Boys Like Girls – SOYL Rehearsal – 3/19/2026

Anyone who knows me knows my lore with this band, but over the last six months, it has expanded beyond my wildest dreams. I’ll get into that later, but for this first post, I want to talk about the opening weekend of the 2026 Boys Like Girls tour.

For the uninitiated, 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of their first, self-titled album, and 17 years of their sophomore album, Love Drunk. The guys, Martin (vocals), John -aka Beef- (drums), Jamel (guitar) and Greg (bass) are heading out on a tour, titled “Soundtrack of Your Life,” spanning 50 days, beginning in Salt Lake City, Utah and ending in Seattle, Washington on May 10.

I was extremely lucky to be able to snag tickets to the first two shows, and also, I was invited to the final friends and family dress rehearsal show in Park City, Utah the evening before opening night, as a part of the official Boys Like Girls fan club, Thunder Club.

Friends and Family Dress Rehearsal

When you’re invited to something like that as a fan, it’s intimidating. Do I be chill? Do I act like a normal fan? What’s “correct?” I battled with this internally for the two days I had to prepare for this (I paid $300 to change my flight to arrive on time, and…spoiler alert: Worth it.)

I met up with several friends from Thunder Club – in the five months the club has existed, we have all become pretty close, which is weird to think about, but there’s no complaints here. We met up with the tour manager, Ryan, and eventually made our way in, and as the fans we all are, made our way to the barricade. So much for being chill, right?

Something to know about BLG is Martin REMEMBERS faces. He hadn’t seen any of us in five months and walked right up to us telling us how happy he was we had made the trip to the rehearsal. He wanted us to scream and dance like normal fans – as a way to give them a test run on what it would be like preforming to a full crowd. Say less.

The show, for being a runthrough, was awesome! They ran through the entire show top to bottom – which was their second album, “Love Drunk”, followed by a 10 minute intermission (WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE, THE JONAS BROTHERS?), to playing their entire self titled album front to back. Martin did a couple speeches throughout, and workshopped a couple as well during this set. It was genuinely so cool, and so many of those songs mean so much to me. It meant a lot to both 15 year old and 35 year old me to be there.

Plus, I finally got a setlist! Anyone who’s spoken to me since the end of August knows my setlist saga – Went to see them in Louisville – was about to snag it, when some jerk with the self titled album art tattooed on his arm snagged it instead!! Two months later I would befriend said jerk with the tattoo and he’s very super cool. Once I got this I yelled “WAR IS OVER!!!” There’s something poetic about getting the ST setlist for the friends and family rehearsal show as my first setlist.

This has been just the beginning of a wonderful tour cycle. I love my Close Personal Friends, Boys Like Girls. I love the Thunder Club. I love live music.

Next up: Salt Lake City for opening night: March 20, 2026