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By Ali Audet<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Philadelphia rockers the Wonder Years put on a phenomenal show at the Strand on Friday, Nov. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n The band released their sixth studio album, <\/span>Sister Cities<\/span><\/i>, in April of this year\u2013their first album to peak at #1 on the Billboard U.S. Indie chart. The setlist reflected this achievement: it included many songs from <\/span>Sister Cities<\/span><\/i>. The band opened with titular track and album opener \u201cSister Cities.\u201d The effect this song had was electric; the venue shook with the force and ferocity of the opener. The band\u2019s departure from their classic pop punk roots was evident immediately; \u201cSister Cities\u201d has a new sense of maturity to its sound, closer to alt-rock more akin to 2015\u2019s <\/span>No Closer to Heaven<\/span><\/i> than fan-favorite <\/span>Suburbia I\u2019ve Given You All and Now I\u2019m Nothing <\/span><\/i>(2011). <\/span><\/p>\n Yet, this isn\u2019t to say the band left behind their roots for the whole show. Throughout the first half of the show, the band played songs like \u201cLocal Man Ruins Everything\u201d from <\/span>Suburbia<\/span><\/i>, \u201cDismantling Summer\u201d and \u201cThere, There\u201d from <\/span>The Greatest Generation<\/span><\/i>, and more selections from <\/span>Sister Cities<\/span><\/i>, including \u201cRaining in Kyoto\u201d and \u201cThe Orange Grove.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n About halfway through the night, they even played 2010\u2019s \u201cMelrose Diner\u201d from <\/span>The Upsides<\/span><\/i>. For a band touring to support their sixth studio album, they put as much energy into \u201cMelrose Diner\u201d as they did into <\/span>Sister Cities<\/span><\/i> tracks like \u201cRaining in Kyoto\u201d or \u201cThe Orange Grove.\u201d What never fails to astound me at the Wonder Years\u2019 shows is the intensity and care the band puts into every song they perform, regardless of its age or genre. There is a dedication that each member puts into these songs that shows you how much they love what they\u2019re doing. <\/span><\/p>\n From there, the band moved to playing selections from 2015\u2019s <\/span>No Closer to Heaven<\/span><\/i>. The raw pain of songs like \u201cCardinals\u201d and \u201cCigarettes & Saints\u201d (the latter about losing a close friend to drug addiction) didn\u2019t damper the mood of the night. In fact, I would venture to say it bolstered it. The sing-along qualities of those songs and the powerful music behind them made them engaging rather than somber. This is especially true of \u201cCigarettes & Saints,\u201d which starts out sober and low, but builds to its closing remarks: <\/span>\u201cMy whole generation got lost in the margins \/ We put our faith in you and you turned a profit \/ Now we\u2019re drowning here under the waves.<\/span><\/i>\u201d This same quality tinged the rest of the band\u2019s set, with songs like \u201cHeaven\u2019s Gate (Sad and Sober)\u201d and \u201cPassing Through a Screen Door\u201d matching the same engagement and exhilaration. <\/span><\/p>\n The main set ended with a rollicking rendition of \u201cI Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral,\u201d a rehashing of various <\/span>The Greatest Generation<\/span><\/i> songs strung together into their own finale. The band returned after a short break for the two-song encore.<\/span><\/p>\n The first song of the encore was <\/span>The Greatest Generation<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cThe Devil in My Bloodstream.\u201d Personally, I wasn\u2019t a fan of their choice to put \u201cDevil\u201d in the encore. There are plenty of other songs from <\/span>The Greatest Generation<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Suburbia<\/span><\/i> that could have had a stronger impact in the final two songs. I would have preferred to hear something more popular, like \u201cThere, There\u201d, in the encore and \u201cDevil\u201d earlier in the set. Both have the slow wind-up of \u201cCigarettes & Saints,\u201d but \u201cThere, There\u201d packs a stronger punch in the end.<\/span><\/p>\n The closer of the set, however, was one of my favorite songs of the night. It was <\/span>Suburbia<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cCame Out Swinging,\u201d one of the band\u2019s most iconic songs, and it came out perfectly. It\u2019s a solid translation from recorded album to live performance, as all their catalog is. But even more than that, it has the raw energy that makes the Wonder Years so remarkable. Not only do fans get into the music, but the band themselves get completely immersed. Beyond that, \u201cCame Out Swinging\u201d is a testament to the bands origins, and to their growth both as people and as a band. \u201c<\/span>I came out swinging from a South Philly basement \/ Caked in stale beer and sweat under half lit fluorescents.<\/span><\/i>\u201d For a band that has seen its fair share of ups and downs, to be able to reminisce about their roots while acknowledging that they\u2019ve moved forward is astounding. It was a triumphant end to a fantastic show.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ali Audet Philadelphia rockers the Wonder Years put on a phenomenal show at the Strand on Friday, Nov. 2. The band released their sixth studio album, Sister Cities, in April of this year\u2013their first album to peak at #1 on the Billboard U.S. Indie chart. The setlist reflected this achievement: it included many songs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[26,97,327,446,31,552,548,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3179,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/3179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}