Win Tickets ($78): New Found Glory @ Aladdin Theater | w/ Leanna Firestone, Rock
We are giving away a pair of tickets to New Found Glory @ Aladdin Theater on February 8. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed January 30.
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From our sponsors:
New Found Glory
February 8, 2023
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $39 | All Ages
More info: event.etix.com
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202
As NEW FOUND GLORY can attest, life moves quickly. Just three years after forming in Coral Springs, Florida, in 1997, the group were fast-tracked from local upstarts to mainstream stars on the back of ebullient pop melodies and hardcore-tinged breakdowns, setting off a blast of pop-punk dynamite that still lights the torch for modern acts more than two decades later. They became the voice of an underground movement, spurring iconic gold and platinum records (2000’s New Found Glory, 2002’s Sticks & Stones, and 2004’s Catalyst), countless MTV appearances, an entire subgenre (easycore) and sold-out tours the world over.
But, as the band have also learned, everything can get upended in the blink of an eye. In December 2021, fresh off the celebratory Pop Punk’s Still Not Dead Tour in support of their 10th album, Forever + Ever x Infinity, guitarist Chad Gilbert was found unresponsive in bed at home, rushed to a local hospital, and diagnosed with an 8-inch cancerous tumor, a rare pheochromocytoma. Hospital stays, surgery, and a long road to recovery followed – but, in typical New Found Glory fashion, so did the songs.
The band’s forthcoming acoustic album, MAKE THE MOST OF IT (Revelation Records), tackles the last year head-on with their most emotional and cathartic collection of songs to date. Written in the wake of Gilbert’s cancer diagnosis and mixed by Mark Trombino (blink-182, Jimmy Eat World), MAKE THE MOST OF IT is a rumination on what it means to grieve, to live, to approach every day with appreciation and a sense of fulfillment. There’s gratitude for the CPR Gilbert’s wife performed on him (“Mouth To Mouth”), for the doctors who got him back on the road in time to celebrate the landmark 20th anniversary of Sticks & Stones (“Get Me Home”), and for life in general – the opportunity to wake up every day in this beautiful, messy, heartbreaking world (“Kiss The Floor”).
“Even though the songs are sadder, they’re still hopeful,” Gilbert says. “You hear so much online about mental health and fear and anxiety. I feel proud that we can release an album with joy and honesty in a way that will hopefully make people less fearful of life. A lot of times we punish ourselves for things that might never happen. I’m going through something that did happen, but doing it with hope and joy and a greater appreciation.”
Gilbert and his bandmates – vocalist Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki – are all husbands and fathers, and as elder statesmen of the pop-punk genre (though still able to incite a circle pit with ease), MAKE THE MOST OF IT finds the quartet contemplating the future, what they hope their loved ones will hang on to and how they’ll be remembered. It’s all there on “Watch The Lilies Grow,” the record’s centerpiece dedicated to Gilbert’s daughter, Lily, and the most poignant New Found Glory song ever. Just as fan favorites like “Sonny” and “When I Die” were there to guide audiences through life’s valleys decades ago, songs like “Dream Born Again” and “More Than Enough” speak to listeners with the same sense of understanding, compassion, and community that’s kept New Found Glory such a resonant and beloved mainstay in punk rock.
“I didn’t want this to be the ‘cancer record’ originally,” Gilbert admits, noting his cancer returned in 2022 with additional battles still ahead. “But when we went on tour and people started hearing the story and connecting to it, I gave up on trying to control the narrative. Not all bands are dealt these cards, but we were. Let’s take these songs and help the disease get awareness and raise money for a cause that’s working on education and research for my rare cancer.” (A percentage of proceeds from the record will go to The Pheo Para Alliance, the longest standing internationally recognized leader in advocacy for, and awareness of, pheochromocytoma.)
I love NFG!! Been following them since my scene days in high school lol!
I would dance. I know it’s not the popular thing to do but I could get with that.
Just a couple of millennials lookin for a boogie of our pasts!
Xoxo Pat and Patti
Oh my god I would LOVE to see New Found Glory! This would be a dream win.
I’m so here for this!!
I love New Found Glory! Haven’t seen them since high school. Would love to see them!
Absolutely one of my favorite bands! Would love to see them finally!
Would like to take my wife to this.
Yup, I’m old and haven’t seen NFG yet… but with your help that could change!
My position at work was eliminated at the beginning of the year and after paying all the bills and waiting for unemployment I would be honored to win tickets to go do something!
I would LOVE to see NFG again! Haven’t seen them in over a decade! Need a night to re-live my youth! 🤘
Would LOVE to go!!! 🤞🤞
I love NFG! I started listening to their music in 2012 🕰️!
I would love to take my partner to this! They love NFG!
I’m convinced that they had to make this show an acoustic one thanks to elder millennials now thinking things are “too loud.” LOL. 😉 Would love to go to this show!
Teen dreams come true!
Would love a musical trip down memory lane
New Found Glory, they’re okay.
Me and my bff love New found glory and would absolutely love to go see them again! It’s been at least a decade since I saw them last and that’s just too long ago!
Would love to go to this! One of my fav bands from high school, haven’t ever seen them live!
I saw NFG when I was in college in San Diego back in the early 2000s, would love to see them again after all this time!
RocK iT 🤘
This would be an Awesome show!
I would love to go and experience!
ha this would be amazing – make us feel like we are 18 again 🙂
The last time I saw NFG was in 2001… I’m LONG OVERDUE to see them again. Would have the best time!
LOVE NFG and have never seen a show at the Aladdin!
I am obsessed with New found glory! It would be amazing to see them
This sounds like a great concert!
Would love to see these guys live!
Oh my gosh. I have been a fan of NFG for around 20 years. I love their music and still sing them to myself in the shower on a regular basis. They played a show near my house in California, when I was a kid. I was grounded though, and wasn’t allowed to go even though I HAD A TICKET! I snuck onto the roof and heard the show, but that’s the closest I have ever gotten.
I’d love to see NFG live!!!
Would love to win for my bday!
Would love to go!
Great throw back. Would love this!
We wrecked our motorcycle downtown on the trolly tracks on my way to the mimi webb concert last month..pick me fir this pleease.. I missed mimi! 🙁
I’ve literally been buying shirts they designed for RSVLTS, I need to see them in concert!