Taking Back Sunday........... what can I say? I suppose, I'll just describe it in one picture ;)
(I wrote this on one of the pages in my journal back in July 2003 "TAKING BACK SUNDAY IS PLAIN AWESOME". Then, when we went for the Jimmy Kimmel live in September, Adam came out to thank the people who were waiting outside. I suddenly had the idea to write down "So tell me Adam, what do you think of TBS?" and ask him to write down his answer!)
So, that should kinda give you a faint hint of what TBS meant to me! hahaha.
I used to love TBS alot.... They will still always be on my Top 10 band list... always. That hasn't changed and it would not.
But otherwise, things have changed. And TBS has changed too. By this I mean how they sound, how they look, and what they represent, perhaps. I've not been to their live shows since 2006, so I'm not too sure how that has change. But I remember the last show I went to, and the one I walked out from, was in Mansfield, MA. I walked out the moment I walked into this HUGE ASS, 5000 people capacity outdoor arena, and the stage was 200 meters away. Screw that.
But, I remember going for TBS shows back then was always like this instantaneous cure to depression for me. (one that i severely need right now). I remember I once told Michelle after the House of Blues Sunset Strip show that I wish I could encapsulate the feeling for a TBS show into a pill, I'd take the pill everyday! And that's exactly what I loved about TBS, about their shows. It was tremendous! It was this nuclearlike energy rolled into a single moment, in a single spot, into the mic and the mosh pit!
The thing about Taking Back Sunday is that, for me, there's a certain timelessness to their songs. Whether it was back in 2002 or now in 2008, in Malaysia, then America, their mosh pits, or back full circle now in Malaysia, everytime I listen to their song, the intensity and drive of their song still capture me time and time again-- It's just really powerful and uplifting!
Seriously, wouldn't anyone who have ever heard Cute Without the E not say that even after listening to that song a thousand times for the past 7 years, when you listen to Cute without the E, won't you just sing, scream and tap along??
Well, of course, Taking Back Sunday's sound has evolved alot through the years. And, as the genre from which TBS rose from has grown and saturated tremendously, so has TBS' sound very much changed and morphed into something very different from what they first were.
All the songs in their debut album, Tell All Your Friends, has a raw intensity to them that is not faked, forced or constructed, with your eye on the scope down the barrel of a gun wearing your heart on your sleeves. And to me, it is this rawness, this intensity that I love about Taking Back Sunday-- because it simply draws you in, makes you wanna rock out, lose yourself, die in breathlessness and then be uplifted in the gasps of that breathlessness, scream and turn your insides out!
And it is this that I feel that the later albums try to contruct, diguise, reengineer but it's still not the same. There are, of course, good rock songs in the later album, but the same raw intensity is not there-- The songs are good and they make great songs live! But.... somehow, it's not the same as screaming and dying and living in that 3 minutes 30 seconds of Cute Without The E! ;)
So, of course, as a fan who fell in love with TBS through Tell All Your Friends, that album remains to me, my favourite, hands down. Not to say that I disregard the later albums Where You Want to Be and Louder Now, but I still very much prefer and still regard Tell All Your Friends as the best TBS album yet.
But despite everything, whether it is old or new, I think there's is a song in Taking Back Sunday for any listener! Especially if you're the type who can't help but scream along!
SO! 今日の一曲:-
Today's song is obviously TBS!
Cute Without the "E" live at Valentines 2002!
Hmmm... this is not the best version to introduce the band! But this version absolutely encapsulates the experience that is Taking Back Sunday..... well at least, what it was to me back then!
However, for some, I remember Rie commenting to me that she didn't enjoy TBS live because she was more worried about Adam swinging the mic around and he wasn't singing for half the time because he was swinging the mic around hahaha! But then again, that was Japan, and it seems that the Japanese crowd do go to shows to actually LISTEN to the songs live! So that's a major difference too ;)
Anyway, please enjoy! (and check out their other non-live songs too!)
MYSPACE
(you can check out some songs here)
(you can check out some songs here)
