BETHLEHEM, Pa. — An alternative rock back that had two chart-topping albums in the mid-2000s will play a headline show at Musikfest's main stage, it was announced Monday.
Taking Back Sunday, best known for its song “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team),” will perform Aug. 8.
It will be the first time in more than 20 years that the group had played in the Lehigh Valley.
Also on the bill will be Yellowcard, whose 2003 album “Ocean Avenue ” went platinum and its title song double-platinum.
Opening the show will be The Click Five, which had the gold hit "Just the Girl" and the Top 15 album "Greetings from Imrie House" in 2005.
Tickets, the prices of which were not immediately announced, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19 at the ArtsQuest and at the ArtsQuest box office 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.ArtsQuest release
Tickets, the prices of which were not immediately announced, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19 at the Musikfest website and at the ArtsQuest box office 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.
Taking Back Sunday is the first rock music act announced for Musikfest's 43rd year, which will run July 31-Aug. 9. It has not been announced whether there will be a preview night July 30.
The seven headline acts announced by December are by far the earliest that so much of Musikfest's headliner lineup has been announced.
It means more than half the lineup will be available to buy as holiday gifts.
Previously announced headliners are former "Saturday Night Live" comedian John Mulaney on Aug. 1, soft-rockers Train for Aug. 3, iconic comedy musician Weird Al Yankovic on Aug. 4, fast-rising country music star Bailey Zimmerman on Aug. 6 and country music chart-topper Parker McCollum on Aug. 7.
Hasn't played LV in a dozen years
Taking Back Sunday had the No. 1 albums “Where You Want to Be” in 2004 and “Louder Now” in 2006.
Based in Long Island, N.Y., the group was a hit from its self-released debut “Tell All Your Friends” in 2002. The disc went gold and hit No. 8 on the Indie chart with the hit “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team).”
But the band had its biggest success with its sophomore disc, “Where You Want to Be.” That album went to No. 3 on the overall album chart and went gold, with the song “A Decade Under the Influence” hitting the Alternative Top 20.
The gold “Louder Now” went to No. 2 and produced three charting hits: “MakeDamnSure,” a Top 10 on the Alternative charts; “Twenty-Twenty Surgery”; and “Liar (It Takes One to Know One).”
The band’s original guitarist, John Nolan, and bassist Shaun Cooper left the band to form Straylight Run, and Taking Back Sunday released 2009’s “New Again,” which still made the Top 10 and had the Top 10 Alternative hit “Sink Into Me.”
But Nolan and Cooper returned in 2011 for a self-titled disc. The group 2014 disc “Happiness Is” hit the Top 10, and 2016’s “Tidal Wave,” peaked at No. 6 on that chart.
Taking Back Sunday in 2019 released “Twenty,” a compilation album that marks two decades as a band.
Its most recent album was "152" in 2023. It included the song "S'old," which hit the Top 20 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart.
Taking Back Sunday has not played in the Lehigh Valley since it performed at Sands Bethlehem Event Center, now called Wind Creek Event Center, in 2014.
Taking Back Sunday was supposed to perform a show at the event center as part of its 20th anniversary tour in 2019, but canceled.
In 2006, it headlined Allentown Fair after My Chemical Romance canceled its show at the last minute.
The group also played the former Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown in 2009 and 2011.
Yellowcard's "Ocean Avenue” was a landmark album for pop-punk hat opened doors for other pop-punk bands.
More than a decade later, the album remains Yellowcard’s biggest-seller and, arguable, its defining moment. It also produced the old single “Only One.”
The group’s fifth album, 2006’s “Lights and Sounds,” charted even higher, hitting the Top 5. In all, six of Yellowcard’s nine albums have reached Top 30, including “Lift a Sail” in 2014 and its self-titled 2016 album.
Its most recent album was "Better Days," released in October.
The group played Wind Creek Event Center in 2017.
It also played Allentown’s Maingate Nightclub in February 2014.
