Officially Stefny

Twenty years ago, Ohio emo band Hawthorne Heights released their second studio album If Only You Were Lonely, their highly anticipated follow-up to their 2004 debut The Silence In Black and White.

This year, they’ve embarked on a world tour to celebrate the major anniversary of the record, stopping in Austin on Sunday, March 29.

I was lucky enough to chat with lead singer JT Woodruff in February prior to the tour kicking off, and of course, had to catch the show on Sunday night.

As is typical with album anniversaries, they played the record from front to back, which is always such a treat. Artists agonize over track listings, making sure everything flows and fits just right. In the streaming age where fans rarely, if ever, listen to an album in order, I love experiencing the album as intended – especially live.

Of course, they didn’t just play the album, though. It’s only 43 minutes long! Plus, it doesn’t contain their biggest hits (although it does have my favourite Hawthorne Heights song, “Saying Sorry”).

After the conclusion of “Decembers,” the closing song on the record, they played a short video featuring JT and Casey Calvert, their original guitarist. I was afraid this would make me emotional, because Casey actually passed away in 2007, and I remember it so vividly. I think as a teenager, that was my first experience with someone in a band I liked dying, and it hit me hard. He was only 26 years old.

The band returned to the stage with the song “Bring You Back,” the opening track from 2010’s Skeletons. They also played “Niki FM” (which, embarrassingly, I only learned during the show, is literally about JT’s wife Niki) and, of course, “Ohio Is For Lovers.” They also graced us with one new song, their single “Like A Cardinal,” which just dropped the week before.

Throughout the show, JT talked about the state of the world and the state of our mental health, and truly leaned into the emo-ness of it all. We’re all messed up, we all want an escape, and they want to provide that for us. If they healed us, they did their job. If they didn’t, then we’re all still in this together.

Most importantly, they proved that it’s not just a phase.