Yellowcard And Story Of The Year Celebrate 20 Years Of “The Avenues”
–by Valerie Helton
–photos by Greg Artime/Artimeg.com
The “Yellowcard: Celebrating 20 Years of Ocean Avenue” tour made a stop at St. Louis Music Park on August 11, 2023. But unlike all the other shows, the St. Louis one was a little bit different in that it was a co-headlining sh0w, and I felt extremely lucky to be able to experience it.
The night started out with This Wild Life opening. I had never really listened to them before, but a friend of mine said they were really fun live, and he was not wrong. Behind the stage were three large TV screens. When This Wild Life came out, the screen said “Hot Topic Mumford And Sons” and in tiny print at the bottom “AKA This Wild Life”. They kept this going throughout the entire set calling themselves another “knockoff band”, which I found comical. Lead vocalist Kevin Jordan also mentioned that they were here to give us “prescription strength emotional music”.
Most of the set included guitars, a ukulele, and a large bass drum that Kevin Jordan would use. A full drum set was only used during a few songs and was played by Anthony Del Grosso when he wasn’t playing guitar. Songs they played included some of their own and a few cover songs like “I Miss You” by Blink 182.
Between each set, Emo Night Brooklyn would DJ. He played all Emo music and was even taking requests on his Instagram page. I actually really enjoyed having a DJ play music between sets, it got you hyped up for the next band.
Next up was Yellowcard, who was not headlining like all the other tour stops. Before Yellowcard came out on stage, they played sound from what seemed like media coverage advertising the release of their 2003 album Ocean Avenue.
They first played “Way Away” and “Breathing” from their album Ocean Avenue. Afterwards lead vocalist Ryan Key started to talk to the crowd and explained that tonight’s show was only one of two shows where they were going to perform Ocean Avenue in its entirety and in order. The crowd, including myself, were SO excited about this. Seeing Yellowcard was very nostalgic for me. I remember playing the album Ocean Avenue all the way through multiple times in middle school when it came out.
The only downside, Ryan Key mentioned, was they would have to perform their hit song “Ocean Avenue” third instead of saving it for last like all the other shows. But because I love the entire album, I didn’t mind. Yellowcard made use of the three large TV screens behind them during “Ocean Avenue” by playing synthwave style videos like you were driving down the beach or what would look like Ocean Avenue.
I really enjoyed seeing Yellowcard, especially for the first time. Ryan Key still sounds amazing as well as the rest of the band.
As soon as Emo Night Brooklyn walked off stage for his second set, “Hot in Here” by Nelly started playing. Which was really fitting because of how hot and humid it was, and of course, Nelly is from St. Louis. Everyone stood up because they knew this had to be part of Story of the Year’s set. The song stopped halfway through, and Liv from 105.7 The Point came out to introduce Story of the Year.
Story of the Year came out and played “And the Hero Will Drown” off of their album Page Avenue. Afterwards, Dan Marsala, rocking a Taylor Swift sleeveless shirt, talked about how they were going to play all of Page Avenue to celebrate the 20th anniversary of it, but they weren’t going to play it in order, they were going to save the best songs for last. Since Story of the Year is from St. Louis, the crowd cheered loudly. A lot of us from the area grew up on this album, so it was very nostalgic for everyone.
Story of the Year played the first eight songs of Page Avenue very quickly, so they also played songs off other albums. The first song was “We Don’t Care Anymore” off their second album In The Wake Of Determination. The other two songs were off their most recent album Tear Me To Pieces. While playing “War” they had the music video playing on the three screens behind them, which was really cool.
What I really enjoyed was how the band interacted with the crowd throughout the entire set, and with each other. It was like a comedy show between songs. The only thing I was a little disappointed in, was they didn’t do any guitar flips like they usually do. But given it was extremely hot and sweaty, that could have been hard to do.
After playing the extra songs, Story of the Year finished out Page Avenue. During sidewalks, Dan Marsala asked the crowd to get their phone lights out and the venue was completely lit up. Before playing the last two crowd favorite songs “In the Shadows” and of course “Until the Day I Die”, Dan Marsala asked if we really needed them to walk off stage to do an encore, and instead he acted like he was going down an elevator in the middle of the stage.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concert, and it was extremely nostalgic for me. I grew up listening to Ocean Avenue and Page Avenue, so they have a main spot in my music catalog. It was interesting to see all age groups at the show, including some fans who weren’t even born yet when both of these albums were released.
Check out the rest of the photos from the show in a gallery after the setlists below.
Yellowcard Setlist:
- Way Away
- Breathing
- Ocean Avenue
- Empty Apartment
- Life of a Salesman
- Only One
- Miles Apart
- Twentythree
- View From Heaven
- Inside Out
- Believe
- One Year, Six Months
- Back Home
Story of the Year Setlist:
- And the Hero Will Drown
- Divide and Conquer
- Dive Right In
- Anthem of Our Dying Day
- Page Avenue
- Razorblades
- Falling Down
- Burning Years
- We Don’t Care Anymore
- Swallow The Knife
- Sidewalks
- War
- Real Life
- In the Shadows
- Until the Day I Die
