Soundtrack of Your Life Tour 2026: BOYSLIKEGIRLS, IDKHOW, Arrows In Action

Phantom Light Media
May 15
6 min read

Have you ever gone to a show knowing that you’re not familiar with the artist, but once they get onstage you feel like you’ve been listening to them for your whole life? That’s the situation I found myself in when BOYS LIKE GIRLS announced The Soundtrack of Your Life Tour, celebrating 20 years of their self-titled album and 17 years of Love Drunk. At the time of preparing for that show, I knew and loved exactly one BLG song (“The Great Escape”), but the general reaction online to the prior shows was telling me I was in for something really special as the package rolled into my usual haunt (Portland’s Roseland Theater) on an absolutely spectacular Thursday evening. The sky was clear, the sun was just beginning to go down, and there was a slight breeze in the air - the picture-perfect setting for the evening full of 2000s nostalgia awaiting us.

Opening the show tonight was Arrows in Action, a pop-rock trio from Florida that I keep seeing over and over again almost by accident. They’ve been active since late 2013 but have really started to get some attention recently thanks to some prolific touring alongside the likes of The Home Team, Taylor Acorn, and Charlotte Sands - not to mention a Warped Tour performance last year. Portland has welcomed them at least three times that I’m aware of, so it didn’t surprise me to see a large crowd already forming as the trio raced onstage and kicked straight into “Light Like You.” The feel-good vibes from these guys are always infectious and they clearly have such a blast playing together onstage that the audience can’t help but respond. I’m very familiar with their stage antics at this point but for those who aren’t, the usual suspects include group sing-alongs during “Head in the Clouds,” at least one instance of the macarena, and a whole lot of dunking on each other during song changeovers. But it’s all in good fun, and the music is equally as good. Recently-released album I Think I’ve Been Here Before formed the bulk of their setlist, including the very danceable “Twice” and the insanely popular vampire love anthem “Cheekbones” that set the whole room grooving at singer Vic Viramontes’s request. Though the set was short, the band ended off with news of a headline tour that would “probably” be stopping in Portland very soon (which was confirmed just yesterday!) to immense applause. Arrows in Action may have come into my awareness by accident, but they’ve proven to be such amazing performers in the live setting that I honestly just have to cover them whenever I can.

Playing main support on this tour is IDKHOW, a name I’ve seen in rotation for years at this point and somehow never experienced live. Dallon Weekes and company specialize in blending indie pop melodies with the crunch and tone of classic pop-punk, which you’d think would lead to a suitably mellow live show. But I could not have been more wrong as demonstrated by the sheer volume of the crowd singing along to the very first song of the set, ironically titled “Nobody Likes The Opening Band.” Although IDKHOW hasn’t dropped much in the way of new music since 2024’s GLOOM DIVISION album, concertgoers were happy just to have them there and to celebrate the “old stuff,” as Dallon jokingly suggested before launching into “Choke” from their 2018 debut EP. I’ll admit that musically, IDKHOW didn’t really do much for me, but I really admired the sheer dedication of the fans hitting every note en masse through the 10-song set. I saw a lot of younger attendees in the crowd for this particular set and I feel like it made for the perfect potential “first concert,” made even more apparent by the large groups of folks dancing to the boppy choruses of “Leave Me Alone” and “Razmatazz” from the album of the same name. I also have to give huge props to touring drummer Ronnie Strauss, who kept the crowd moving by supplying some of the grooviest fills I think I’ve ever heard in this style of music. That dude knows how to work a kit like you wouldn’t believe. Both openers had fairly short sets tonight, but both were very well-received by familiar and new ears alike, which I always love to see. I feel that opening for a legacy act can be extremely nerve-wracking for a newer act like Arrows in Action, but people were super into both them and IDKHOW and I took that as a good sign that the vibes would stay high for the rest of the night.

Now I’ve been to a lot of shows (both for PLM and otherwise) and I’ve seen some ambitious headlining sets in my time (like Linkin Park with a 32-song set last fall). But I had somehow forgotten that BOYS LIKE GIRLS would be playing two albums in full, and in order, for this tour. The production was also really cool - the stage was filled with old 2000s-era TVs and a huge backing rack of floodlights, so it was clear that we’d be treated to a visual spectacle as well as a musical one. When the house lights went down, people surged towards the barrier with wild cheers as the band members proceeded onstage. They seemed content to let the opening notes of “Heart Heart Heartbreak” do all the heavy lifting until longtime singer Martin Johnson leapt to the ego risers and, at the top of his lungs, inquired “if anybody’s alive out there tonight?” The answer was unequivocally “yes” and for the next two hours, it really felt like 2005 was back in full swing. I’ve covered a few of these “20 year anniversary of-” tours recently, and the energy at all of them has been absolutely incredible. This show quickly joined that list as people threw caution to the wind and sang, screamed, and danced their heart out to 24 songs over two albums, back to back, in full (as Martin would continually remind us). This meant we heard upbeat anthems like “Up Against the Wall” and “The Shot Heard Round the World” back to back with slower and more mellow tunes like “Thunder” and “Holiday.” I was a bit surprised at the lack of crowdsurfers for the most part, but the wall-to-wall dancing and fist-pumping seemed to more than satisfy the band members. I loved the onstage interplay between bassist Gregory James and guitarist Jamel Hawke in particular, who spent more than their fair share of time up on the risers to interact with the crowd throughout the set. That’s not to minimize the presence of classic drummer John Keefe in any way, who nailed every note with style and flair amidst the cascading lights. It was joyful and cathartic all at once, making me feel like I’d been following the band since their 2005 debut. Of course, I wasn’t old enough to go to shows back in the heyday of the two albums being celebrated, but the energy was so unreal that I feel confident enough to say that this show could have happened during that heyday and it would barely look different at all. The main impression I left with is that I need to revisit both Boys Like Girls and Love Drunk in full, and also that I need to cover BLG absolutely any chance that I can. They’ve immediately gone up on my list of favorite shows I’ve covered, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for them more going forward.