FLORIDA POP PUNKS NEW FOUND GLORY MAKE A MOST TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE UK
LIVE REVIEW | NEW FOUND GLORY | VICTORIA WAREHOUSE, MANCHESTER | 11th October 2025 by Craig Harston
After a very long wait, Florida’s New Found Glory have finally returned to UK shores for a proper tour! Their last tour in 2017 wasn’t exactly what you would call ‘normal’ either, with the pop punks playing two of their most popular albums in full at each show to celebrate twenty years as a band. A slot at Slam Dunk 2019 followed where they showcased then-new release ‘From The Screen To Your Stereo 3’ and of course the pandemic hit a year later. After a belting set at this years Slam Dunk, it’s safe to say it’s been worth the wait for New Found Glory fans young and old!
Support came from New York band KOYO, who played a solid set of songs, and Illinois emo pop punk band Real Friends, who got the crowd ready for New Found Glory with a decent selection of songs from across their discography, including ‘Late Nights In My Car’, ‘Waiting Room’, ‘I’ve Given Up On You’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Tell Me You’re Sorry’.
With the crowd suitably warmed up, New Found Glory hit the stage to huge cheers. Singer Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki were joined by Four Year Strong’s Dan O’Connor and Real Friends’ Dave Knox on guitars in place of the still not well Chad Gilbert. Due to the length of time since their last UK tour, NFG saw to it that their fans were rewarded with an eclectic batch of songs from across their history, playing twenty-two songs and including at least one song from pretty every one of their albums! The more popular releases, ‘Sticks And Stones’, ‘Catalyst’ and their self-titled album (which celebrates a quarter of a decade this year) of course got the most love but it was great hearing songs from some of their underappreciated albums – not least in that NFG’s last three releases have barely been toured over here!
Kicking off with ‘Something I Call Personality’, Pundik quickly got the crowd going with plenty of “hey’s’”on the bridge before launching straight into perpetual pop punk classic ‘Hit Or Miss’ (a surprise to hear this one so early in the set) and the melancholic ‘Head On Collision’. ‘Truck Stop Blues’ followed before Pundik addressed the gap since they were last over, gave a shout out to everyone who caught them at Slam Dunk back in May and pointed out they needed to get on with it as they had two pages of songs to get through before the night was over! It’s hard to believe ‘All Down Hill From Here’ is now twenty one years old but a blistering rendition of the song came next before NFG slowed things down a little for a great singalong on the introspective ‘Sonny’. ‘Let It Go’, their cover of the song from Disney’s Frozen, was up next before a brutal rendition of ‘Truth Of My Youth’ and the crowd singing almost louder than Pundik on the “woah’s” during ‘Anthem For The Unwanted’.
Talking about new(ish) song ‘100%’, Pundik pointed out that it was nearly called ‘99%’ but New Found Glory always give it their all before blasting through said song. ‘Happy Being Miserable’ and the classic ‘Dressed To Kill’ followed not long after, the former song likely being the first time many in the audience got to experience it live! Pundik then talked up New Found Glory’s forthcoming eleventh studio album, ‘Listen Up!’ and new single ‘Laugh It Off’, announcing that the following performance of it was basically practice for the band! Great renditions of ‘Vicious Love’, NFG’s excellent cover of ‘Kiss Me’, ‘Greatest Of All Time’ (another song not heard live in the UK until this tour) and relative deep cut ‘Hold My Hand’ followed before New Found Glory announced ‘Understatement’ was their last song – before the encore, of course!
Returning to the stage, Pundik gave a shout out to Chad (who’s absence was felt due to there being less banter than if he had been there) before NFG blasted through ‘Intro’ and then finished with a barnstorming ‘My Friend’s Over You’, the crowd raising the roof as they sang along and confetti cannons firing on the final chorus! New Found Glory left the stage triumphant and promised to return as soon as they possibly could!
New Found Glory celebrate their 30th year as a band in two years and here’s hoping they return before then to play shows as great as this one!
Listen Up! releases on 20th February 2026 and is available to pre-order here.
