Bayside / photo credit WWWY/Luther Redd
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG FESTIVAL
Las Vegas Festival Grounds
Las Vegas, NV
10.19-20.24
BY MARILYN BELL
When We Were Young hit Las Vegas for the third installment of the emo-revival festival on October 19th and 20th. It’s become an annual vacation for elder emos worldwide, with many festival-goers spending up to a week in Vegas surrounding the fest to take in all the emo-centric events. Things have only gotten bigger and better in the third year.
Thursday, before the start of the festival, highlights included an official sideshow at the newly opened Fontainebleau with A Day to Remember, August Burns Red, Stand Atlantic, and the 30th Anniversary of Hopeless Records party celebrating the opening of the semi-permanent Hopeless Records exhibition at the Punk Rock Museum featuring many past and present WWWY artists.
Friday night had official sideshows, including Simple Plan, Boys Like Girls, and Madina Lake playing at Brooklyn Bowl to benefit Musicares, while Taking Back Sunday, The Used, L.S. Dunes, and Taylor Acorn performed at Fontainebleau. There were also unofficial events like Emo Nite at Zouk (not to be confused with the official WWWY late night Emo Night Brooklyn sideshows), Hawthorne Heights, Armor for Sleep and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus returning to the Strat with Emery and New Aesthetic to throw an emo pool party with the bands playing poolside, and Silverstein playing at the American Legion Vegas Post 8.
The actual festival featured the same lineup playing full album sets on both days. The lineup was so stacked, you had bands like L.S. Dunes, Daisy Grenade, Alesana, Emery, Neck Deep, and Tonight Alive all hitting the stage before noon. For elder emos, planning, preparation, and good choices were all required to make it through the long weekend.
Tips from the Artists to Survive and Thrive during When We Were Young.
Every artist asked by Outburn advised drinking lots of water to stay hydrated.
Anberlin added Liquid IV, pacing yourself, taking frequent naps, and resting to avoid passing out at 3 pm from exhaustion. “Don’t go too hard, too fast,” they said.
Anberlin has a new song out. “The coolest thing about it,” Mullins said, “is when I first joined the band, Joey gave me a dropbox full of old Anberlin demos that never got used that didn’t have vocals on them, so I found one that felt really special and nostalgic that was written during the Never Take Friendship Personal era, and I wrote vocals to it. It’s called ‘High Stakes’ on all streaming platforms, and the music video is out. Go check it out.”
Against the Current recommended sunglasses, a hat, and eating at Gordon Ramsay restaurants. Lead singer Chrissy Costanza ate at Gordon Ramsay Burger four times in three days before arriving at the festival. You can hear Chrissy on “A Whole New World” with Yellowcard from the Disney cover album A Whole New Sound out now and her debut solo EP VII.
August Burns Red said to use sunscreen, which was the second most popular tip. You can catch them on tour now with A Day to Remember. They also have a new single out on their label ABR Records called “Exhumed.”
Bayside recommended insoles for your shoes and the great Vegas restaurants. They also joked about bringing a flashlight or walkie talkie and wearing a shirt that says Security, so people won’t bother you. For their 25th anniversary next year, they’re going on The Errors Tour! (in planning since before the Dave Grohl/Taylor Swift drama) with two nights in each city, dedicating the first night to their Victory Records era and the second night to the Killing Time and Hopeless Records era.
In addition to adding electrolytes to water and finding a place to sit down when you need a break, Dani and Keaton from Daisy Grenade said the most important thing is to look out for each other.
You can catch them out on the road with State Champs, Knuckle Puck, and Meet Me @ The Altar in November and December, and check out their new single and video “How to Hide a Body” that was released the day before the festival.
Dan and Alan from Four Year Strong gave practical survival tips including getting a good night’s sleep and bringing chapstick. Dan also said to try Roy Choi’s Korean-fusion, “Best Friend restaurant that Alan and I really like. It’s amazing. So good!”
You can catch them soon on a headlining tour supporting their new album analysis paralysis with Free Throw, One Step Closer, and Death Lens.
