THE ERRORS TOUR
Bayside & Smoking Popes
House of Blues
Anaheim, CA
06.19.25 – 06.20.25
LIVE REVIEW AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARILYN BELL
The second leg of Bayside’s 25th anniversary The Errors Tour stopped in Anaheim for two nights at the House of Blues. Opening both nights was Chicago pop punk band Smoking Popes fresh off the release of their live album for the 30th anniversary of Born to Quit. The album was originally re-released when the band signed with Capitol Records in the 90s.Bayside frontman Anthony Ranieri told the crowd Smoking Popes was one of his favorite bands. On Bayside’s 2005 Acoustic EP, they covered Smoking Popes’ “Megan” with Popes frontman Josh Caterer guesting on vocals. The Smoking Popes played a tight set that proved the band is still going strong, although the mainstream success teased in the 90s never came to full fruition.
Night 1 featured the early era of Bayside. The set list was evenly spread between their self-titled Bayside, The Walking Wounded, Shudder, and Sirens and Condolences. From the moment they started with “Montauk” until the final encore of “Devotion and Desire,” the crowd was singing along and celebrating their long relationship with the band. These weren’t fair-weather Johnny-come-latelies in the audience. After a nearly 90-minute set, the crowd still wanted more. Fortunately, that’s just what they got on night 2.
The latter era on night 2 featured another 90 minutes, this time from Killing Time, Cult, Vacancy, Interrobang, and the band’s most recent release There Are Worse Things Thing Being Alive. It’s easy to think a band celebrating 25 years is resting on its laurels of the early hits, but this set proved that this isn’t a nostalgia act playing the old hits. Bayside has continued to get better and hasn’t slowed down. They came out full-speed ahead showcasing the heavier feel of night 2 with thrasher “How to Ruin Everything (Patience).” They slowed things down a bit here and there to let the crowd catch its breath, but the overall feel and pace of the night was a harder rock assault. They ended the night with “Sick, Sick, Sick” for the final encore. This may be the song that bridges the two eras the most with the heavier new feel and all the melody that Bayside solidified in the early years. This was one of the minority of tours where multiple nights are justified. The third leg starts in September with The Sleeping opening.
