State Champs Were The Champs of New York

State Champs have brought the party across the United States on their Live On Tour Twenty Twenty Four headlining tour. The band wrapped things up over the weekend with two nights at the legendary Webster Hall in New York City along with Daisy Grenade, Meet Me @ The Altar and Knuckle Puck.

New York City's very own Daisy Grenade kicked things off, an alternative/pop punk duo that consists of Dani Nigro and Keaton Whittaker. Daisy Grenade is signed to DCD2 Records and has released two EPs, both of which produced by Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy. Daisy Grenade was upbeat and vibrant but also quite energetic, combining pop punk melodies and sound and mixing them with alternative and grunge elements that gave them a standout performance. They showed it early on in the first two songs "Sick In The City" and "Are You Scared of Me Yet?". They called for a pit to open up and had everyone get down on their knees for "How To Hide A Body" which resulted in everyone getting off their feet. Daisy Grenade started the show nice and smoothly but also got the crowd ready for what was about to come. By the way, they can scream too, and they showed it when they covered "King For A Day" by Pierce The Veil, a band they will be supporting next spring on their I Can't Hear You World Tour which includes a stop at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden.

Next up was Meet Me @ The Altar, a New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia-based pop punk trio that was formed in 2015. The members consist of Edith Victoria (vocals), Téa Campbell (guitar), and Ada Juarez (drums). All three members initially lived in three different states and made music together, remotely before being signed by Fueled by Ramen. The trio took it up one level and fans started to crowd surf early on in their set. Despite being a pop punk band, Meet Me @ The Altar brought more of a punk attitude to their songs which were contrasted by pop melodies, giving that familiar old school sound, but also redefining the genre and putting their own twist on it. The three loved seeing crowd surfing but wanted more and commanded the pit to open up before "Hit Like A Girl", and wouldn't play until it was big enough. Soon enough, the pit was ready and the first mosh pit of the night broke out as the band kicked the song off. Speaking of old school, Meet Me @ The Altar played a melody cover of three, early 2000's pop punk songs; "My Friends Over You", "Sweetness", and "My Own Worst Enemy" respectively, and the crowd went nuts for that. Victoria is a talented vocalist, her melodies and upbeat stage presence made her the center of attention for the whole show but both Campbell and Juarez held it down musically with fiery guitars and rhythmic drumming.

Up next was the pop punk heroes Knuckle Puck. Knuckle Puck was formed in 2010 in Chicago, Illinois and has had a consistent lineup since forming; Joe Taylor (vocals), Kevin Maida (guitar), Nick Casasanto (guitar), Ryan Rumchaks (bass), and John Siorek (drums). The band is currently signed to Pure Noise Records and have released a total of four studio albums, with their most recent one, Losing What We Love being released only last year. The crowd screamed their lungs out when the band took the stage and were crowd surfing immediately when the band started off with "Want Me Around", taken from their second studio album, Shapeshifter. Taylor is an energetic frontman, jumping around and dancing on stage all while singing, it's insane how much energy he has. The crowd was very receptive to Knuckle Puck's performance and was moshing and crowd surfing constanly throughout the set. I knew they had a dedicated following but I never saw it firsthand until now.

Taylor told the crowd that next year will mark the 15 year anniversary of Knuckle Puck and thanked the crowd for their ongoing support. He went on to say that if the fans weren't there, the band wouldn't even exist and was super grateful. The crowd cheered in response and the band dedicated the next song, "But Why Would You Care?" to them. The band slowed things down very briefly and Taylor stood back and let the crowd sing the opening words to "Untitled" and wrapped their set up with "No Good", leaving the fans ready for the main event.

It was now time for State Champs, one of the most popular pop punk bands to have come out in the last ten years. The band is from three hours up north from the city in Albany, New York and is made up of Derek DiScanio (vocals), Tyler Szalkowski (guitar), Ryan Scott Graham (bass), and Evan Ambrosio (drums). The band has been touring the country in support of their most recent self-titled album, State Champs which was released on November 9th via Pure Noise Records. Now, after touring for a month, the band wrapped things up on home soil.

Confetti streams kicked off State Champs set on “Silver Cloud”, the second song off the new self-titled record and was followed by constant crowd surfing and screaming from the crowd. This continued into the next song “Losing Myself” except for confetti streams, it was the fans jumping off their feet. The mosh pit got even more crazy on “Mine Is Gold” as that song is a party song, impossible to stand still to. DiScanio sang the first for words to the opening of "Outta My Head" before letting the crowd finish the rest as he knew they would know the words.

State Champs played a total of seven songs off of the new album and the fans knew every single word. The album has only been out for a month now and fans got familiar with the songs instantly and treated them just like how they trated the classics. Normally it would take a little time for fans to get comfortable with new material but not in the case for State Champ's fans as they screamed every single word out. I realized that when they got off their feet and sang the opening words to "Silver Cloud". Other songs they played included "Clueless", "Hell of It", "Light Blue", "Tight Grip", "Too Late to Say" and "Save Face Story" which saw Joe Taylor from Knuckle Puck hoping on stage to cover Slope's parts.

Its always a party when State Champs plays; whether its moshing, crowd surfing, or just jumping up and down, there is never a dull moment and they give it their all regardless of whether the band plays new songs, or old songs. It's even more special when it's a hometown show, sorta. Being from Albany, New York City is close to home for the quartet and is always one of their favorite places to play. Having a history of playing The Studio or the Marlin Room at Webster Hall and only playing the main room as an opener, the band credits their fans as the reason they could finally headline a sold out main room. It was a full circle moment for me as it was in 2015, I saw State Champs for the first time, supporting The Wonder Years at Webster Hall. I knew right away that there was gonna be something special about this band and thought they blew every other band, including the headliner, out of the water. To see them nine years later, selling out that same exact room was incredible and further proved why they are one of the leading bands in modern pop punk.

State Champs didn't forget about their older stuff too and fans were overjoyed when they played the classics like the mosh pit party songs; "Dead and Gone", "All You Are Is History", "Secrets", "Everybody But You", and the crowd surfing/sing alongs like "Act Like That", the circle pit inducing "Criminal" and a medley of others like "Perfect Score", "Frozen", and "Fake It". Let's not forget their first album Finer Things as it's not a proper State Champs show without the fan favorites like "Remedy", "Elevated", and "Hard To Please". Towards the end of the main set, Szalkowski brought out an acoustic guitar while Graham and Ambrosio exited the stage and only DiScanio and Szalkowski remained. They slowed things down with the title track of their second album, "Around The World And Back". The fans sang along to every word and Daisy Grenade came back out to sing Jule Vera's parts on the song and they did her part justice, even DiScanio was amazed at how well they could sing. Confetti streams and smoke closed out the band's set on the last two songs "Everybody but You" and "Secrets", the two songs that are known to be the perfect closing songs for State Champs because of their energetic sound that makes the pit go crazy. The fans gave it everything they got up until they sang the final words to "Secrets" with the band to close out Night 1 of the last two shows of the tour.

State Champs have been climbing the mountain for ten years and with each release, they get bigger and better. This new album marks the beginning of a new era for the band and while I'm disappointed I was not able to make it to the second night, I know for a fact we haven't seen the last of them and Europe is in for a treat come February.