PITTSBURGH ― Taking Back Sunday won't need to worry about twisters this time, when that rock band returns to western Pennsylvania.
"The last time I was there was the Four Chord Festival last year, and there was a tornado, so everything got pushed back and we ended up doing only five songs acoustic, just three of us, so I'm really excited to be able to play there with a full band," Taking Back Sunday singer Adam Lazzara said recently.
Indeed, an indoor Stage AE audience on July 24 will get the full-on Taking Back Sunday playing a headlining set that will include tracks from last fall's "152" album that revealed a band pushing its boundaries in order to keep growing, while revealing innermost parts of themselves in hopes of fostering a connection with others.
Named after a favorite exit ramp, "152" brings more synth than the Long Island-forged quartet's seven previous albums.
"There's been synthesizers on all of our records. But we lean into it a bit more with this one," Lazzara said. "One of the coolest things about making '152' was how it completely flipped me on my head when it comes to recording."
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The record's producer, Tushar Apte, known for helming records by acts like Demi Lovato, Niki Minaj and Chris Brown, pushed Taking Back Sunday from its comfort zone of studio purism.
"Tushar's wheelhouse isn't what we do as Taking Back Sunday. He has this completely fresh set of ears and entirely different approach than we have," Lazzara said. "He changed my whole way of looking at recording and old habits."
The track "Lightbringer" yields a bit of a vocal growl from Lazzara, an instance where a demo track became the final product.
"What's on there is the first thing that came out of my mouth," Lazzara said. "We went back and tried to redo it 'better,' or properly like you're supposed to do in studios, but nothing felt the same. The song was worse off each time I tried to re-sing it. Like a square peg in a round hole, so we decided let's just keep the demo the way it is."
Conversely, "Amphetamine Smiles" went through many changes under Apte's guidance.
"I actually think it was much faster at first, which is strange for us, to slow it down," Lazzara said. "We're normally speeding everything up."
Lazzara, 42, vividly recalls his initial reaction when hearing the final "Amphetamine Smiles" arrangement by Apte with its slow, stripped-down start and gentle swelling harmonies before the whole band comes crashing in.
"Normally, we would have been like 'No way, dude,' but as I'm walking down a long hallway, and the studio control room door is open, and I hear it, right when the drums do come in, it was just like an NFL linebacker came in and pushed me back down the hall in the best way," Lazzara said.
Taking Back Sunday promoted the "152" songs with a series of seamless music videos, resembling home movie footage, showing the band hanging out at a Montauk beach and other old hometown haunts.
"The overarching idea was we wanted everything to feel cohesive because we hadn't really done that in the past," Lazzara said.
He compared the band's previous marketing efforts to door-to-door solicitation.
"We were like going door-to-door banging on people's houses saying, 'Hey, want to check out these songs we have?' Just trying to get into their world. And then we realized, hey, wait, that's not the way to go about anything. Nobody likes that, in any circumstance. So how about we invite them into our world? Like all the photos taken around that record are from one house," Lazzara said. "It was really important to stay Long Island-centric because that's where the band is from. And any time we go back it just feels wonderful and so we just tried to find a way to translate the feeling it gives us."
Going back out on the road is a special feeling, too.
Interviewed a few weeks ago before the second leg of the tour commences in Pittsburgh, Lazzara said the setlist will be a combination of requests culled from fans via social media and other online posts, plus songs the band enjoys playing live.
"MakeDamnSure," Taking Back Sunday's charting hit from 2006, ended shows on the first leg of the tour.
"MakeDamnSure" is hallmarked by a major note, Lazzara said − "we call it the Pedro The Lion" note − inspired by the hip indie-rock act of that name.
Lazzara remembers writing the hook alone late one afternoon in the studio and playing it later for guitarist Mark O'Connell and former bassist Matt Rubano, "and they both looked at me in a way like there was something on my face or something bad had happened but they were just so excited. And I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, I impressed them.' Because that was what I was trying to do a lot of the time. Don't tell them I said that."
