Boys Like Girls Brings the Heat to Phoenix with 3OH!3 and LØLØ
All Photos By Jenica LawsonAfter years of silence, the band that had their start in the neon pop-punk era have been making their way around the USA with several different line-up variations including The Ready Set, The Summer Set and 3OH!3. After arriving in the desert, the bands of The Speaking Our Language tour took to the stage of The Van Buren on September 30th. The night also marked 3OH!3’s official first day on the tour, their energy carried throughout the whole night.
LØLØ took that stage first and pumped the crowd up and got them singing along as well as tossing out pom poms that the crowd used throughout the night. The crowd became fans after LØLØ performed the hit single u turn me on (but u give me depression). She also performed a new unreleased song, saying the inspiration for the track was a recent meeting with the concrete with her chin. Even getting the crowd to chant the words along with her, everyone was impressed as she left the stage waving the pom poms that she and her crew had thrown out into the crowd. All around LØLØ was a great opener to get the crowd pumped.
LØLØ: Website | Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
Next up was the band a lot of the people standing in line were pumped for (including myself) 3OH!3. The bass was boosted and the crowd roared to life when the two Colorado natives came out on stage starting with one of their bigger name songs, Starstrukk. The two frontmen, Sean Foreman and Nate Motte, talked about this being their first night on tour and how stoked they were to be back in the saddle. The two were high energy the whole set which had the crowd sending the vibes right back to them, Nate also pointed out a fan in the crowd that had their hands painted gold and holding up their iconic hand sign. The two rounded out the set with their hit Don’t Trust Me.
3OH!3: Website | Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
State Champs were on next and came out strong with Outta My Head, the mosh pits started and ended here which seemed like the most appropriate pop punk band of the night to do it to. The band has been non-stop touring this year and is rounding their year out with some legends, lead singer Derek DiScanio hyped the crowd up while the mosh pits continued playing some of their biggest songs. The last song, Everybody But You, was one of their more recent hits and they brought out Boys Like Girls bassist Gregory James, for the accompanying vocals.
State Champs: Website | Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
It was finally the main act's time to shine, Boys Like Girls took the stage starting off with 2009’s Love Drunk which had everyone singing along. The band puts on one hell of a show a whopping 24 songs which included some short covers, fantastic mashups of their own songs and amazing crowd control. The fans were screaming along to the words to old and new songs alike, the band also taught everyone some lyrics to the unreleased song MIRACLE. Towards the end of the set, the band led into The Great Escape before stopping after the first chorus lead singer, Martin Johnson, explaining there was a difference between the band and the crowd ‘See, there’s a difference between you guys and us. In 2006 we were writing songs and you were downloading them from limewire and burning them into meticulous order on CDs that you wrote on with Sharpie that said ‘Summer Mix’’ Everyone cheered and clapped as Martin continued with telling everyone te relive those early 2000’s days and put your camera down and just enjoy the music that made our youth. After leaving the stage, Martin came back on the stage carrying an acoustic in which he performed Two Is Better Than One before leaving for a final time and the house lights came up. The band definitely made a thunderous (pun intended) comeback and made it known that their new album was made with sweat, blood and sugar.
