October 2024
It would seem that emo is making a comeback. At least if hearing of a new emo station on my satellite radio station or a particularly large scale festival featuring a lineup of early 2000’s alternative bands hitting a capacity crowd are any indications. My only issue is that by the time most of these bands were playing, MTV had stolen the word ’emo’ and applied it to pop punk bands. The groups who laid the groundwork for this era often didn’t end up with the mainstream airplay or attention. Most of the earlier emo bands came out of the same DIY scene that had them sharing stages with hardcore and underground art rock bands.
And this is where this year’s Best Friends Forever Festival comes in! The first year event brought three days of bands together who all came from the underground scenes. With a lineup made up of emo and adjacent bands, often who played in the 90’s and early 2000’s, this festival appealed less to a commercialized sense of nostalgia, and instead went all in putting on a festival of bands one never imagined they would see perform again, along with a hefty mix of current bands with noticeably heavy influence by the older groups.
Headlined by Cap’tai’n Jazz, Sunny Day Real Estate and the Blood Brothers (performing their first show in 10 years!), the festival took place on two stages in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, with alternating set times that ensured that no performances overlapped.
Being that many of the bands still performing are going on notable anniversaries of their most influential albums, some opted to perform these all the way through. For its 30th anniversary, Built To Spill performed its There’s Nothing Wrong with Love album in its entirety, and Sunny Day Real Estate played 1994’s Diary from start to finish.
With audience area split down the center into GA and VIP sections, it was the GA area that consistently went crazier throughout the sets. Members of Cap’n Jazz, The Jesus Lizard, and the Blood Brothers breached the barricades and spent portions of their sets amongst the crowd. Buffalo, NY hardcore band Drug Church stoked simultaneous pits in both sections of the crowd during their blistering set.
It was some of the non-headlining bands who seemed to have the most excitement surrounding their sets. Boston’s Piebald delivered their brand of genuine engagement and fun to a packed crowd at the second stage, The Anniversary layered custom animations on the backdrop over their epileptic synth infused indie rock set, and Unwound and Rainer Maria both performed highly anticipated sets on the main stage while reminiscing about the years they each spent performing in basements and “sleeping in the same rooms that we played in.” And The Get Up Kids seemed to play with a sense of fun onstage matching those in the audience.
And while there was a palpable sense of excitement about seeing some of these older bands again, there was no mistaking that the sheer onstage energy belonged to the younger bands. Mannequin Pussy, Sweet Pill, and Reno’s Bug Bath all brought a sense of energy that many of the headliners just match. Though The Blood Brothers, a relatively late addition to the festival after an earlier headliner had to back out, combined both an epic catalog and insane energy and gave probably the most memorable set of the weekend. Ahead of their sold out reunion tour, they mentioned that Best Friends Forever was their first show in 10 years, and then proceeded to thrash around the stage and in and on top of the audience as they closed out the weekend.
A first year festival, Best Friends Forever did it right, reaching back and putting together a bucket list lineup of bands who stayed two feet into the DIY music communities.
Stay up to date with Best Friends Forever for updates on their 2025 plans!
