SENSES FAIL with Saves the Day, and narrow head
New Jersey vs. the World Tour
The Wiltern
Los Angeles, CA
12.07.24
LIVE REVIEW AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARILYN BELL
It was New Jersey vs. The Wiltern when Senses Fail and Saves the Day brought their New Jersey vs. The World tour through on Saturday, December 7, 2024. It was a win-win, with both sides coming out on top. Much of the crowd saw the Jersey bands in Las Vegas for the When We Were Young festival back in October where Senses Fail exhibited expert-level trolling skills by playing “Move Along” by The All-American Rejects after that band dropped out of the festival a week before. The two bands are fresh off that festival and a successful run on this tour, so the fans benefitted from a tight, highly energetic show. In return, the bands got a sold-out venue sandwiched between two shows at the House of Blues Anaheim where a second show had to be added after the first one sold out.
While this tour is one of many off-shoot emo-revival tours of WWWY bands since the festival, the openers were neither emo, nor from New Jersey. narrow head from Texas opened the set with an almost contradictorily fun set of heavy shoegaze grunge rock. They got the crowd amped up and ready for Saves the Day, which was the only part of being an opener that mattered.
Saves the Day was up next. This year is the 25-year anniversary of the 1999 album Through Being Cool. The band played the album in its entirety, as it has done every night as promised for this tour. Vocalist Chris Conley, the only remaining member from that era, and the album may be 25 years older now, but they both sounded in their prime. While Conley doesn’t look the same, he doesn’t look aged. It’s more like when someone gets a haircut, or in this case, doesn’t get one. Elder emos could close their eyes, or rely on the memory loss that comes with aging, to pretend they were at a show during the early days of Saves the Day. Conley is still all over the place on the stage, so keeping eyes open is recommended.
Finally, it was time for Senses Fail. It was an almost unbelievable treat to also have Senses Fail doing the fan-favorite album Let It Enfold You for the 20th anniversary of its release. Sometimes Nielsen gets flack for his vocals not being strong, but he’s never claimed to be Pavarotti. Any shortcomings vocally are easily overcome by his high energy, at times acrobatic, live performances. For a live performance by a rock band, the antics should win every time. The biggest complaints any audience members had were surely about Nielsen bashing the Dodgers. That complaint was easily forgiven with the cover of “Helena” by My Chemical Romance, with Conley assisting on vocals to close out the night. This event was a win-win, with everyone leaving everything there on the floor that night.
