When We Were Young Festival is this weekend, with the same lineup on Saturday (10/22) and Sunday (10/23), and then it happens again the following Saturday (10/23). It's co-headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore, who play back to back on the adjacent black and pink stages, and who are both in the midst of making comebacks. The festival's been called an "emo nostalgia" festival all across social media and press, but it's worth noting that it really isn't just about nostalgia. Both headliners have new music out this year, and their recent singles are some of their best yet, clear steps forward, and not just rehashed versions of what they were doing in the mid 2000s. (Plenty of other bands on the lineup also have great new music out, like Jimmy Eat World, Manchester Orchestra, Dashboard Confessional, The Wonder Years, and Knocked Loose, and there are a handful of great younger bands playing too, like Meet Me @ the Altar and The Linda Lindas.)
My Chemical Romance's first song in eight years, "The Foundations of Decay," is unlike anything they've ever done. Clocking in at six minutes, it's dark, heavy, and sludgy in ways that My Chem never were, but still with the kind of anthemic chorus that always separated this band from their peers. It suggests that they're coming back because they've truly got more to say as a band (and recent teasers seem to hint at a new album), and if that's true, I really hope there's more where this came from.