Filling the House of Blues on a rainy Easter Sunday night, Taking Back Sunday's 75-minute set proved how loyal emo fans can be to bands they love - even if the band is still trying to find its voice. Minutes before the band meandered on stage, the crowd of mostly teenagers and twentysomethings began chanting “TBS” in unison. Many of these people were kids who skipped an Easter dinner with the family just to see one of their favorite bands.

When the band finally arrived on stage, a large neon sign with the words “TBS” and “Louder Now,” referring to the band's new album, lit up.

“Well I never made a scene, I didn't have to, didn't have to,” lead singer Adam Lazzara screamed into the mic during the opening song “The Union.” He's right - he didn't have to make a scene to keep the crowd engaged. They already started moshing, and you could see black Converse shoes flying in the air everywhere.

But Lazzara is a showman - he looks and dances like a cross between a young Mick Jagger and Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. Throughout the night, he dangled the mic's chord around his neck, unwound it and threw it in the air, almost recalling a young Eddie Vedder in Pearl Jam's “Alive” video (ironically, grunge was the defining musical movement of the 1990s, so it was almost as if Lazzara was giving a nod to that time period).

In a green shirt and jeans, as his brown bangs covered his eyes, Lazzara looked comfortable singing lyrics that released his broken heart to the crowd. But at the same time, he seemed to be trying too hard to impress the crowd with his stage antics. His slow-motion rock star poses - where he'd rock back and forth with his eyes closed - made him seem like an over-preachy Scott Stapp of Creed.

Still, Taking Back Sunday knows how to run through its catalog of songs. They're all young men who have the energy to flounder around on stage and engage with the audience.

In perhaps one of the cutest moments on stage, bassist Matt Rubana briefly stopped playing in the middle of a song to wave to an adoring fan standing in the front row.

With only three CDs out, and a lineup that has consistently changed since the band formed in 1999, Taking Back Sunday doesn't have a plethora of songs to draw from, but they rely on intense lyrics to channel the emotions of everyday teenagers. Sometimes, these lyrics fall flat and seem like pitiful diary entries. But when Lazzara sang, “I want to hate you so bad but I can't,” from the song “Bike Scene” he was articulating a genuine emotion in a deceptively simple lyric - one that both males and females could relate to, even if the song was directed at an ex-girlfriend.

But what happens when emo fans grow up and realize there's more to life than high school drama? Taking Back Sunday may need to grow up too, or they may end up cluttered in reference book about “bands that once were.” At least for now, however, Taking Back Sunday isn't holding back anything.

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