They say 'nothing gold can stay'. Yet New Found Glory are still rocking out after 20 years of creating raucous, pop-punk hits.
The US band are celebrating this milestone with their ‘20 Years Of Pop-Punk’ anniversary tour. Guitarist Chad Gilbert says it’s been a walk down memory lane for the band. “For us it’s almost like opening an old shoebox full of photos,” Chad says.
“We’re able to go through and play these songs and think about great times, like some of our first tours back in the day. This tour really brings back tons of memories for us.”
The tour has seen New Found Glory plumb the depths of their back catalogue, playing songs from every album right back to their 1999 debut full-length ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, some of which have never before been performed live.
“I think the coolest thing about this tour is that we’ve rediscovered songs we didn’t know fans were that into,” Chad says. “So there are some songs, for instance on our ‘Catalyst’ [2004] record there’s a song called ‘The Biggest Mistake’ and that’s a song that we never play live and we probably never would have played live if it wasn’t for this tour.
“Now that we do it we’re like ‘shit, we have to play this every tour’ [because] the reaction for this song is awesome. So it’s been a cool way to discover songs that we never knew fans liked that much,” he laughs. “It’s really cool.”
New Found Glory make their way to Australia in August and Chad say after 17 years coming here, he and the band have a special place in their hearts for Australia and their fans here. “We have to hang out with a bunch of Australians? I mean, come on!” he jokes with a hearty laugh.
“I’m kidding. We feel amazing, we love it down there. It’s been a huge place for us. We first started coming to Australia in 2000. So we’ve been coming there for 17 years of this career, which is crazy to think of.
“We did that Warped Tour years ago. I think the 2000 Warped Tour we were on tour for our self-titled record, which had just come out. So we have a long friendship [with Australia]. That’s how I see it, we have friends down there and it’s going to be nice to celebrate the same kind of thing but with a whole other continent.”
After 20 years of recording and touring, Chad says the greatest thrill has been witnessing the diversity of fans New Found Glory now attracts, from life-long stalwarts and hardcores to the fresh-faced teens who have just discovered their music. “We’ve definitely found some new glory,” he laughs.
“It’s cool and I think it’s neat to see people sing-along to songs that they’ve never been able to sing-along to.
“If you’re a fan who’s 20-years old and your favourite album is ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, you were pretty much one-years old when we recorded it so you never had the chance to hear those songs from your favourite albums. So this has been great for people who have discovered us a little bit later in their lives to be able to enjoy these songs.”
New Found Glory Tour Dates
Tue 8 Aug - Metropolis (Fremantle)Wed 9 Aug - The Gov (Adelaide)
10-11 Aug - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sat 12 Aug - Eatons Hill Hotel (Brisbane)
14-16 Aug - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
