The trek features a performance at When We Were Young in Las Vegas
Pop punk legends New Found Glory embarking on an extensive headlining tour later this simmer celebrating 20 years of their 2004 album, Catalyst. The band today announced a two leg North American Tour that will see them playing the iconic record in full – including hits like “All Downhill From Here”, “Truth Of My Youth”, and “Failure’s Not Flattering” – along with a number of other songs from throughout their discography. Joining them will be special guests Sincere Engineer.
“Fans trust us because of albums like Catalyst,” guitarist Chad Gilbert says proudly. “We can make these records and branch out creatively, and they know we’re never going to do something really weird. We are who we are, and I love that we can play whatever and still crush it.”
Pre-sale tickets and VIP packages are available now. General on sale begins this Friday, March 15. Check out the full tour itinerary below.
By the time New Found Glory had broken through with the release of their third album, 2002’s Sticks & Stones, they were well on their way to a permanent place on pop-punk’s Mount Rushmore thanks to a inimitable blend of punk-rock ethos, hardcore energy, and razor-sharp melodicism. Smash singles “Hit Or Miss” and “My Friends Over You” had launched a thousand garage bands, even inspiring up-and-coming acts to crib their names from NFG’s lyrics, but it was 2004’s Catalyst that cemented the Coral Springs, Florida, legends as not just one of the most influential pop-punk bands ever, but a mainstream power player as well.
Louder, darker and heavier than its predecessors, Catalyst marked the sound of the band (guitarist Chad Gilbert, vocalist Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka, and drummer Cyrus Bolooki) pushing back at what was expected of them, sidestepping the natural inclination to slow down and mellow out – and, in the process, becoming more popular than ever.
“We were coming off ‘My Friends Over You’ and had the pressure of fans going, ‘Oh, what’s this band going to turn into?” Gilbert remembers. “We decided to keep being ourselves. Rock bands were going a little more pop at that time, but we wanted to carve out a lane for ourselves and say, ‘Look, we’re part of this genre and love it, but we’re also one of a kind and different.’”
This new direction was evident from the album’s opening strains: the white-hot hardcore “Intro” that pulled no punches in its critiques of the music industry (“It’s more than a T-shirt, it’s more than a tattoo/It’s more than a phase, this is how I was raised”) into first single “All Downhill From Here,” which showcased a more muscular, riff-forward sound for the band that ironically became a staple on MTV’s TRL, where it was so popular it had to be retired and pulled from rotation.
The legacy of Catalyst – and New Found Glory as a whole – is in this sort of juxtaposition, the band’s effortless ability to Trojan Horse their more rough-hewn influences into anthemic, hooky offerings. One minute, they’re launching four-on-the-floor Cars-era new wave (“Failure’s Not Flattering”), high-octane skate punk (“Truth Of My Youth”) and ascendant string-laden balladry (“I Don’t Wanna Know”), the next they’re welcoming cameos from members of hardcore legends Madball and H2O and trading in double-bass breakdowns (“At Least I’m Known For Something”) and smoky, minor-key dynamism (“Ending In Tragedy”).
All of this combined to propel the Neal Avron-produced set to a career-best No. 3 on the Billboard 200, promptly going Gold and launching the band into arenas supporting Green Day along with their first live DVD, This Disaster.
Two decades later, it’s easy to hear the album’s influence not just on the pop-punk genre writ large, but New Found Glory’s career trajectory. From the warm hue of Catalyst’s follow-up, 2006’s Coming Home, to repeated collaborations with hardcore labels Triple B, Bridge 9 and Revelation Records, nothing is off-limits for the quartet – and that’s just the way they like it.
August 16 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
August 17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
August 18 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
August 19 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
August 21 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
August 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
August 23 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
August 24 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony Summer Stage
August 25 – Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo Riverworks
August 27 – Detroit, MI@ The Fillmore
August 28 – Columbus, OH @ Kemba Live
August 29 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
August 30 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
September 1 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
October 11 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
October 13 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
October 15 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
October 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
October 17 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
October 18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
October 19 – Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young Festival
October 20 – Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young Festival
October 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
October 23 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
Tickets and VIP Packages will be available HERE