Concerts

Concert Recap: Boys Like Girls' "Soundtrack of Your Life" Tour in Raleigh, NC (April 18, 2026)

Playing an album from front to back is one thing, but TWO ALBUMS? Sign me up

Chris Cooney

20 Apr 2026 • 10 min read

The great thing about being an adult in the 2020s is being able to see so many great alternative rock and pop-punk bands playing some of their most iconic albums from front to back for a milestone anniversary. Combine that with the millennial nostalgia that's permeated the post-pandemic music industry, and it's a gold mine for both fans and bands. I've been lucky enough to attend a couple different album playthroughs in recent years, but nothing could've prepared me for the show I just had the pleasure of covering over the weekend.

This spring, Boys Like Girls have embarked on their headlining "Soundtrack of Your Life" Tour, in which they're playing their first two albums in their entirety. The band has played their 2006 debut album on a couple different occasions, but this tour marked the first time in which their 2009 follow-up Love Drunk was performed all the way through. It's possible that I'm wrong, but this tour is the first of its kind that I can think of in the band performs not one, but two of their albums live back-to-back. This is no small feat, but the band proved that they were more than prepared for the challenge, giving these legendary songs the energy and fervor that they deserve.

Despite the length of their setlist, Boys Like Girls still had time to bring on a couple of support bands, with the first one being Arrows in Action. It was clear from the start of their opening track, "Light Like You," that several people in attendance were already familiar with their material prior to this show, with many of them singing along right from the jump. The crowd didn't seem to need much of a warmup for Boys Like Girls, because they were already energized for Arrows in Action's set. The three-piece responded with the same level of enthusiasm in their performance, and got things rolling in the best way possible. I've been listening to Arrows in Action's music for a few years now, but this was my first time seeing them live and photographing them, and it definitely won't be my last. For as brief as their time on stage was, their set was an absolute blast to watch.

Arrows in Action Setlist:

Light Like You
Over It
Twice
Head in the Clouds
Stop Talking
Uncomfortably Numb
Cheekbones

Up next was I Dont Know How But They Found Me, the longtime project founded by former Panic! at the Disco bassist and current bassist/vocalist of The Brobecks, Dallon Weekes. I've known of iDKHOW's music for years, thanks to friends in college who were fans of them, but I personally never gave their music much of a fair listen until after seeing them live at this show. In the moment, I found myself wishing I'd gotten into their work much sooner, because their set made quite the first impression.

iDKHOW thankfully had a decent set time, with enough room to fit 10 songs, and I was glad to finally get more familiar with their music while waiting for Boys Like Girls to hit the stage that night — personally, "DOWNSIDE" was easily my favorite song of their set, and I can't wait to hear it again whenever I get to see them next time.

With concert photography, the standard protocol for shows in venues like The Ritz is to shoot from the photo pit for the first 3 songs, then from the crowd for the rest of the show. However, for this show, there were so many photographers that the photo pit was a little cramped, and security let us know that we only and the first 2 songs for the openers as a result. It was hectic in that photo pit, but I'm happy with the few shots I was able to come away with from the short time I was in the pit for iDKHOW's set — I'm also looking forward to diving deeper into their discography after seeing them live, and hope to see a headline set from them in the near future.

I DONT KNOW How But They Found Me Setlist:

Nobody Likes the Opening Band
SPKOTHDVL
Choke
WHAT LOVE?
GLOOMTOWN BRATS
Do It All the Time
Social Climb
DOWNSIDE
Leave Me Alone
Razzmatazz

I Dont Know How But They Found Me, Live in Raleigh, NC

Boys Like Girls began their festivities with the playthrough of Love Drunk, and immediately had the audience in the palm of their hand. One would expect that they'd go with the chronological order and perform their self-titled album first, but after experiencing this show, I can confirm that opening with Love Drunk was a much more solid choice. Playing the albums in this order is way better from a hype perspective, because the energy from the crowd is at an all-time high from beginning to end. From deep cuts to major hits, the audience excitement never died down.

Something special about attending this tour, with Love Drunk being performed from front to back, is getting to hear some underrated songs live for the first (and likely only) time ever, with "Real Thing" being one of the most exciting examples. There are plenty of deep cuts from both records that deserve to be permanent additions to their setlist, but to do so would just result in them doing this exact tour every year. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with that because these two records mean so much to me, but it simply wouldn't be fair to not have the rest of their discography represented in their setlist. As much as I loved getting to hear all of these songs live, I'm also looking forward to eventually seeing Boys Like Girls live again with a more balanced setlist featuring songs from Sunday at Foxwoods and Crazy World.

With these songs being written 20+ years ago, it's to be expected that they won't sound the same in a live setting all this time later. They were tuned down, but that didn't take away from the energy and overall vibe of the songs. The vibe was still there, and the crowd was still moving and singing along for each track. Martin Johnson is such an incredible frontman too — between his performance and storytelling between songs, the man knows how to work a crowd, and it was easy to tell that this tour meant just as much to the band as it did to the fans. What made this night even more special was the presence of Johnson's father, whom he introduced before the band closed their self-titled set with "Holiday." As they concluded performing both albums, the band returned to the stage to play "Love Drunk" and "The Great Escape" once again as an encore, with the crowd just as excited to hear them a second time at the end of the show as they were to hear them for the first time.

Boys Like Girls, Live in Raleigh, NC (Part 1)

Photographing Boys Like Girls was a wild full-circle moment for me, because they're one of the first bands I genuinely became a fan of at a young age. I had their debut album on repeat for years when it was first released, I remember when the title track to Love Drunk first premiered on the radio, and I just thought they were the coolest band when I was younger — fast forward 20 years, and they're still incredible.

It was awesome to hear their first two albums live from front to back, and to hear all my favorite deep cuts from those records like "Real Thing" and "Learning to Fall." Both of these albums have held so much meaning to me at different points in my life, and getting to photograph this band as they celebrate the 20th and 17th anniversaries of these releases was an experience I'll never forget. In the moment, I found myself worried that none of my photos would turn out decent/usable. However, after editing in my hotel room the following morning, I'm so glad to say that the photos I managed to get from their set are some of the best I've ever shot.

When it comes to all the shows I've shot in my time of doing concert photography, this one may be one of my all-time favorites. While it was a chaotic experience with several of us photographers in that photo pit, there was still a shared excitement with the crowd and band that was absolutely contagious — again, this was a full-circle show for me, having literally grown up with BLG's music over the last 20 years, and being surrounded by so many people who resonated with this music like I had was such an awesome feeling. This couldn't have been a better first-time experience seeing Boys Like Girls live, and I just hope the second time comes soon.