Counting Taking Back Sunday amongst the recent throwback revival of early 2000s rock is perhaps more complex than it first appears. The New York quartet are the sort of band that never entirely left the consciousness. Unlike their contemporaries, their last new music wasn’t 10 to 15 years ago, having continually but perhaps sporadically put out new material, most recently with 2023’s 152.

At The O2 Forum Kentish Town, Himalayas set their own pace, with slow, rumbling basslines building to crescendos of slick, gothic-esque rock. As far as influences go, fans of Arctic Monkeys are almost guaranteed to pick up what this Cardiff quartet is putting down. Their set ended with an unexpected rendition of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” a weird but fun cherry on top of a strong and enjoyable support.

Springing onto the stage and straight into “S’old,” Taking Back Sunday were all grins and boundless energy in matching burned orange suit jackets.

“You made it; you’re here. I was hoping to see you.” Adam Lazzara began on one of many extended streams of consciousness between songs. The fans certainly were happy to be there, exuding a heartwarming and unwavering bouncy energy from the top of the show right through to the final notes of the night. Pints were thrown, crowds were surfed, and lyrics were belted out from every corner of the room.

Throughout the set, the oldies generally hit deeper and harder than new tracks, but there was undeniable love for the standouts within 152. From the frenetic “Keep Going,” sweetly sensual “Lightbringer,” and “The One,” a track that Lazzara asserted was the band’s first attempt at intentionally writing a love song—despite his claim that all Taking Back Sunday songs are, on purpose or not, love songs.

Other than Lazzara’s, the suit jackets were all stripped off way before the non-encore, when we instead got another monologue, this time on how encores work, and that’s that; we didn’t need to bother with that nonsense. Another sign of just how tenacious this band still are after multiple decades of swinging around the world, the vibe is simply about getting the hell on with it.

“Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)” and then ‘MakeDamnSure’ closed the show, indicating that while Taking Back Sunday may still be more than capable of producing and touring exciting and progressive new music, nothing will resonate quite so viscerally and be as beloved by the diehard fans as those nostalgia-fueled sentimental tracks, just begging to be screamed along to one more time.

Photos by Florelle Servageon. View the full gallery here.