Taking Back Sunday Band • Page 291

I will never forget seeing them during their reunion tour and being so disappointed in how bad John was live. Messing up the lyrics, not knowing the guitar parts, not yelling his own parts. It was almost like he didn’t want to be there haha.

Then I saw them on their tour with Thursday and he had a much better performance.

 

I loved John on TAYF, obviously, but Fred is the better songwriter, guitar player, etc. That era of TBS was definitely their best.

 

He and Rubano were the two serious/classically-trained musicians in the band, so I doubt that's the case.

Mark, on the other hand, HATED Fred.

 

This still gives me chills

 

hmmmm nah.

 

Yeah I'm mainly an outsider, but the couple of times I'd been backstage at TBS shows, Fred and Matt were always together. They were also the nicest guys to talk to. There definitely was a bond between them being both the outsiders in the band and the more musically trained of the group. I can't imagine they weren't close, and I REALLY can't imagine Fred being a jerk to anyone, let alone Matt.
I do remember reading that AP oral history and it sounded like Mark and Fred were always at each others throats.

 

Oh fuck, I forgot Fazzi was in TBS for a minute! Hahaha

Fazzi > Fred > John

 

WYWTB is in contention for the best album, but Louder Now just isn't as good. There are songs on Louder Now that I pretty much never listen to (Up Against, Twenty-Twenty Surgery, Miami). It's a hugely important record for the bad in terms of their career but overall it was a let down after the the greatness of WYWTB. Aside from Money being a travesty, I actually think I like the self-titled more than Louder Now on balance.

Also I can't even fathom ranking Fazzi above Fred so I'm gonna no comment that one lol

 

I always lol at Adam pretending to be a conductor.

 

Fazzi brought absolutely nothing new to the table. I can appreciate love for the New Again album but cannot understand preferring him over either Fred or John.

 

To be expected when you come back and they’ve made 3 albums without you I suppose lol. But their recent years of performance he’s been on top notch. The 20 shows were the best sounding the band has been imo

 

Agree with this. But how could you skip Up Against!?!

 

all those songs where the chorus repeats the title of the song over and over really bug me

 

yeah the song is basically just "FACE ITTT THIS IS WHAT WE'RE UP - UP AGAINST"

i always skip it as well lol

 

I remember this as well. I just feel that Fred's musicianship was more advanced than the rest of the band...may have added to that rift.

 

TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY
TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY
TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY
TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY
TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY
TWENTY-TWENTY SURGERY

 

Ok ok ok I wouldn't say Fazzi's TBS songs are better, but I think he's a fantastic music and performer all around. In terms of actual TBS stuff, I'd still pick Fred.

 

He was much better on the 20/20 tour.

 

TBS is like king shit of repeating vocal parts though. But I can see how that would annoy people.

 

That said, the "Not years! Not months! Not days!" part of Up Against slaps

 

If they had replaced Up Against and Twenty-Twenty Surgery with Brooklyn and Sleep, Louder Now would be way better (and yeah I know Sleep repeats the title in the chorus but it doesn't bother me there for some reason lol)

 

Live performance: Fred>Fazzi>>>John

Song writing: Fred>John>>>>>>Fazzi

 

Sleep suffers a little from that repetitiveness but, Brooklyn is maybe the best LN-era song they made that isn't 'Spin' or 'My Blue Heaven'

 

Brooklyn being left off the album is something I'll truly never understand. Like, they decided to put the Fantastic Four soundtrack song on there over it. Just mind-boggling.

 

"Twenty-Twenty Surgery" has a killer pre-chorus though :/

I'd drop a lot of songs for "Brooklyn" in a heartbeat tho ngl