By Anthony Moore
This past Tuesday Bayside brought the “The Worse Things Than Being Alive” tour to the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. The New York based punk group brought along emo veterans Finch and Armor for Sleep, with relative new comers Winona Fighter opening up the nights festivities. Having seen Bayside no less than a half dozen times over the past twenty years, I knew what to expect from a Bayside show and one of the reasons I’ve seen them so frequently is they never fail to put on an entertaining performance for the dedicated fan base.
As the lights dimmed, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” filled the theater, the audience joining in as the band entered the stage. Throughout the night, the crowd maintained a lively sing-along, and I couldn’t help but smile as I sang along to “Montauk” while capturing photos of the band. Fans became acquainted with several tracks from their latest release, “There Are Worst Things Than Being Alive,” alongside many beloved favorites from their 2005 self-titled album.
Bayside founding member and vocalist Anthony Raneri informed the audience that next year will be the 25th anniversary of Bayside being a band, taking the audience on a nostalgic journey back to the Warped Tour, asking those of use who may have picked up a summer sampler back in the summer of 2005. The age of Warped Tour Summer samplers was the perfect way for someone like myself to find exciting new and upcoming bands, this would be how I first heard of Bayside. As the band tried to determine if they had played at the Roseland Theater before, they listed off various small clubs and theaters they had played around Portland. Raneri let the audience know how thankful they were for the fans who continue to come back year after year and allowed for them to move up to venues in a pizza parlor to a place like the Roseland.
At the half way point in the set Raneri took the stage with an acoustic guitar as blue spot lights shined down, flooding him in a blue glow for the ballad “Don’t Call Me Peanut” – a song that has been a staple of the Bayside set for twenty years. This song provides a perfect break from the punk rock jams and allows for the audience to sing along to the bitter ballad, telling the story of infidelity, being walked over by an ungrateful lover and not speaking up when you should. From this point forward the set kicked into gear and the rest of the night flew by – another fan favorite from 2005 “Blame it on Bad Luck” closing out the main set, with the crowd cheering for more, the band came back out for a three song encore. Raneri let us know that this was our last chance to give it our all, the crowd erupted as the band broke into “Devotion and Desire”. The crowd screamed along with each line, with what voice was remaining after a fun filled night.
Photos by Anthony Moore
Bayside is currently finishing out their U.S. tour, wrapping up May 5th in Boston, Massachusetts with some festival dates last this year. Bayside will make their way to the U.K. for a couple stops in June before performing at the 2024 Download Festival. A full list of dates can be found on the bands website and the newest album There Are Worst Things Than Being Alive is available to stream on all major platforms.
