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By Stephanie Desmond
Published: March 1, 2009
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 As the “N-F-G! N-F-G!” chant rang through the packed Club Zoo in The Strip, it was hard to believe that most of the eager fans were in their pre-teens when New Found Glory released the CD they were celebrating. The stop in Pittsburgh Feb. 26 was part of the 10th Anniversary Tour across the country for their self-titled album. 'New Found Glory' was released in 2000 as the band’s sophomore record. As a commemoration of a career that is still thriving, the band decided to re-release the CD at the beginning of the year and embark on the tour.
A band that has retained its original members for their entire mainstream career, NFG is composed of lead vocalist Jordan Pundik, lead guitarist Chad Gilbert, rhythm guitarist Steve Klein, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki. Both Pudnik and Gilbert were very interactive with the audience throughout the entire show. Pudnik was constantly including the crowd, even going onto the floor during the hit single “Hit or Miss.” They also included inside commentary on some of the tracks, like explaining that “Boy Crazy” was written while the guys were in high school about girls that caused “band beef.” Gilbert also constantly stopped to thank the audience for sticking with them and making the tour possible. He also dedicated a song to the half of his thyroid he recently had removed.
After a bit of a fake-out, the band came back onstage for the second half of the show. The unfortunately predictable (if you knew the CD, you knew what was coming next, losing some of the usual concert excitement) set list became a bit of a greatest hits performance. They broke into the singles from the rest of their albums, including “All Downhill From Here” from 2004’s 'Catalyst,' “Don’t Let Her Pull You Down” from the latest release 'Not Without a Fight' and one of the group’s biggest hits, “My Friends Over You” from 2002’s 'Sticks and Stones.'
Fortunately, NFG was not affected by the problems that faced the opening bands on this tour.
Detroit natives Fireworks started the night with a positive response from the crowd. Despite being forced to help as onstage security due to the lack of barriers and guards at Club Zoo, they later tweeted that it was the “best Pittsburgh show [they’d] ever had.”
 Hellogoodbye was up next, playing a decent set besides some obvious technical difficulties. They played new songs, including “When We First Met,” and old hits. When met with “you suck” jeers from the crowd, the guys played along, stating the ladies in the front row disagreed. After a set complete with rocking out on a ukulele, an odd man in a blue track suit came on stage for the last song and did some awkward robot-esque dance moves then all the guys staged dived into the crowd as a finale.
Up last before NFG was Saves the Day, a band that put a bad vibe in the air that could’ve threatened the rest of the night. It began a few songs into the uninterrupted set when a fight broke out right in front of the stage. Hellogoodbye’s newly discovered security guardsmen, bass player Travis Head, burst into action and quickly pulled one rowdy audience member from the pit before anything really escalated. “Congrats dude, you’re an idiot,” vocalist Forrest Kline yelled from behind his microphone. Between playing songs like “Let’s Get F***ed Up,” Kline was obviously annoyed with the entire crowd, especially the crowdsurfers. “Let’s have fun, but I wanna keep my teeth,” he lectured from stage. After a surprise cameo from Pudnik, the band finished their set, saying that it was a “good, fun show,” but that seemed like a blatant lie as the quintet practically ran off stage.
Luckily, NFG didn’t have the same reaction to the crowd. The Club Zoo natives embraced the closeness to the crowd, allowing those who made it to the stage to sing along and even join them for a brief moment. A shining example of the message they were constantly trying to relay, the member s of New Found Glory really understood that the audience is the reason they were there.
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