On the band’s single “She’s Got A Boyfriend Now”, Boys Like Girls sing “Take me back to feeling like the world would just keep dealing me the right cards…” And for one night, the fans were indeed taken back to that time.
It felt a lot like a high school reunion in Raleigh as the guys rolled into town on their Soundtrack Of Your Life tour on Saturday, April 14th. Boys Like Girls played a two-hour set in their headlining show at The Ritz consisting of not one, but two full albums, played in track order, for fans to feel like they’d gone back in time. It started with Love Drunk, the band’s second studio album. The fans immediately felt like they were back in 2009. Screaming the lyrics to every song, re-living their youth; this was a night they’d waited 20 years for. After a quick wardrobe change, the guys took to the stage again to play the self-titled debut album Boys Like Girls in full. With both albums being played front to back, many were able to hear their favorite deep cuts that don’t normally make it to the setlist. Lead singer Martin Johnson gazed admiringly at the audience, letting them know that there were a lot of songs that they were never going to play again after that night. He appreciatively thanked them for selling out the venue.
I Dont Know How But They Found Me returned to The Ritz as an opener for this show, after playing there as a headliner just a couple years ago in support of their latest release, Gloom Division. Also known as iDKHOW “if you’re into brevity” according to lead singer Dallon Weekes, the band played a shortened set of 10 songs. In addition to those from Gloom Division, a handful of songs from their debut album Razzmatazz also filled the setlist, including the show’s opener, “Nobody Likes The Opening Band”. The song is about as tongue in cheek as you can get, since the crowd was definitely into this band. Weekes gives a magnetic performance, drawing you in with every lyric and his bandmates curate a sound together that’s like a revival of 80s new-wave pop.
The night was kicked off with an opening set by Arrows In Action. It was short, but full of emotion and gratitude. The guys were overly excited to be on tour opening for Boys Like Girls, sharing that, “Life is hard, but sometimes really cool stuff like this happens.” In a true full circle moment, drummer Jesse Frimmel added that the very first song he downloaded on iTunes was by Boys Like Girls, and now they’re on tour with them. The band has a new song, “Twice”, which will be released on April 24th; fans at the show were some of the first to hear it live.
In a return to the lyrics of ‘She’s Got A Boyfriend Now”, this electric, nostalgic night on the Soundtrack Of Your Life Tour left the fans truly feeling that “everything was gonna be alright.”
I’m Music Magazine Photographer/Music Journalist KT Lafferty
BOYS LIKE GIRLS
iDKHOW ( I Don’t Know How They Found Me)
Arrows In Action
