Massachusetts’ own Boys Like Girls came home on October 26, 2023. The quartet had just released SUNDAY AT FOXWOODS, their first LP in more than a decade, and headlined the MGM Music Hall At Fenway Park. Now, fans near and far can experience this glorious return on their forthcoming live album THE HOMECOMING, out September 8 via Fearless Records. They also dropped the first taste of the record with a live music video of “BLOOD AND SUGAR.”
Frontman Martin Johnson shares a long note about the experience: “Fenway Park. The shrine. The Cathedral of Boston. Where curses broke, where beers were spilled, where you can feel the city’s heartbeat under green tin and red clay. You don’t just visit Fenway — you belong to it. I was baptized in peanut shells and piss-warm Bud Light. I sat in seats older than my grandfather’s bad decisions and prayed to the church of Big Papi. It was ours. And then… they dug under it. Right into the bones of Lansdowne Street — into the bedrock of garage bands, bar fights, and rat nests the size of golden retrievers. They carved out the MGM Music Hall like a secret lair, a rebel bunker under the battlefield.”
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He adds, “I came up with a generation raised on Dunkin’ Donuts and driven half-mad by traffic on Storrow Drive. We were kids with guitars slung over our backs like bayonets, howling through rusted-out PA systems in the backrooms of American Legions, screaming songs into the linoleum void of church basements while the Sox blew another lead in the 7th. We grew up in the shadow of the Big Dig — a $22 billion pothole we all paid for with our sanity — swallowing granite and history, trying to make room for a future nobody asked for. But under all that concrete? Something was rumbling.”
Johnson continues, “We were born in abandoned warehouse practice spaces in Haverhill humidity, Charlestown cold, and Taunton’s forgotten back alleys where the floorboards creaked like old Fenway seats and the walls sweated ambition and mildew. Nights under buzzing lights, sleeping above tanning salons, hustling out of the back of Southie dance studios while the Red Line screamed overhead like it knew something we didn’t. This wasn’t L.A. This wasn’t Brooklyn with its oat milk and self-awareness. This was Boston — revolutionary blood in the bricks, blue-collar fists in the drywall, a city that builds bands like it builds bridges: loud, stubborn, and willing to fall apart a few times before getting it right.”
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He says, “We played Knights of Columbus halls and churches in Allston packed with sweaty teenagers who still believed in anthems. We got hit with beer bottles and baseballs outside Bill’s Bar. Those anthems carried us around the world a hundred times and back again. And then… twelve years of silence. No encores. No curtain calls. Just echoes.”
Finally, he concludes, “But now — we’re back. Back where it started. Under the lights in Fenway’s guest house, on a stage built for second chances. A stage for believers and for the ones who never left the pit. This isn’t just a show. It’s a resurrection. Live from the MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park — this is Boys Like Girls. This is The Homecoming.”
Boys Like Girls is heading out on tour with the Jonas Brothers this year and making a few headline shows and festival stops along the way. Check out the run below and grab tickets here.
Tour Dates:
- Aug. 18—Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
- Aug. 19—Syracuse, NY @ Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview
- Aug. 21—Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
- Aug. 22—New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
- Aug. 23—Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
- Aug. 24—Saratoga Springs, NY @ Broadview Stage at SPAC
- Aug. 26—Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
- Aug. 27—Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
- Aug. 28—Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
- Aug. 30—Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
- Aug. 31—Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
- Sept. 3—Tucson, AZ @ The Rialto Theatre
- Sept. 4—Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
- Sept. 6—Los Angeles, CA @ Intuit Dome
- Sept. 11—Spokane, WA @ Spokane County Interstate Fair
- Sept. 13—Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
- Sept. 18—Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
- Sept. 20—Portland, OR @ Moda Center
- Sept. 22—Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
- Sept. 25—San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
- Sept. 26—Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
- Sept. 27—Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
- Sept. 28—Phoenix, AZ @ PHX Arena
- Sept. 30—Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
- Oct. 2—Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
- Oct. 3—North Kansas City, MO @ VooDoo Lounge at Harrah’s Kansas City
- Oct. 5—Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena
- Oct. 6—Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center
- Oct. 18—Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young
- Oct. 19—Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young
- Nov. 16—Orlando, FL @ Warped Tour
