The Story So Far @ The Nile Theater

For some reason, I was led to believe, in my initial research, that The Story So Far was from somewhere in south England. This created an original foundation for this write-up and my cheeky positioning of the band as “the Hugh Laurie of pop punk bands, an import from the isles that can cleverly masquerade as the real deal.” However, the reason why The Story So Far sounds so authentically American is because the members are, in fact, from Walnut Creek, California. This may seem to shake my original premise a bit, but I will argue that it is, indeed, a contemporary pop-punk band cleverly masquerading as a pop-punk band from the late ’90s or early 2000s. If your formative period found you discovering new bands through Tony Hawk video game soundtracks and waiting to see New Found Glory on MTV, The Story So Far should take you back. Unlike those bands, it’s too new to have garnered any controversy by starting a terrible side project or releasing a record that alienates its fanbase, and too young to get tired from posi-jumping. So, it isn’t aren’t Hugh Laurie. The Story So Far is more like the Downton Abbey of pop punk, a modern period piece that should keep you captivated.