Taking Back Sunday has had a rocky career. After the original lineup disbanded, there has been a revolving door of replacements for members John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, who left to form Straylight Run in 2003.
Early last year, Taking Back Sunday announced that guitarist Matt Fazzi and bassist Matt Rubano had left the band. This sent TBS fans into a frenzy until the band put a picture of the original lineup with the faces crossed out on its website.
This picture erased the fear and replaced it with hope. After seven long years, it appeared that the original lineup had made amends and got back together.
"Straylight Run had come to an end," said bassist Shaun Cooper. "We realized we weren't going to do anything more with it, people stopped coming out to the shows. I thought I would have to go back to work or school or something, figure out the next step in my life. And then I was hanging out with Mark, the drummer of Taking Back Sunday and one of my closest friends since we were like 6 years old, and he was like ‘Man listen I got to tell you, I'm just miserable. I don't want to do Taking Back Sunday anymore, not without you and John.'"
The former bandmates met up to heal the wounds that had torn them apart seven years prior. This went better than any of the members could have hoped.
"I thought we may play a show or something together, if the wounds had healed enough, but I thought maybe we would play a show just to celebrate the thing and that would be it, at the very most," Cooper said. "Then it turned out that Adam and Eddie were as unhappy as Mark was…And we got together in El Paso [Texas] and it was like seven years had passed in a blink of an eye and we were just so happy to be in the room together catching up and sharing stories about old times. We were like ‘this could work' and then we started writing songs the very next day and everything came together surprisingly quick."
Since then, the band has put out a new album, done multiple tours, and even played their influential record, Tell All Your Friends, in its entirety at Bamboozle.
Now the band is on tour supporting its self-titled album with The Maine and Bad Rabbits opening. On tour, Adam Lazzarra and John Nolan perform the Straylight Run song "Existentialism on Prom Night."
"John and I didn't think we would play any Straylight songs; this is Taking Back Sunday. We didn't want to throw our weight around and be like ‘Its going to be half Straylight songs, half Taking Back Sunday,'" Cooper said. "This is a Taking Back Sunday show, we want to play all the Taking Back Sunday songs the kids want to hear. So that was our goal, and then they started talking about it. Mark was into it, and Eddie really loved the song too."
As fans listen to the new album more and more, the response for the new material has grown. This has caused people to request new material at the shows.
"Some people are asking to hear ‘Sad Savior.'" Cooper said. "The other night a couple of girls who were coming to a bunch of shows were asking to hear ‘Best Places to Be a Mom' because we aren't playing that as often as we used to. I mean it's been a really good range. We have been playing ‘Faith' every night because it is the single and the sing-alongs are getting louder and louder so that's really cool to hear a few months after the record came out, its really starting to catch on with people."
Since the band has reunited, TBS has had a clear revival. Their live shows have gotten more energy and the band seems to have the same feeling onstage as when the first started.
Taking Back Sunday will be concluding their tour in Rochester Wednesday night at Water Street Music Hall. Tickets are $23 in advance and $25 at the door.
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Photo: Mhdariby / Wikimedia Commons
