The floors are shaking again. Nostalgia tours and festivals are resurrecting the raw emotion that leads to fans jumping up and down and singing with their last breath. These shows are tapping into a powerful swell of feeling that has now officially reawakened one of pop-punk’s dearest old friends: Something Corporate has entered the chat with their “Out of Office” tour.
While outsiders may shrug or smirk at the thought of throwbacks or a greatest hits tour, those within the pop-punk community know that this reunion is deeply meaningful. The Out of Office tour marks the first Something Corporate cross-country trek with all five original members in over 20 years. Yes, for the first time in two decades, fans are invited to dust off their old merch and revisit a part of themselves that has been hibernating for far too long in old iPods and the soles of Converse sneakers too “broken-in” to be worn.
Bursting out of Orange County, California in 1998, Something Corporate quickly found success with their self-proclaimed “piano rock.” As they contributed to the rise of pop-punk in the early 2000’s, members Andrew McMahon (vocals, piano), Kevin “Clutch” Page (bass), Brian Ireland (drums), Josh Partington (guitar), and, eventually, William Tell (guitar) set themselves apart with poetic lyricism and live shows fans would never forget.
From the beginning, Andrew McMahon has talked about his desire to create a certain type of environment at each show. In SoCo’s 2002 film, A Year in the Life, he says, “It’s really all about energy… Our goal has always been to have a really energetic live show where you really feel like you’re a part of the audience, and vice versa.” Early Something Corporate shows involved Andrew jumping on the piano keys, stage dives, and fans jumping up and down so intensely you might have thought the floor was a trampoline.
After three albums, one EP, and two tours, Something Corporate went on hiatus in 2005 promising fans the time apart would not be permanent. Their last show of the era was April 23, 2005 in North Carolina. At that point, Andrew shared with Concert Pipeline, “I think for all of us it just got to the point where we were like 'Let's just go be our own people for a minute.” For a band that began when the guys were mere high school sophomores, the trial separation was only natural. But, this also meant that SoCo fans would also be taking a hiatus of their own.
While Andrew went on to Jack’s Mannequin and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, the original SoCo fan community went through the early trials of adulthood. Now, in retrospect, the hiatus feels like a communal distancing of ourselves from our teen years. Cringing at our side-swooped bangs and failed attempts at love, then moving through our 20’s and 30’s, trying on new looks and approaches to life to see what sticks.
It is a long, awkward, and often exhausting journey. But what a relief to eventually get to a place where it feels safe to put on that old merch once again and belt out that favorite song. Now, we forgive ourselves our teenage angst, have compassion for the phases everyone goes through, and allow pieces of our past selves to reinhabit our bodies. Rather than embarrassment or feelings of guilty pleasure, SoCo fans are now reveling in the acceptance and celebration of parts of themselves that had been put away for years.
Something Corporate kicked off their reunion at the end of last year with main stage performances at When We Were Young and three sold-out headlining shows in Las Vegas and Anaheim. The setlists included tracks like “If You C Jordan,” “Space” and of course “Punk Rock Princess.” The crowds were electric, full of people being reminded of how good it feels to hear a song you once sang alone now being screamed together in a room packed full of people. Those initial shows demonstrated to both the band and the fans that they were back. Then, in February 2024, the band announced the Out of Office tour.
As if all this wasn’t exciting enough, shortly after the tour announcement, the band released two new songs! “ Happy” and “Death Grip” are the first original Something Corporate tracks since 2003, and we fans are ecstatic. With lyrics like, “You can't control it, life is the ocean. Waves are waves. Hey, hey, loosen the death grip,” the new songs feel like letters written directly to past versions of ourselves when we were singing, “And don’t say, these currents are still killing me and you can’t explain” (“Hurricane,” 2001). And while lyrics are a core part of our love for Something Corporate, their powerful, life-giving live shows have always been the cornerstone of the band’s career.
The first shows of the Out of Office tour included Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York, The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City, The Met in Philadelphia, and the Four Chord Music festival in Pennsylvania. After a few weeks’ pause, the tour is now set to resume at 9:30 club in DC, and we are going there. For Something Corporate fans, new shows were never guaranteed, so we are excitedly anticipating the moment when the band’s amazing energy will fill the room once again and ignite glorious feelings that have long laid dormant. After all, those feelings were just waiting to be rediscovered—and in the wise words of Andrew & Co., “Some things never do change, never do change.”
SOMETHING CORPORATE TOUR DATES
Out Of Office Tour
Thursday, August 22 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ++
Friday, August 23 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony Summer Stage ++
Saturday, August 24 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ++
Thursday, September 12 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium ^^
Friday, September 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle ^^
Saturday, September 14 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live ^^
Thursday, September 19 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues ##
Friday, September 20 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore ##
September 20-22 – Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
Friday, September 27 – Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom ~~
Saturday, September 28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex ~~
Saturday, October 5 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
Thursday, October 10 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre ~~
Friday, October 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium ~~
Saturday, October 12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield ~~
Holiday From Real Cruise
November 9-13 – Miami, FL
++ Hidden in Plain View supporting
^^ Kevine Devine supporting
## Allister supporting
~~ Mae supporting