by Aja Landolfi, junior co-editor in chief
For most people, Valentine’s Day is a day spent with a significant other. However, the Long Island band This Is All Now, spent the romantic holiday with their family, friends, and fans for a concert.
“Where the love is flowing, and the show is ENTIRELY ABOUT YOU. A Valentine’s Day party with all the love you need,” guitarist Louie Malpeli tweeted.
On February 14, This Is All Now played a special Valentine’s Day show at the Revolution Bar and Music Hall in Amityville, Long Island. The supporting acts for this show were Amanda Jayne, The Little Red Men, Robbie Rosen, Matt Weiss, Here’s To You, and Count To Ten.
Before the show started at 2:30, fans who had VIP tickets entered the bar at 1:30 for a special intimate acoustic performance. Once in the VIP, the members of the band greeted all of the fans and wished them a Happy Valentines Day. Then, the band started their acoustic set, performing three of their songs to the small group of fans.
After the acoustic set was over, they decided to play a game with their fans. Any fan that wanted to was allowed to go up on stage behind a curtain and ask the members a Valentine’s Day/Dating themed question. Once the question was asked, each member would give their response, and the fan picked the answer they liked the best. That band member then became the fan’s Valentine for the day.
The show started promptly with the first opening act, Jayne. The show nicely moved along until there was an extra long break before Count To Ten’s set. There were some technical difficulties that occurred, and left the fans waiting for 20 minutes. However the difficulties were fixed and the show continued as before.
All of the opening acts made sure that they were engaged with the audience. One way the audience was involved with the opening acts was by being taught different parts of the songs so that the acts could stop on the middle of the song to have the audience sing. Rosen even went as far as bringing one of his vocal students up on stage with him to sing a cover of Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran.
After the opening acts were done, This Is All Now took to the stage. Dressed in custom TIAN (This Is All Now) state jerseys and eye black (what athletes put under their eyes to reduce solar glare), This Is All Now started their set by performing their new, unreleased song “TEAM”.
Playing both older and newer songs, (like “Supernova”, “Another”, and “Superman”) fans were content that the band covered songs that spanned from their first album, to their songs in the works. Along with their original songs, they also performed covers of “Good Girls” by 5 Seconds of Summer and “Rude” by Magic!.
“I would have to say my favorite song they played was Supernova. It has been my favorite song [by them] since the first time I heard them play, so I always enjoy listening to it,” freshman Robyn Landolfi said.
One song that really stood out was Superman. Before the song started, lead singer Okan Kazdal gave a little speech.
“This is for all of you who may be having a hard time at home. Maybe you’re having a hard time adjusting to school. Maybe you’re getting bullied. Maybe you just had someone pass away in your life. This song is to tell you that there is a superman out there for you and right now there’s five guys on this stage and we’ll help you through anything you need us to help you through,” lead singer Kazdal said.
This concert was a high energy concert. Both the band and audience were full of energy and were feeding off of each other. The whole time that This Is All Now was on stage, the audience never stopped singing and dancing.
After the set was finished and the show was over, the members of This Is All Now came out from backstage to talk to the fans. They took to the floor to talk to fans, take pictures, sign different things and say goodbye to their fans before they left for the night.
“I loved the fact that I got to spend Valentine’s Day at a concert instead of in my bed crying,” junior Adriana Anez said.
All in all, many fans agreed that spending their Valentine’s Day with the guys of This Is All Now was better than spending it alone.
![“I agree the school lost its purpose, I left newspaper because I no longer had an interest and passion that I did once believe I had, the school’s more worried about student law court then what’s in the name in the school. [Which is journalism],” senior Christos Troumhis said. Photo attributions to Jon S.](https://wjpsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6276688407_12900948a2_z.jpg)
