Yellowcard Band • Page 97

i feel really sad

and weird

and grateful

 

this is (was) one of the few bands i've followed consistently for nearly the entire time i've been listening to music, the rest broke up or caused me to lose interest

idk if this is the right place to do this but lights & sounds helped me get through one of the rougher years of my life and was formative in how i coped with mental illness back then. i remember first picking up a guitar in the tail end of 2010 and learning to play parts of space travel and how i go and stuff (sadly, i didn't really continue playing guitar consistently until ~2014). i obvs also really really loved paper walls and ocean avenue and i feel lucky that i got to dive into those three records around the same time at such a young age. this was like the second or third band that i grew to really really love and like eventually know every word of every song from, and it was around the time that they came back in 2011 that i got into them, so i got to grow up with them the second time around through all the post-reunion releases and all the times they came here on tour. lift a sail imo is the most interesting record from their second run and i wish it had resonated more deeply with their audience - can't help but feel like its lack of success contributed to the band's end. that being said, they went out in the best way possible and getting to see them as many times as i did was rly extraordinary.

sorry for lack of cohesiveness, i'm kinda tired and very concussed from tonight's show, but yeah, rip yc, will always bump the records 4ever and ever

PS. i'm sorry to turn this into a shameless self promo thing, but i covered "how i go" on this comp back last year, and really wanted to post it here

 

I'll do a write up later, this is kind of a weird band for me. Because I was only a fan of some songs from each album, until they blew me away with Lift A Sail, then Yellowcard, which are already some of my favorite albums of all time and take me back to some very emotional moments of my life.

 

Rest In Peace just came on my shuffle and it just hit me that there done.

 

I know what I'm gonna listen to today.

 

I flew to the show last night. Incredible and happy vibe the entire way through, until the end when they played Be The Young and kicked into the end of the set list. The entire mood changed and became more somber. Watching the band members essentially cry through Ocean Avenue was really hard.

The real kicker though was after the final song when Fields and Fences started playing. Nobody in the crowd moved and everyone started singing. Sean came back out crying holding Madelyn and Mendez came out to (seemingly) take it all in one last time. It was one of those moments I will never forget.

Ultimately these kinds of things are difficult to process. Major changes in life where a chapter closes often can't be fully understood until weeks or months in the future. But if there's one thing I can say with conviction, it's that this band did it right. They gave me (and everyone else) a chance to see them out the way we all know they deserved. I got to scream my head off to some songs, close my eyes to others, jump along to some more.

When I look back at my youth, this band will be my soundtrack. I will never forget my first real concert experience at a Yellowcard show, or how excited I was for their return from hiatus. I didn't know it then, but the next 6/7 years would be filled with music, moments and memories that would last a lifetime.

Now that the final note has been played, it's simply time to say thank you. If any of the band members happen to read this, thank you. I know I have said it to you each personally on multiple occasions, but you touched and changed my life in a way I can never express. You have given me countless moments, memories and melodies which I will carry with me forever. And the web of the music you have created will reach far beyond me, as it always has, to my friends, family and more.

So long, friends.

 

I'm very sad to see them go but happy to see them hang it up on a such a high note, and on their terms.

I'm looking at setlist.fm - did they play the same setlist as the rest of the tour last night and not any sort of special "final show" setlist?

 

they played the same setlist as the second round of this final tour, but it was carefully constructed and probably the best setlist they could have played to maximize the enjoyment of all the people in attendance

 

this is so lovely

 

Thank you! It is difficult to put into words but I tried.

 

Well, I never saw these guys live. One of my first ever favorite bands.


I'm banking on this "final" tour being an LCD Soundsystem "final" tour. Or else I'm screwed.

 

I remember the look in your eyes, when I told you that this was goodbye. :(

 

I'll forever be grateful to the guys in the band for being the soundtrack of my teenage years to young adulthood. Words will never be enough to describe how much Yellowcard means to me. Last year I wrote a piece on Motion City Soundtrack after seeing them for a last time. I didn't do that for Yellowcard in November since it was a few days removed after having surgery. Last week, I was thinking of their final shows coming up. To me, they ended when I saw them in the fall for the final time. I've had the time to come to terms with what happened. Seeing videos from the final show did awaken some emotions, but it was a good happiness watching them.

 

Watching the "Beyond Ocean Avenue" documentary for the first time in awhile. So weird seeing the old members of the band.

 

Just got back from LA... wow, that last show was literally perfect. Hard to put into words at the moment. So thankful for this band and the music they have shared with the world over the years.

 

Is there some good footage of their last show ? My best friend had the chance to see them when he was studying in Birmingham for 6 months. Unfortunately he got the night where they had a problem so they had to play acoustically, so they did Ocean Avenue in full. He wasn't familiar with the band so that was a bit weird to him, but he told me that he loved it anyway, and now he's spinning their discography again and again. :)

 

Date Line is a damn good song. I love the music and the melody of that.

Also the production on all of Paper Walls is top notch.

 

Man, this sucks.

 

I've been getting my friend to listen to their discography after only really knowing the songs Ocean Ave and Lights and Sounds. He just finished Paper Walls and now regrets not seeing them or diving deeper into their catalogue :/

 

The thing hitting me the hardest of all is the feeling of a closed chapter that this band will be the soundtrack to. That's by far the thing I am reflecting on the most.

 

Not that I'd change anything about the way the final album was released or the final tour, but I def get bummed out knowing I'll never see a lot of the self titled songs live. I would love a huge crazy long The Hurt Is Gone interlude in the middle of a set with a bunch of improvised parts going on and a dope light show.

 

Here's a clip of the moment after the show. The stage was empty at this point, Fields and Fences is playing over the speakers. Nobody in the crowd moved -- just singing, trying to forget that it was over. Sean and Ryan Mendez eventually came back out, in tears, to take it all in one last time.

 

Haha, so stoked I found this. I remember one of my friends sending me this and saying "Dude, you think it could be....?"

 

Date Line is my favorite YC song.

 

Still sort of reeling from this being, well, real. Have found some strange solace in a song Sean O'Donnel played before YC came on... "Bunny and Me". I hadn't heard it before but after hearing it twice I really liked it and found it on his solo album after the show. Did a YouTube search to find that it was actually a Big If demo and... holy shit...

After hearing the acoustic version I was not expecting that outro. God damn, I love this song. I've been listening to it nonstop as I'm not quite ready to go back to listening to Yellowcard just yet, so it's been providing a weird comfort in that regard.