Story of the Year is currently on tour supporting the 20th anniversary of the their debut album “Page Avenue” and in honor of the milestone they will be playing the entire album each night of the tour. This past Saturday the tour arrived at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, Washington.
Looking out through the crowd, there was fans of all ages, those who were teens the first time they heard Story of the Year play songs from Page Avenue live and were now bringing their own kids to the show. The trend of a band touring on milestone anniversaries of an album is not a new concept, one thing that was different from the normal formula was Story of the Year performed the album out of order and with songs from their recent album “Tear Me To Pieces” mixed in to the set. The curation of the order was deliberate and provided an excellent flow to the entire evening.
As the set kicked off, I found myself singing along with each song from my position as I focused on grabbing some photos of the band. Each song was a different memory from my teens – admittedly it was hard to hide the smile on my face during these first few songs. After finishing my photos, I returned to a spot in the back of the floor to take in the remainder of the album, this is when vocalist Dan Marsala addressed the crowd, letting us know we would be hearing Page Avenue in full and he wanted to hear us sing along because he knew we knew the words to this next song. The band then broke into Anthem of Our Dying Day the audience didn’t disappoint and sang along hitting every word as if we had sang this song 100 times before. The set would build to a crescendo with In The Shadows this is the point in the night I put all my energy into singing along with the band. I was immediately transported back to early 2000’s, attending the Warped Tour, this was the first time I saw Story of the Year live. I was familiar with the band at the time, I had heard Anthem of Our Dying Day on the radio, when I heard In The Shadows live completely changed my perception of the band. I recall telling my friend at the show that I didn’t know how hard Story of the Year could go and how impressed I was with them. Soon after, I bought Page Avenue it would become a personal favorite for the next two decades.
For the encore Story of the Year saved a special treat for the crowd, Marsala once again thanked the crowd for coming out and jokingly said they were now going to play the best songs they have ever written. Having played the majority of the album, we wondered “what could be next?”. What preceded was a wonderful surprise, they played a melody of emo covers, including Ocean Ave. (Yellowcard), Cute Without the E (Taking Back Sunday), I’m Not OK (My Chemical Romance) and lastly The Taste of Ink (The Used). Marsala would admit that they hadn’t written these song, but they had made a lot of friends in the past twenty years and wanted to pay a tribute to those they had met along the way. The night was rounded out with the band playing their debut single Until The Day I Die, the crowd was loud singing every word and would not disappoint as Marsala gave the audience plenty of chances to sing the chorus back at the band. For a brief 90 minutes or so, we all could feel 20 years younger, enjoying an album that may have brought us an abundance of joy or gotten us through some very difficult times in our lives.
All Photos – FatmaN Concert Photography / Anthony Moore
There is still a few remaining dates in 2023 to catch Page Avenue performed live on the first leg of the U.S. Tour, while the second leg of the tour will kick off January 5th in Detroit, Michigan with support from We The Kings and Youth Fountain. A full list of dates and ticket information can be found on the bands website. Story of the Years latest release “Tear Me To Pieces” and “Page Avenue” is available to stream now on all major platforms.
