The Wonder Years with Initiate and Knuckle Puck
Revolution Hall // Portland, OR // March 24, 2026
Review by Bruna Cucolo
It’s loud music. It’s emotional singing and screaming. It’s cathartic. It’s The Wonder Years.
The Philadelphia band is currently on tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of their album No Closer To Heaven. Playing it front to back along with other fan-favorite tunes, The Wonder Years has been on the road all month and will continue through mid-April. Joining them on the entirety of this tour is Knuckle Puck, with support from Equipment, Initiate, and Weakened Friends on specific dates. On Tuesday, March 24, The Wonder Years, Knuckle Puck, and Initiate played a sold-out show in Portland, OR.
The openers were an excellent fit for this part of the tour. Once Initiate’s singer Crystal Pak’s vocals went through the speakers, the crowd was locked in with the band’s hardcore sound. From their second song on, after asking everyone to “keep moving,” the people jumped, made a circle pit, headbanged, and did another circle pit toward the end of the set. The California-based hardcore band Initiate was a real punch to the face, in the best way possible. Then Knuckle Puck, an already crowd favorite, played 10 songs, and the audience went wild for them. During their set, frontman Joe Taylor asked for them to open up in the middle, and the mosh pits and circles started. There was practically nonstop crowd surfing during the last couple of songs. This was nearly peak.
Then, the lights dimmed. One spotlight shone at the right side of the stage onto a keyboard and another at the center of the stage where Dan Campbell, The Wonder Years’ frontman, stood with an acoustic guitar. They began with “No Closer To Heaven” followed by “Brothers &” and from then on, it was a whole pop punk experience.
In the venue, the crowd was so loud that, at times, everyone’s voices together overpowered the music. One could tell that this was almost, if not completely, therapeutic for many of the fans. So much positively powerful energy filled the room, you could feel it yourself and get goosebumps from how relieving the show was. There was moshing and crowd surfing during most songs, and fog machines that blasted upward toward the crowd, all of it making you crave more of the music. And it wasn’t only the fans that were excited — the members of The Wonder Years were happy to be there, you could see it in their faces and tell by their performance.
After performing No Closer To Heaven, the band took a break for a few minutes, and once they got back on stage, they played seven more songs for everyone, sort of as their encore. At the end of their set during the last song, they brought out Pak and Taylor from Initiate and Knuckle Puck, a perfect way to end the night. The entire show was beyond amazing and a true production was presented in front of many who really appreciated it all. This tour isn’t over yet, so if you’re able to catch them on the road, don’t miss The Wonder Years. Especially since they may not tour for a while, according to their post on Instagram when they announced the tour. So catch them play in a city near you. Tickets can be purchased here. It’s a near-religious experience that will forever be in your memories for you to look back on and smile about.
