10. Forever Came Calling
My first experience with FCC was technically on Warped Tour while they were working the line. My friend bought a CD but I didn't actually listen to it. The first time seeing them for real was opening up a State Champs/Handguns co-headliner put on by their record label Pure Noise Records and FCC was the main support for the two headliners. They put on a good show but my now fiancee actually got me in to them because she wanted a shirt of them which had Jennifer Lawrence flipping off the camera. Luckily they were giving away a CD with any shirt purchase and I got their last full length "What Matters Most" and fell in love with it which made me pick up their debut Contender as well which has just as many jams.
9. The Artist Life
So this is an interesting one. The Artist Life and The Swellers (who also got strong consideration for this list) were on a co-headlining tour and the St. Catharines stop coincided with my friends band's CD release party so they technically headlined so it counts. The Artist Life put out 2 EP's and a full length, all of which I'd highly recommend. They are unfortunately no longer active but they were the best of the small Canadian bands I discovered at local shows.
8. A Rocket To The Moon
Nick Santino's original band A Rocket To The Moon landed the opening spot on an old Alternative Press tour that had 3OH!3 and The Maine headlining with support from Family Force 5 and Hit The Lights but it was Nick with an acoustic guitar that stood out (not really, HTL killed it!) I went to the merch booth and bought his debut EP and I still listen to it regularly. Their full length On Your Side followed and is still an absolute favourite of mine before they faded off a little bit with their last release before disbanding and Nick started doing solo stuff before going back and doing band work but no longer under the ARTTM moniker.
7. Sugarcult
This is a fun story only because it happened at the first live band concert I've ever been to. It was Green Day's American Idiot tour in 2004 that had my favourite band, New Found Glory opening for them but opening the show was Sugarcult. A band I never heard of before even though they talked about Memory and Bouncing Off The Walls playing on radio I had never heard it but a few weeks later they performed Memory on one of the late night talk shows and I was officially hooked. They're no longer active but hte members are keeping busy writing and producing for other bands but nothing can take away from the excellence of their first full 2 full lengths and even their third was fine.
6. Valencia
Valencia opened up probably the best concert lineup I ever went to, Tourzilla in 2007 with the Audition, All Time Low and Boys Like Girls. I had never seen them and they were good but didn't stand out due to their lack of stage presence. I didn't realize at the time that it was their first tour back after the death of lead singer Shane Henderson's girlfriend. A few months later they released the single from their upcoming album Holiday and it was around the time I was looking for bands to check out on Warped 2008 and I got hooked on it alone with their previous songs and became a fan and consider myself lucky to be able to check them out one last time at Warped 2019 in Atlantic City.
5. The Story So Far
The Story So Far was on the Glamour Kills tour in 2011 with the Wonder Years, Polar Bear Club, Transit and A Loss For Words. Surprisingly they opened the show back then. I hadn't given them a shot but I loved TWY and got into transit a little bit before. PBC and AL4W took up most of my time getting ready for the concert only to discover AL4W weren't playing my date. TSSF moved around a lot more than they did now but I was still underwhelmed by their performance given how heavy their music was but I decided to pick up their debut album anyways and fell in love. I've continued to be a fan until this day of their music it's a shame their live show leaves a lot to be desired however.
4. Knuckle Puck
Unlike some bands on this list I had never even heard of Knuckle Puck as they were still a local band from Chicago when they went out on tour with Man Overboard, Transit and Forever Came Calling. I enjoyed them but I don't have any vivid memories other than lead singer Joe wearing a tie-dye long sleeve... I hated tie-dye then and I still do. A month or two after the show the video for "No Good" got released and popped up on YouTube. I decided to watch it since I remember liking the music and I fell in love and they've been one of my favourite modern pop punk bands ever since.
3. Set Your Goals
Here we have a first and only on this list folks. Set Your Goals I seen twice before I got into them. They opened a spring tour with New Found Glory and Bayside and then in the fall they opened for Paramore and The Starting Line. The following spring I heard a few tracks off "This Will Be The Death Of Us" and I officially liked them. Now it was hard putting them up this high since I seen them twice and left unimpressed though I still to this day don't love "Mutiny!" as much as most do but loved their next 2 albums before going on hiatus. I'm also excited to be able to say I seen them one last time at Warped 2019 to get some closure.
2. Four Year Strong
So I know earlier I said The Artist Life was the best band I discovered at a local gig but technically I first heard Four Year Strong at a local show as an opener for Bayside (I think they were third of five on the bill). I had heard of them and the people that throwdown at their shows, I had never experienced that yet as this was early in Easycore so I was excited to see that but the music also spoke to me. I left the concert and dove into FYS more eventually grabbing Rise Or Die Trying and following all their releases to this day and their live show is still just as strong years later.
1. State Champs
Yes, I saw arguably the biggest modern day pop punk band back before they released their debut full length in December 2012. They opened up for Hit The Lights, an inspiration to them as they played a one off show in Toronto to prep for a full upcoming tour the bands were doing. I remember hearing Remedy for the first time that night and the opening melody stayed ingrained in my mind. A few months later while deciding to start a weekly countdown I discovered they made a music video for a song called Elevated. I heard it once and I was hooked. When The Finer Things came out months later I streamed it a bunch before grabbing a physical copy a few months later and I've been seeing them live and buying up all their music ever since.
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