The Wonder Years Unplugged: Burst & Decay Live in Towson
BY ANNA PORCELLA“I have to imagine pretty much everyone in this room has seen our band live before,” Dan “Soupy” Campbell, frontman of The Wonder Years, said as he greeted a sold out crowd. “But just in case you haven’t - we don’t sound like this.” The Philadelphia pop punk band typically put on shows of soaring vocals overlaying riffs that shake venue walls. For this tour, however, The Wonder Years have slowed things down, celebrating the release of Burst & Decay Volume III, the third installment of a series of EPs consisting of beautifully reimagined acoustic versions of songs spanning the band’s discography. While The Burst & Decay Tour takes a completely different direction sonically, it is filled with no less emotion. The Wonder Years have always been open; their catalog explores mental health, addiction, and grief in a manner that is raw and real. These stripped back versions put the lyricism at the forefront, emphasizing the narrative nature and allowing the listener to soak in the words.
The tour arrived to a sold out crowd at The Recher in Towson, Maryland this week, accompanied with support from Kevin Devine. The stage is set with several varying sized lamps, which casts the room in a warm glow as each member joins the stage one by one to the beginning notes of “Doors I Painted Shut.” Campbell’s voice floats from backstage, the faint layered vocals echoing behind his creating a heavenly chorus. The crowd is no less loud than a standard Wonder Years show, their voices rising to join Campbell’s harmoniously.
The band, consisting of Campbell on vocals, Matt Brasch and Casey Cavaliere on guitar, Nick Steinborn on keyboard and guitar, Josh Martin on bass, and Mike Kennedy on drums, usually operates as a six piece. For this tour, there are nine people taking the stage as the band is backed by string trio Little Kruta. “They make every song we do sound better,” Campbell said as he introduced them to the audience. Their presence adds a beautiful depth to the band’s sound, evident in tracks like “I Don’t Like Who I Was Then” and “Passing Through a Screen Door.” A reverent hush falls over the crowd during “Wyatt’s Interlude,” a short but sweet instrumental track that gives Little Kruta the spotlight. One of the biggest highlights of the set was “Came Out Swinging,” an iconic Wonder Years song that maintains the momentum and emotion of the original track with its new arrangement - during the final chorus, the build up of strings and an overlap of voices allows the song to soar beautifully.
As they approach nearly 20 years of being a band, The Wonder Years continues to grow with their audience. Not many pop punk bands are approaching songwriting about societal and emotional topics through the lens of parenthood. The connection formed between the band and their audience through their openness is spreading as fans are now sharing the band with their own children - in a touching moment, a young fan on the barricade was greeted by Campbell, asking how old he was (six years old) and what his favorite Wonder Years song is (their cover of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” which he then amended to “Wyatt’s Song”). Overall, the Burst & Decay Tour emphasizes the emotional lyricism and the relationship between the band and their listeners in a beautiful tribute to The Wonder Years’ discography.
