ADTR brings the mosh, Yellowcard brings the feels at Syracuse concert (review, setlist)

The Maximum Fun Tour rolled into Syracuse to deliver a night of metalcore intensity and pop-punk nostalgia at the Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview on Sept. 10, 2025.

The penultimate show of the 2025 Empower Amp season drew a sea of black outfits and thousands of band T-shirts. A security guard told syracuse.com that about 6,500 fans packed the venue on a late-summer night that felt like the edge of fall.

A Day to Remember took the stage around 9:30 p.m., opening with John Williams’ “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme, one of several ’80s movie nods sprinkled through the night from both headliners, before slamming into “The Downfall of Us All.” A massive floor-to-ceiling 3D screen lit up with a “Land of the Lost” version of the band’s name, while a handful of lucky fans watched the entire set from risers onstage.

Frontman Jeremy McKinnon led the Florida band through their signature blend of pop-punk melodies and metalcore aggression. Early highlights pulled the crowd into darker, emotional territory with songs like “I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?,” “Right Back at It Again” and “Paranoia.” The new single “Bad Blood,” which McKinnon joked should not be confused with Taylor Swift’s hit, announced itself with ominous riffs, a crushing breakdown and soaring hooks. The production matched the music’s intensity throughout the evening with frantic lights, thunderclaps, blazes of fire, pillars of smoke and rivers of blood appeared to cascade down the jagged digital peak on the video screen.

In “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End,” McKinnon showed off his range, shifting from guttural screams to polished pop-punk choruses as the crowd roared along to the repeated line, “You won’t make it out alive.”

But the set wasn’t all fire and brimstone. There were moments of humor and tenderness too: a Luigi mascot launched T-shirts into the crowd during the drinking anthem “All My Friends,” while inflatable basketballs sailed over the pit in “LeBron.” Acoustic guitars softened the mood for “If It Means a Lot to You,” and “Flowers” turned the stage into a field of blossoms with a reminder to “tell your parents you love them before they’re gone.”

After an hour of chaos, catharsis and singalongs, A Day to Remember closed with their angsty anthem “All Signs Point to Lauderdale,” leaving fans sweaty, hoarse and smiling.

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Yellowcard Brings the Nostalgia Trip

If ADTR brought the fire, Yellowcard brought the feels. A giant VHS tape lit up the stage with the band’s name and the title of their upcoming album, “Better Days,” the first sign that this set would be a nostalgia trip.

The retro theme came to life when a rider dressed as Cru Jones from the 1986 movie “RAD” pedaled across the stage to “Send Me an Angel,” the soundtrack to the film’s BMX dance scene. Suddenly, it felt like being five years old again, watching the movie with my little brother in our parents’ living room.

Then the crowd heard a voice every ’90s kid would know — the “And now for our feature presentation” tagline from Disney home video tapes — announcing the start of the show.

Yellowcard launched in with an epic flourish: guitarist Ryan Mendez ripped through the “Top Gun” theme, backed by drummer Jimmy Brunkvist and violinist Sean Mackin, before the band shifted gears into their emotional hit “Only One.”

Dressed in black against a neon-lit stage that looked like a Lisa Frank fever dream, the band leaned hard into nostalgia. Frontman Ryan Key even sported Rebel Alliance logos on his in-ear monitors, a nod to “Star Wars.” If you were a kid born in the ’80s and fortified in the ’90s, this was your show.

The set was sprinkled with ’80s movie clips: from “The Goonies” (“Down here is our time”) to“E.T.,” “Back to the Future” (“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”), “The Karate Kid” and even a “Say Anything” moment, with Key holding a boombox over his head as Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” played.

Of course, the singalongs came in waves: “Way Away,” “Light Up the Sky,” “Breathing” and “Lights and Sounds” filled the amphitheater with longing for love and simpler times. They also debuted new material like “Bedroom Posters,” which Key framed as part of a time-machine album meant to take fans back, recalling their 2016 Warped Tour stop at the New York State Fairgrounds.

That nostalgia hit harder when the band performed the title track from “Better Days,” due Oct. 11. The song has already spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, marking Yellowcard’s first-ever chart-topper and setting a record for the longest gap between a band’s first appearance and first No. 1 (nearly 22 years after 2003’s “Way Away”).

Emotions peaked as the band closed with their signature hit “Ocean Avenue.” In a world that feels more complicated than ever, thousands of voices belted out the lyrics about teenage summers and freedom. Count me among the many who teared up singing along to Yellowcard’s most enduring anthem.

The night kicked off with opener Boundaries hitting the stage with full metalcore intensity. “Those are some angry boys,” McKinnon joked during ADTR’s set. State Champs followed with upbeat pop-punk and plenty of New York pride. The Albany band gave shout-outs to the “518,” calling this the closest thing to a home show on the tour and saying how much they loved performing in New York state.

A Day to Remember setlist

Sept. 10, 2025 at Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview, Syracuse, N.Y.

The Downfall of Us All

I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?

Right Back at It Again

Bad Blood

Paranoia

Miracle

Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End

All My Friends

Have Faith in Me

LeBron

It’s Complicated

All I Want

The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle

Encore:

Closer Than You Think

If It Means a Lot to You

Flowers

All Signs Point to Lauderdale

Yellowcard setlist

Sept. 10, 2025 at Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview, Syracuse, N.Y.

Top Gun Anthem (Harold Faltermeyer & Steve Stevens cover)

Only One

Lights and Sounds

Breathing

honestly i

Believe

Way Away

Light Up the Sky

Bedroom Posters

Keeper

For You, and Your Denial

Awakening

With You Around

Better Days

Ocean Avenue