Twenty Years Later, Just Surrender's If These Streets Could Talk Still Means Everything.

TOP8 Scene
Jun 17
3 min read

just surrender if these streets could talk 20th anniversary tour - philly — Photos: Christian Seas

The best part about anniversary shows isn't the nostalgia. It's realizing the impact the songs have had on people, so much so that they’re still in rotation to this day, just as much as they were when they first came out.

Twenty years after If These Streets Could Talk first landed, whether you listened to it on CD, an MP3 player, or had one of the tracks as your MySpace song, it’s safe to say that the record is one of the best emo albums to ever exist.

Just Surrender brought that very record back to Philadelphia on June 5th and proved that some albums truly grow alongside us.

Inside The Foundry, which was packed as expected, the energy alone from concert goers was what you’d expect from the scene at its best. There were, of course, longtime listeners of the band who were spinning these songs when they first came out, and there were also younger faces discovering Just Surrender in real time. It was special getting to see parents passing down the songs that once soundtracked their teen years to their kids. Of course, in true Philly fashion, it’s customary to at least chant ‘E A G L E S’ or ‘123 GO BIRDS’ at least once (or 5 times), which you know happened at this gig. Overall, the vibes were high and great all around.

What stands out the most about Just Surrender isn’t the fact that the band can still play these songs. It’s about how much they genuinely still care about them and what they do.

Between tracks, the band shared stories from the era when these songs were written, back when Just Surrender was still figuring it out, when all they dreamed about was getting to play music. "I gotta say thank you so much for coming out. It really means the world to me and to my friends here. You know, when we started out in the band, all we wanted to do was play music, and we got to do that, and that really never stopped. What stopped? NOTHING ! ... so, let's keep this shit going, let's keep rocking.” And they did just that. There were multiple full-room sing-alongs, and you could tell how much the show meant to every single person in that room.

Twenty years later, those stories felt less like reflections and more like reminders. Every band starts somewhere. Every classic scene record was once just a group of kids hoping someone would listen.

People listened, and they still are.

The band also shouted out their former name, ‘A Second Chance.’ “If you've ever heard of a band called ‘A Second Chance,’ make a little bit of noise. Before we were "Just Surrender," we were a band called "A Second Chance," and we put out an EP, and all of those songs ended up on this record, If These Streets Could Talk."

Fans shouted lyrics back with the same excitement they probably did in 2006. The energy never felt forced; it was clearly earned, which made the night feel bigger than a simple anniversary gig. It’s not about reliving the past; it’s about celebrating a piece of work that has stuck around in all of our lives this entire time, telling us everything will be alright during breakups, getting us through moves, new jobs, marriages, kids, and everything else that happens between sixteen and thirty-six.

The crowd was asked to leave everything they had left in the tank before launching into 'She Broke My Heart, So I Broke His Jaw.' The response was immediate, a mosh pit quickly forming, and everyone screaming every word together.

TOP8'S TAKE?

We may be older than we used to be, but the magic of albums like If These Streets Could Talk make us feel the exact same spark we did watching things play out in real time. They remind you that no matter how much life changes, the music is always there. You already know our opinion on Just Surrender (read our interview with Dan Simons here), but we’ll say it again. We couldn’t be happier to see the band playing these shows and celebrating the album. Just Surrender will forever be special, in our constant rotation, and we’re ready for what the future has in store.