Bayside’s “The Walking Wounded” album came out of a period of pain and rebuilding for the New York natives — and the band is now ready to revisit that time.
The Queens punk group was involved in a tragic accident on Halloween morning in 2005 when their tour van hit a patch of ice and flipped over. John (Beatz) Holohan, the band’s drummer, was killed in the accident and now, more than 10 years later, the rockers are celebrating his life by touring with the songs that helped them all come together in the wake of the tragedy.
On Tuesday night, Bayside will return to one of the venues where it all started: Irving Plaza in New York City for The Walking Wounded 10 Year Anniversary Tour.
Lead singer Anthony Raneri said “The Walking Wounded,” which came out in 2007, happened during a really important time in all of their lives: “It was a really important record for us.”
“When John died, we always wanted to make sure we were celebrating his life and not mourning it,” Raneri told the Daily News ahead of the band’s show. “We knew we wanted to move on, we felt like we could move on, we felt like we could stay together, we felt like we could get through it, and then when we made ‘Walking Wounded’ it put that fire to carry-on and put it into physical form.”
“So, when we look back on it, it’s a proud moment for us, that we remember what we went through to make it,” Raneri, 35, continued.
Rather than dwell on the loss and get broody and dark on the tracks, Bayside’s take on “The Walking Wounded” emits a much more optimistic tone. The 2006 acoustic track “Winter” came from the tragic loss of Holohan, but “Walking Wounded” was about moving on.
Before Holohan’s death, the band released their debut full-length album “Sirens and Condolences,” and then put out the self-titled album in 2005, which featured emo staples like “Devotion and Desire” and “Blame it on Bad Luck.”
But it was with “Walking Wounded” that Raneri — and the band — finally found their voice — although they wouldn’t have guessed it at the time.
“It’s funny, you know, when you do things at the time you never really realize you’re doing them, especially we were young, I think I was 24 or so when we made ‘Walking Wounded.’ We weren’t thinking about trying to like, make a breakout record or anything,” he told The News.
“I started this band when I was 17 and from then on I put my head down and kept trucking forward,” Raneri explained. “I wanted every song to be better than the last and every show I wanted to be better than the last and that’s really all I was thinking about when we were making it and you know, in hindsight… it was monumental for me as an artist.”
Ten years later, Raneri is proud that the band hasn’t “had our peak quite yet.”
The singer-songwriter said Bayside has been careful to avoid capitalizing on the nostalgia cycle that so many bands of their era have taken advantage of. Instead, they decided to keep the “Walking Wounded” tour intimate, only playing 10 shows in the United States at smaller clubs that they’ve since grown too big for.
“Walking Wounded” gave Bayside an opportunity to play Irving Plaza for the first time — and they are ready to bring it home.
“It was the first time we played Irving Plaza, which is where I grew up going to shows, so that was really important to me,” Raneri said.
“A lot of really cool stuff came in the 18 months following ‘Walking Wounded,'” he continued. “So it’s a time we look back on really fondly and just kind of wanted to remember it for a couple weeks.”
The 10 Year Anniversary Tour kicked off in Baltimore on Wednesday and will close out the U.S. run on Nov. 4 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, Calif.
Bayside heads to the UK in December for four anniversary gigs and after that, they will figure out what’s next — but something is definitely next.
