory show at Milan’s Tunnel Club by saying that it was the second time I got to see them but I was excited as if it was the first one, and maybe even more; after all, they’re one of my favorite bands ever and so I’m ready to bet that I’ll always feel these emotions every time I’ll see them live. Anyway, as soon as we arrived to the venue we bumped into Cyrus Bolooki, a great drummer and a really nice guy, always willing to talk with his fans, and after greeting him we came closer to the stage in order to enjoy the opening act, female Tuscan band The Cleopatras, which offered us a mix of garage rock, punk rock and rock ‘n’ roll that surely warmed up everybody in the venue. In fact, I see a lot of thrilled faces around waiting for NFG, which would have played right after them, as French band Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! (the other opening act) canceled their show at the last minute for reasons I honestly didn’t figure out. The wait wasn’t too long and when the lights went out and New Found Glory made their appearance on stage the mayhem began from the very first song and has never left until the end of the concert. The first three songs, indeed, Selfless (first single off the new album, Resurrection), Understatement and Don’t Let Her Pull You Down were simply breathless, so that everyone couldn’t help jumping around, moshing and singing out.
Then there was a little break in which they played the awesome and unexpected It’s Not Your Fault and then back again into the mosh-pit with songs such as Hit or Miss, Something I Call Personality and Truck Stop Blues, while we all sang along to the choruses of Anthem for the Unwanted and Ready and Willing. After that we heard Failure’s Not Flattering, Kiss Me (the only cover song on the set-list), Dressed to Kill (dedicated to long-time fans) and Stubborn (another new song). This leads to the moment when Ian begins to play the Sincerely Me bass intro, which drove me completely crazy because I thought they wouldn’t play this song and so without looking back I jumped on stage, grabbed Chad’s microphone and sang as loud as I could, while Jordan was looking up to me and Chad himself handed me the mic, so that I could pass it to other fans and let them sing too. Needless to say, this was the best moment of the entire show for me and I will never forget it; I won’t also easily forget the wearying moshing during Truth of My Youth or the stage invasion during My Friends Over You, where people moshed and moved all around and because of this Jordan almost fell down! Next, as usual, the band left the stage for a few minutes and came back to play the encore, composed by One More Round, Forget My Name and All Downhill from Here, with which our heroes took their leave. This was the end of one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, both for the performance’s energy and intensity and the crowd’s constant involvement; in other words, a night to remember forever. Long, long life to the kings of pop punk!

SETLIST:
1. Selfless
2. Understatement
3. Don’t Let Her Pull You Down
4. It’s Not Your Fault
5. Resurrection
6. Hit or Miss
7. Something I Call Personality
8. Truck Stop Blues
9. Anthem for the Unwanted
10. Ready & Willing
11. Failure’s Not Flattering
12. Kiss Me
13. Dressed to Kill
14. Stubborn
15. Sincerely Me
16. Truth of My Youth
17. The Story So Far
18. My Friends Over You

Encore:
19. One More Round
20. Forget My Name
21. Intro
22. All Downhill from Here

Live Report by A.O.