Anthony Raneri says the person least surprised that his band Bayside is still around to celebrate its 25th anniversary may be the teenage version of himself, the one from Queens, NY, who knew he wanted to be a rock star.
“I was just so sure it was gonna happen,” Raneri, 42, tells Billboard. “You could ask me (at a different age) and I would be shocked there was a version of me still doing this. But at 15 or something, I was just so sure. I started this band so young that reality never factored in. I was a kid. I was a dreamer. Bills weren’t part of my life. It was all hopes and dreams at that point. I was too young to know better. And now fast forward…and it’s actually happened.”
Raneri and Bayside — which still includes first-album member Jack O’Shea on guitar, with Nick Ghanbarian on bass since 2004 and drummer Chris Guglielmo since 2006 — will be celebrating the group’s overall 25th anniversary this spring with The Errors Tour. The three-leg outing kicks off March 29 in Buffalo, NY, and all but one of its 23 stops will be two-night affairs with completely different setlists; the first show will feature songs from Bayside’s first four albums, and the second from the subsequent five titles, leading up to last year’s There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive.
“We conceptualized this years ago, and we decided the 25th anniversary was the right time to put it into place,” Raneri explains. “Every tour we try to shake things up a little bit. It can’t just be the same show all the time. At this point in our career, with the back catalog we have, so many singles over the years, it’s hard to get songs into the setlist. That means track eight on our first record or track five on our fifth record, when do you ever get to that? So this way, if we can dedicate an hour and a half to just the first four records and then the next night to the next five, we get to those deeper cuts and songs that have been left out, which makes it more interesting for us and, I think, for the fans.”
Not surprisingly, Raneri says preparations for the tour have been “very intense” for the quartet. In addition to its own choices Bayside solicited fan requests via social media, which yielded surprises such as “Indiana,” a B-side from 2014’s Cult that also appeared as a bonus track on a deluxe edition of the album.
“We’ve bought into the concept,” Raneri says. “The cool thing about our band, and something we’re so insanely lucky with, is that we can pull something like this off. There’s a lot of bands that exist that have as many records as we do that couldn’t dedicate nights of a tour to newer albums. But we’re lucky that people like and buy and still enjoy our new albums. Our anniversary doesn’t mean we have to go out and just play old records.”
Bayside has, of course, scored some must-play hits from its nine albums as well as EPs, including “Devotion and Desire” from its self-titled 2005 set and “Sick, Sick, Sick,” a top 40 Alternative Airplay chart hit from 2010’s Killing Time. “The second night might not have ‘Devotion and Desire,’” Raneri notes, “but ‘Sick, Sick, Sick,’ it’s crazy to think that’s in the second half of our career, and ‘Already Gone’ and ‘Go To Hell.’ I think there’s plenty to keep people happy either night, if you don’t come for both.”
Raneri feels he and his bandmates have become “more proficient” players during the intervening years, while diving deep into the catalog has given him a perspective on why Bayside has been able to maintain a loyal following for all this time.
“I just think there is an honesty in what bands from our world have always done that’s different than other genres,” he explains. “What we do, it’s not image stuff. With other genres, there’s a lot of things that are of their time. You look at A Flock of Seagulls or something like that, and it’s just so ’80s; they look like the time, they sound like the time, the lyrics are of the time. Same thing with hair metal: [Cinderella’s] ‘Hot and Bothered’ is a bad-ass song when you’re in high school, but when you’re 40 or 50 does it still connect like that? Do you still wear your hair like that? Do you still dress like that? Of course not. I think our scene, it’s earnest as a pillar of its identity. The emotions are more timeless and not as much about the moment the (songs) were made in.”
Raneri and company plan on adding to Bayside’s catalog soon. The group is concentrating on The Errors Tour for the time being, but the frontman promises that “the day after our big, final 25th anniversary show on Long Island (Sept. 26), I’m writing the new record, and that will be our main focus. All of next year we’ll be working on a new record.
“I always start with finding influences,” Raneri explains, “so I’m just listening to a lot of music, and I’m writing down ideas. When I hear a song that I think would be a cool inspiration for something, I write it down. I have notepads around my house with my ideas, notes apps in my phone, playlists that I’ve made of songs I want to take inspiration from for the next record. I’m not at a stage where I know what that inspiration turns into, but I’m shaping. It’s almost like I’m making this very large Pinterest board in my head, and then when it comes time to actually put pen to paper, I’ll have that board to reference.”
Bayside’s The Errors Tour itinerary includes:
(with Sincere Engineer)
3/29 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
3/30 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
4/1 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
4/2– Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
4/4 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
4/5 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
4/6 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
4/7 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
4/9 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
4/10 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
(with Smoking Popes)
6/6 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater
6/7 – Denver, CO @ Summit Theater
6/8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
6/9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
6/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
6/12 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
6/13 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
6/14 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
6/16 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
6/17 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
6/19 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
6/20 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
6/21 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club
6/22 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club
6/24 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile
6/25 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile
6/27 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s
6/28 -Austin, TX @ Emo’s
(with The Sleeping)
9/6 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
9/7 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
9/8 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)
9/9 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)
9/11 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl
9/12 – Nashville, TN @ Main Stage at Eastside Bowl
9/13 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
9/14 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
9/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl
9/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Brooklyn Bowl
9/19 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
9/20 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
9/21 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
9/22 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
9/24 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony
9/25 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony
9/26 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
