When We Were Thirty plays the 2000s pop-punk and emo catalogue — Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, A Day To Remember, Simple Plan — not as pastiche but as a straightforward delivery of songs that a specific audience has been waiting to hear in a room again. The Watertown, NY cover band has built a regional footprint doing exactly this, and the booking at del Lago’s Vine Showroom signals that the market has arrived: the emo nostalgia circuit has grown up alongside its audience, and that audience is now old enough to find it at a casino.
About the Show
The event is billed formally as “Emo Night with When We Were Thirty,” a themed evening rooted in the emo and pop-punk canon of the early 2000s. The band’s stated purpose, “bringing the soundtrack of your youth back to life,” is aimed squarely at what the press has taken to calling “the elder emos”: those who lived in this music and can still place a lyric by the first four bars. The set draws from Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, A Day To Remember, and Simple Plan, the catalogues that defined a particular strain of the era. A February 2026 WWNY write-up encouraging attendees to “dust off the skinny jeans” establishes what kind of evening this is designed to be.
When We Were Thirty has been working the regional circuit to get here. A February 2026 date at The Strand in Watertown and a set at the Wateroo Music Festival in Three Mile Bay in July 2025 trace the arc; The Vine Showroom at del Lago represents a step up from either of those rooms.
Venue & Logistics
The Vine Showroom at del Lago Resort & Casino sits in Waterloo and serves as one of the primary indoor entertainment venues for the Finger Lakes region. The show carries a strict 21-and-older age restriction; bring valid ID. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. for an 8:00 p.m. start.
Tickets
No face-value ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. This is a designated “Player Perk” event on del Lago’s entertainment calendar: FastTrack Rewards members may attend free of charge. The box office opens at 4:00 p.m. on show night and waives Ticketmaster service fees on purchases made at the window. Tickets are sold exclusively through Ticketmaster; a mobile wallet is required for entry, as screenshots will not scan at the door. ADA seating inquiries: 315-946-1695. Buy tickets