Another insider tip on "MakeDamnSure:" If you listen to it on headphones when the bridge comes in, there's a voice message that's pretty low in the mix.
"You can hear it with speakers though it's low enough to where with headphones you really notice it, and that was a voicemail that was on my phone at the time and I remember I got the message and the next day I was in the studio and I was like 'hey, this will be amazing in this part of the song because it will drop down and be sad.' Because it was a really sad message," Lazzara said.
So sad, that Lazzara didn't want to be in the control room when the message was mixed into the studio track.
"It was really difficult. So, I'm outside. And maybe 45 minutes goes by and Fred Mascherino (former guitarist-vocalist) comes out and goes 'hey, you got to come back in here because we can't keep listening. I mean c'mon dude.' I was like, 'Oh, God, because I guess (producer) Eric Valentine wanted to make sure he was putting it in the right spot, so they had kept listening to it over and over and the mood was terrible. Because everyone was like so sad. And you know if you listen to something like that on repeat for a half hour on these beautiful speakers, it's going to get inside you," Lazzara said. "That's a fun tidbit to that song."
Taking Back Sunday fans would say it's one of the band's songs that makes them feel seen and find solace.
"That thing that happens. I don't fully understand it and that's part of the magic of it," Lazzara said. "One of the things I'm most proud of is I've been able to be a part of something that has found somebody at just the right time when they needed it. That was the thing that's music always given to me. All my favorite artists and all my favorite bands. It's helped me to feel validated and seen. To feel like I matter and I'm not alone like all these things. But to think I was part of something like that for someone else is absolutely incredible."
Lazzara cites "Highway Companion" by Tom Petty as an album like that for him.
"There's something in it that just fills a hole that needs filling in me," Lazzara said.
Lazzara also enjoys getting lost in the music of Citizen, the Toledo, Ohio, band warming audiences for Taking Back Sunday on tour.
"One of the things I really like about Citizen is that each one of their records is very different from the record before it. So, their set just flows so well," Lazzara said.
Typically, he's always watched a bit of the opening band before getting ready to go on stage, "but the thing with Citizen, because they've got so many great songs and because they're all different, I lose track of time when they're playing. I know their set, I'm watching it every night, but I'll lose track of time, and that's when I'm so glad we brought that band out on tour because if I'm losing track of time hopefully, everyone in the crowd is, too."
Unlike that storm-threatened Four Chord Music Festival last August at Wild Things Park in Washington County, Taking Back Sunday will be fully plugged in this time in Pittsburgh.
"With the full band and the full production, I'm really excited for it," Lazzara said.
That abbreviated Washington County gig marked the first time the band played many of its "152" tracks acoustic, paving the way for this year's four-song "S'Old (Acoustic)" EP release featuring that song in four different styles.
"That was a big day because we were partly scared, because we're not used to sheltering in place for a tornado. And there was a whole lot of questions about what the schedule was going to be like. A lot of hubbub. It ended up being awesome because the organizers were like 'hey, you can't do the full band stuff, but if you want to play acoustic, we can probably get you up there for 20 minutes, no problem.' And we went up. And it was early on playing the newer songs for '152' acoustic and it went really well. We were terrified about it because we didn't know how it would go because we'd never done it. So that was really magical. It was like post-storm sky, it looked ominous and the people who had sheltered in place were all coming back to the festival grounds and we're there playing these songs for the first time in this format we'd never tried before. It was real exciting."
He hopes Pittsburgh area fans are excited for the Stage AE show, "because we are."
Lazzara said, "What I'm proud of is when I look into the crowd, there are people from the ages of 12 to their early 50s. Clearly someone who is 12 is going to be in a different place in their life than someone who is 28 or 38 or 42, but for this hour-and-a-half or two hours, none of that matters. Everyone is getting lost together to the same thing at the same time and it's a powerful thing."
What's up:
What: Taking Back Sunday indoor concert at Stage AE, Pittsburgh
Doors open: 7 p.m. July 24.
Tickets: $42.50-$85.
Info: promowestlive.com
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