The girls in Millionaires said to surround yourself with easy-going people, because if you have high-strung people, it’s going to be too stressful. You can check out their latest single “The Weekend” out now on Emo Nite’s Graveboy Records.
“Lean on your people,” said Movements’ Patrick Miranda. “If you get overwhelmed or overstimulated, take a little break and decompress to forget about the craziness that’s going on around you.”
Movements will be announcing a big US tour soon. For now, you can catch them in South America in November, and they’ll be heading to Europe next year.
“Wash your hands a lot,” Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory said. “Last year, I went home from the fest and got norovirus from being here, and this was the only place I hung out all weekend.”
New Found Glory is currently featured on A Whole New Sound with their cover of “A Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. In November, they’ll be headlining their own It Never Snows in Florida mini-festival at the Orlando Amphitheater where they’ll be playing Sticks and Stones and Catalyst. Then they’re back to the UK for the first time since before Covid in May.
“I have a mantra where everyone has to take a little bit of aspirin, you gotta drink water, you gotta have Chobani or some type of adjacent protein, which is also a probiotic, a banana, and you gotta go to bed, so these are the staples of how you survive,” Vegas resident Buddy Nielson of Senses Fail said he also advised layering up your clothes to cover the range of weather. “You gotta understand, it’s the desert. It’s inhospitable, so even though it looks nice, it’s gonna be either one extreme or the other or both in the same day.”
Senses Fail will be out on their New Jersey Vs The World tour with Saves the Day in November. They’ll be playing their record Let it Enfold You, and Saves the Day will be playing Through Being Cool.
Another Vegas resident, Shane Told of Silverstein, echoed the recommendation to dress for all the weather. “Like right now, it’s hot in the sun. You step in the shade, it gets a little cooler. When that sun goes down, it’s gonna be so cold. I see people out here in a tank top and shorts. They are going to be in for a world of pain at about 6:30, so you gotta layer up.”
Silverstein’s latest single “Confession” is out now. It’s from Antibloom (release date: February 21, 2025), the first of two albums they’ll be releasing next year for their 25th anniversary. The second album Pink Moon will be released later in the year. They’ll be starting a world tour in January. Told says, “We’re gonna be everywhere, so look for us. Silversteinmusic.com.”
Ryan Scott Graham and Evan Ambrosio from State Champs recommend having a big meal before you come to the festival and wearing comfortable shoes. For a life changing experience, Ambrosio says to go to The Sphere.
On November 8, they’ll be releasing a self-titled record and heading out on tour (previously mentioned by Daisy Grenade). They also have a European tour in February with The Home Team and Broadside. Watch out for a new song and music video on the way.
“Jameson and White Claw are gonna get me through the whole weekend, and probably water, too, I guess,” said Dan Marsala of Story of the Year. The better tip may be from Adam Russell, who recommends moisturizer. “It’s dry in the fucking desert. My hands are cracking. I had scaly ass knuckles earlier today.”
They’ll be heading to Europe in November for Yellowcard’s 20 Years of Ocean Avenue where they’ll be playing a lot of Page Avenue. Another international tour is coming in the new year, and more new music is coming. “Ryan never stops writing,” Russell added.
“Go easy on the partying, that way you can last all day long,” said Ronnie Winter of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, “And charge your phone.” Keyboardist Nadeem Salam added, “Bring a power bank.”
You can see The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus now in their video for their new single “Home Improvement,” their first release with a record label “in like 13 years, so it’s kind of a big deal,” said Winter. Their new album comes out next year. Watch for some collabs including two with artists performing at WWWY.
While they did mention drinking water like everyone else, The Devil Wears Prada’s tip is to just do what you do. “Go to the bar until 3 am. No, that’s just what we do,” said Jeremy DePoyster. “It’s not how to survive, it’s will we survive? We’ve done it 20 years, and I woke up again this morning so…” Mike Hranica added. You can catch them on The Devil Wears Prada is Eternal tour with Silent Planet, Like Moths to Flames, and Greyhaven.
One final bonus tip from the crowd, go easy on the Beatbox. It is arguably the unofficial drink of WWWY. A little goes a long way, so you can save money and remember more by pacing yourself and having less than you think you need.
