Good Charlotte leads a supercharged lineup at The Fillmore

Good Charlotte | Photo by Sydney Schaefer for WXPN | sydneyschaeferphotos.com

The year was 2002, the Maryland punks of Good Charlotte had just released their sophomore album, The Young and The Hopeless. The album begins with “A New Beginning” and goes into “The Anthem,” the song that literally launched the band into superstardom. Kids around the world were singing it as their own anthem, and they still are. 14 years later, Good Charlotte’s back with a new album, Youth Authority, and with the same momentum and enthusiasm as when the band first rose to fame in 2001 with the release of their first, self-titled, album, Good Charolette.

Last month, the band set out on a month long tour in support of Youth Authority, starting in California, and last night, made its way to Philly. With support from Big Jesus, Four Year Strong, and The Story So Far, quite the stacked lineup if I must say so myself, so many people were bouncing up and down, trying to contain their excitement for the night to start.

First to play were the Atlanta, Georgia rockers in Big Jesus, followed by the 2000s pop-punk rebels of Four Year Strong, still kickin’ it almost 10 years after their first release, Rise or Die Trying. FYS’s set really got the crowd ready for what was to come, since FYS was pretty prominent right after majority of Good Charlotte’s major releases. Although both bands (FYS and Good Charlotte) are still making music today, the early 2000s were when they were all really setting the world and music scene on fire.

Next up was The Story So Far, a band that always put on a killer performance. Frontman Parker Cannon was jumping and literally flailing all over the stage, ’cause he was just that hype. In 2015, TSSF released their most recent album, a self-titled. However, during their set last night, songs from all three of their albums, including Under Soil and Dirt and What You Don’t See were played, as all three albums each have some of their biggest hits. In the middle of their set, they took a moment to break away from the chaos that usually is a TSSF set and play a very special song to many people, one that was released back in 2013 and is off a split with Stick To Your Guns, an acoustic song, “Clairvoyant”. To see that song live meant a lot to so many people that night.

After TSSF finished their set, the crowd waited anxiously for Good Charlotte to emerge from the darkness on stage and take them back in time to 2002, a time when things were much, much simpler for most than they are today (*cough* Trump *cough*). The background music faded and the giant G and C toward the back of the stage lit up, launching the audience into a roar of applause and cheering. Frontman, and one of the badass Madden bros, Joel Madden, came out onto the stage holding his microphone, followed by his brother and guitarist, Benji Madden, and the rest of GC. Without any further ado, the beginning notes of the band’s biggest hit, “The Anthem” filled The Fillmore, and the crowd went absolutely insane.

It’s definitely been a minute since anyone in the crowd last night has seen Good Charlotte live — the band announced they were taking a hiatus in 2011, but four years later went public with their intentions to return. That news came with a single and music video to a new song, “Makeshift Love,” the second song off of Youth Authority.

A decent amount of GC’s set last night, as well as the whole Youth Authority tour, has been older hits of theirs. Although new songs off the album were played as well, just not as many. Ever since the first note of “The Anthem” met the ears of each person in the crowd, the screaming didn’t stop, the crowdsurfing didn’t stop, the enthusiasm, of both the crowd and GC, never let up.

On a personal note, it was super cool to see everyone come together over music. I shoot a lot of shows, so it’s a thing I see a lot, but with the current state of society combined with the fact that Good Charlotte, a band that was extremely prominent in majority of the audiences’ younger years, is back, made for a really special night and atmosphere.

GC ended their set with another smash hit of theirs, “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous,” my personal favorite. Quite the party song that really allowed for the band and performance to go out with a bang last night. Check out more photos from the show below!

Good Charlotte setlist:

The Anthem
The Story of My Old Man
My Bloody Valentine
Girls & Boys
Riot Girl
Life Changes
Predictable
The Motivation Proclaimation
Hold On
Makeshift Love
Little Things
The Outfield
The Young and the Hopeless
The River
I Don’t Wanna Be in Love
I Just Wanna Live
Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous