Pop punk legends New Found Glory are inviting fans to join them in celebrating 20 years of their 2004 album ‘Catalyst.’ The band has 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.”
By the time NFG 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 record 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’. Now, two decades after New Found Glory planted their flag in pop culture, the band are set to celebrate the album with ‘CATALYST 20 YEARS LATER’, a coast-to-coast North American run featuring special guests Sincere Engineer. Audiences will hear all the hits, yes, but also the deep album cuts that have grown into fan favorites over time.
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.
Upcoming Tour Dates:
August 16th – House of Blues – Orlando, FL
August 17th – The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
August 18th – The Ritz – Raleigh, NC
August 19th – The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD
August 21st – The Paramount – Huntington, NY
August 22nd – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA
August 23rd – Roadrunner – Boston, MA
August 24th – Stone Pony Summer Stage – Asbury Park, NJ
August 25th – Buffalo Riverworks – Buffalo, NY
August 27th – The Fillmore – Detroit, MI
August 28th – Kemba Live – Columbus, OH
August 29th – Agora Theater – Cleveland, OH
August 30th – The Pageant – St. Louis, MO
September 1st – Marathon Music Works – Nashville, TN
October 11th – House of Blues – Dallas, TX
October 13th – The Marquee – Tempe, AZ
October 15th – The Observatory North Park – San Diego, CA
October 16th – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
October 17th – House of Blues – Anaheim, CA
October 18th – The Masonic – San Francisco, CA
October 19th – When We Were Young Festival – Las Vegas, NV
October 20th – When We Were Young Festival – Las Vegas, NV
October 22nd – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
October 23rd – Mission Ballroom – Denver, CO