The Front Bottoms are “Going Grey” in new album

Laura Luz Photography

The Front Bottoms performing in San Diego, California in July 2014. // Photo by Laura Luz Photography/ Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

On Tuesday, Nov. 21, The Fillmore Charlotte will be opening its doors to pop punk enthusiasts at 7:30 p.m. to premiere The Front Bottoms performing their upcoming album, “Going Grey.” Their openers include Bad Bad Hats and Basement.

Originally based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, childhood friends Brian Sella and Matthew Ulychich forged the unique sounds of The Front Bottoms in August of 2007 after their first year of college. They initially only played local shows around New Jersey, eventually leading to their notoriety in the punk music community. They have since toured throughout the world.

The Front Bottoms unique lyricism, vocal techniques and instrumental variety invite a diverse array of listeners to delve into their own world. The poetic and obscure lyrics in each song appeal to a broad audience as they tackle issues relevant in everyday life that most people are incapable of articulating.

The band has evolved over years as a group of friends who had unique voices and tones they felt moved to share to a group of musicians that touch the hearts and souls of those at a loss for words for their innermost angst. They cordially invite us to bleed and love and yell when we thought we had no voice to do so.

From “Going Grey,” which drops Friday, Oct. 13, The Front Bottoms have already released two singles, “Raining” and “Vacation Town.”

Vents Magazine describes “Going Grey” as a depiction of The Front Bottoms “embracing the impermanence of life and finding flexibility in the face of change.”

It’s been 10 years since Sella and Ulychich banded together, and this sixth studio album shows “the band acknowledging the nostalgia of simpler times with admiration, while welcoming the inevitable unknowns of life” according to Vent Magazine.

That sentiment is all too relevant for many of us right now, especially those who will be graduating soon. Grappling with the impending unknowns of postgraduate life while still engaging with the present rocks and rolls of college is stressful. But it’s exciting too. We get to be youthful and feel a somewhat liberating pressure of adulthood all at once which is a powerful, albeit confusing space to inhabit.

Senior Emma Rice will be standing in the crowd on Nov. 21. It will mark her third time seeing The Front Bottoms live in concert.

Rice began listening to the band in high school, noting the time as “typical pop-punk years.”

She described her previous concert experiences to help shed light on what to expect from a night with The Front Bottoms.

“Lots of colors and lights and confetti are all involved in their concerts, and they typically draw a cool crowd,” said Rice, “Everyone (in the audience) talks to each other instead of standing around talking to only the people they came with.”

It sounds an awful lot like a Guilford party where we exist as a community of individuals wanting to know and understand and coexist with those we aren’t necessarily acquainted with, but couldn’t find the nerve to approach. The Front Bottoms invite us to approach them and their diverse community of fans to be ourselves, encouraging us to scream when we want to scream, and dance just because we want to dance.

Join us at The Fillmore in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday, Nov. 21, because we all need a little scream and dance.