The Emo Show, hosted by Maryland-based Transcendent Events, has become something of a Baltimore institution since its 2017 inception. A few times each year, bands from across the DMV come together on stage to pay tribute to the iconic pop-punk and emo bands that raised the millennial generation. Some of the city’s best-known venues have hosted the Emo Show over the years—the Recher, Baltimore Soundstage—and on June 6, the Emo Show came to Nevermore Hall for the first time since the venue’s conversion from the former Power Plant Live!
At its core, the Emo Show is a nostalgic party full of great music and the camaraderie of shared nostalgia. With themed drinks (complemented by punny names like “Orange CrushCrushCrush” and “Sugar We’re Going Crown”) and performers on stage just as fond of the genre—and the tracks they’re covering—as the audience out on the floor, it’s simply great vibes and good fun for a night out in the city. That alone would be reason enough to make a trip to the Emo Show worthwhile, but paired with the fact that tickets cost considerably less than seeing some of the “actual” bands, many of whom don’t tour very often, the Emo Show makes for a great opportunity to indulge the adolescent inside every middle-aged millennial.
One of the most memorable parts of the night was watching the students of the Frederick, Maryland-based Let There Be Rock School. The teenagers, organized into four or five different bands, each played a small selection of classic songs from the genre to start the night. Some had more stage presence than others, and some delivered a more polished sound than their peers, but overall, it was genuinely heartwarming to see today’s kids rocking out to the same songs that got so many of us through our own youth. The band Under21 stood out in particular with a captivating energy and obvious enthusiasm, not only for the music but for the performance and the opportunity to play on stage.
Once the kids from Let There Be Rock School wrapped their set, the night transitioned into the main event, kicked off by Count Me In, featuring vocalist Francheska Pastor. The group was charged with covering Paramore, and Pastor’s boundless energy and passionate performance made for a set that Hayley Williams herself would no doubt take pride in. Overall, their performance was one of the biggest highlights of the night, with the crowd riding high on the fast-paced tunes. It was an undeniably strong way to kick off the main event, though with such a stellar performance, the group may have been better suited for a slot further into the show.
Will Sims and his friends, many from the band Shuttlecraft, took the stage next to play a set of Jimmy Eat World songs. Sims was a last-minute addition to the event, and maybe that’s why the energy felt like it wasn’t quite there. Maybe the audience was less familiar with Jimmy Eat World than some of the other bands, but the energy on the floor felt a noticeable dip that only surged back into genuine enthusiasm when Transcendent’s own Kevin Hock took the stage to join in playing “Sweetness.” That track in particular was a fun performance, highlighted by the night’s other performers storming the stage to mosh along. It’s worth mentioning that the set did not feature “The Middle,” and the choice not to play the band’s best-known song during a nostalgia-themed show felt like a missed opportunity.
As Sims’ set wrapped, Shuttlecraft proper took the stage. The band is no stranger to the Emo Show or to the Green Day set they performed that night. In fact, lead singer Brendan Biondi has received a social media shout-out from Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong for his quarantine-born endeavor to play every Green Day song in chronological order. There’s perhaps no one better suited to cover the iconic Bay Area band, and Shuttlecraft didn’t disappoint. Biondi even has Armstrong’s stage mannerisms down. Mid-set, the band performed one of their own songs, but the audience was into it, and the opportunity to showcase themselves was well earned.
Feedback was an issue throughout the night, and Shuttlecraft’s set was hit harder by it than the others. Despite his clear frustration, however, Biondi never let the technical issues interrupt his performance. One audience member did note that the mostly green-themed lighting for the set was a bit on the nose, but if that’s the only complaint an audience member could come up with, I’m sure Shuttlecraft would take the win.
The final set of the evening featured Baltimore-based rock band the Revived, covering Fall Out Boy. Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump has such a unique voice that it would be unfair to expect anyone to recreate it exactly, but the Revived have been performing covers of the band’s music at the Emo Show for years. Vocalist Frank Hendrickson kept the audience engaged and singing along while still putting his own spin on some of Fall Out Boy’s best-known tracks from the band’s early-to-mid career. It was a wise choice, for such a nostalgia-heavy night, to focus primarily on the band’s first couple of albums – tracks spanning a range from Take This to Your Grave to Folie à Deux – and the audience sang along with every word.
Ultimately, the Emo Show succeeds because it offers more than just an evening of cover songs. It’s a celebration of the music that defined a generation, performed by musicians who clearly love these songs as much as the people singing along from the floor. The occasional technical hiccup or questionable setlist choice did little to detract from the overall experience, and by the end of the night, Nevermore Hall was filled with the kind of energy that makes live music so special. For anyone who still knows every word to “Longview,” “Sugar, We’re Goin Down,” or “Misery Business,” the Emo Show is a chance to relive a little piece of your youth—and maybe discover that the songs that got you through your teenage years still hit just as hard.
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