Your Favorite Emo Band in a Casino. It Works Better Than You Think.
Taking Back Sunday in a 1,500-cap casino showroom is the kind of booking that makes you do a double take — and then immediately buy tickets. This is a band that sold out arenas on the strength of Tell All Your Friends and never stopped touring. Seeing them in a room the size of the Vine Showroom at del Lago is not normal. Take advantage of it.
May 30. Waterloo, NY. Twenty-plus years after “Cute Without the ‘E'” soundtracked every breakup you had in high school, Adam Lazzara is still whipping that mic around, and the songs still hit exactly as hard as they did in 2002.
Why This Matters
Taking Back Sunday came out of Long Island in the early 2000s and landed right at the center of the post-hardcore explosion. Tell All Your Friends wasn’t just an album — it was a generational marker. If you were between the ages of 14 and 22 when that record dropped, you know every word to “MakeDamnSure” and “A Decade Under the Influence” whether you want to or not. That stuff is tattooed on your brain.
The band has kept putting out records and kept touring consistently, which means the live show is tight in a way that nostalgia acts rarely are. This isn’t a reunion cash grab. This is a working band that still cares about the performance. Lazzara is one of the most magnetic frontmen in the genre — restless, physical, completely committed every single night. In a room as small as del Lago’s Vine Showroom, that energy has nowhere to go but directly into you.
The Venue Factor
Del Lago’s showroom is seated, which might feel counterintuitive for a TBS show. But here’s the thing — the intimacy of a 1,500-cap room means you’re close enough to see the sweat. The sound system is built for clarity, and the sightlines are good from basically everywhere. It’s 21+, which means no one’s parents are there, and the bar is right there when you need it.
The casino is right off the Thruway in Waterloo, easy from Syracuse or Rochester. Free parking, on-site dining, and the option to throw some money away at the tables after the show if the emotional damage from the setlist wasn’t enough.
Tickets
Tickets start at $46. Get tickets here.