Taking Back Sunday performed two shows over the weekend, and surprised fans by performing with Fred Mascherino for the first time in over a decade.
The shows took place as part of their annual Holiday Spectacular, which was held at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey on Saturday night (December 7).
For the first gig, which was held in the afternoon, the band stripped things back with an acoustic set comprising five songs. This was a surprise for fans too, as it included a rare rendition of the 2004 track ‘Existentialism On Prom Night’ by guitarist and singer John Nolan’s band Straylight Run.
Both bands are set to play When We Were Young Festival next year, and the event was confirmed as Straylight Run’s first show to be announced since they reunited in 2021.
While all of that went down at the afternoon show, it was the gig later in the evening that saw another surprise lined up, as Taking Back Sunday brought out former singer and guitarist Fred Mascherino for the first time in 17 years.
The musician appeared as part of the band back in their ‘Where You Want To Be’ and ‘Louder Now’ era, and his appearance at the New Jersey gig came as a surprise to fans as it marked his first time on stage with the band since he left the line-up in 2007.
It was lovely to have @thecolorfred join in for Liar and MakeDamnSure last night at @starlandNJ . What a wonderful end to the 10th annual Holiday Spectacular. Thank you for keeping this tradition alive . 
: @SalmaBustos pic.twitter.com/rpj1Txii8Z
— Taking Back Sunday (@TBSOfficial) December 8, 2024
For the occasion, they broke out a rendition of ‘Liar (It Takes One to Know One)’ from 2006’s album ‘Louder Now’, before inviting John Nolan on stage again for a performance of the song ‘MakeDamnSure’, taken from the same album. Check out fan footage above.
It hasn’t been confirmed whether or not Mascherino has any plans to join the band on stage again. That being said, Brooklyn Vegan has highlighted that the occasion marked the second big reunion that he has had in recent months.
Back in August, Breaking Pangea – the band he was in before Taking Back Sunday – reunited and performed as openers for This Day Forward. The band has drummer Will Noon as a member, who is also in Straylight Run.
The line-up for When We Were Young 2025 was released on October, and will also see performances from Panic! At The Disco – who are reuniting after disbanding in 2023 – as well as Blink-182, Weezer, Avril Lavigne, The Offspring, Knocked Loose, and more.
Last year, Taking Back Sunday shared the single ‘Keep Going’m and vocalist Adam Lazzara and guitarist John Nolan spoke to NME about embracing pop for their ‘152’ album.
It marked their eighth studio album, and describing the sound, Lazzara said: “Going into the record, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make sure everything was miles away from anything we’d done before.”
“When you’ve been doing this for as long as we have, there’s a danger it’ll get to a point where nobody cares that you’re putting out new music,” continued Nolan. “The only way to really avoid that is to make an album so good that it gets people excited and demands their attention.”
Before then, their last album was 2016’s ‘Tidal Wave’, and the years since saw them support fellow emo giants My Chemical Romance on their massive reunion tour, appeared at When We Were Young festival 2022, and embark on a 20-year anniversary tour – celebrating by playing breakout albums ‘Tell All Your Friends’, ‘Louder Now’ and ‘Where You Want To Be’ in their entirety.
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