It’s no surprise that concerts by well-known pop-punk bands in Wyoming are rare. There’s a small population, an overwhelming love of all things country, and frankly, there’s not much as far as good venues go. But The Wonder Years didn’t care.
The Wonder Years and friends The Story So Far, Modern Baseball, and Gnarwolves arrived in Wyoming on a Thursday night in October fully aware that this show would cause them to lose money, but they made the effort to come anyway. If that’s not punk rock, I don’t know what is.
Before the show started at 7:00pm, The Wonder Years played a small, intimate acoustic set and included a short Q&A with VIP ticket holders.

Doors opened at 6:00 p.m. and the line to get in was short. Talking with people on the general admission floor, I found that almost no one here was actually from Wyoming. Everyone I had the pleasure to meet drove up from Colorado, which was cool because it was a massive representation of the dedication of people to their bands, but it was also a good example of why pop-punk artists don’t come to Wyoming.
Pop-punk crowds can be rowdy. And when I say rowdy, I mean really rowdy. Less than 30 seconds into Gnarwolves’ first song, one of the guys I had originally talked to climbed right up onto the stage with Gnarwolves and jumped into the crowd, all in an astonishingly short amount of time. As none of it was expected, no one caught him. Poor guy.
Throughout the night there was an almost-mosh pit. It couldn’t really be classified as a real mosh pit as it was essentially just people being aggressively pushed around, but it was close enough.
As Modern Baseball came on stage, everyone was pretty riled up from Gnarwolves. It was noticeable that a very large majority of the crowd knew the words to every song despite that Modern Baseball was still an opener. Bassist Ian Farmer performed the set in sweatpants, which was surprisingly awesome. How many other bassists will perform in sweatpants and a Lion King tee? Not many. No one in Modern Baseball had much to say, and with the exception of guitarist/vocalist Jake Ewald, they rarely smiled, but they still rocked it, playing hits such as “The Weekend,” “Your Graduation,” and “Rock Bottom.”
The Story So Far were pretty chill on stage. The only member who really moved around was Parker Cannon, the lead vocalist. But the crowd was not “chill” by any means whatsoever. Their time on stage lasted roughly 40 minutes, and over that 40 minute period, there was always someone crowd surfing. After seeing everyone crowd surfing and stage diving, I decided I wanted to give it a go myself, and the crowd was so willing to help anyone up to crowd surf. The coolest part of it all was Cannon’s support. He’d point the microphone to crowd surfers every once in a while and let them sing a line or two.
The Story So Far killed it, playing popular songs like “Quicksand”, “Empty Space”, and “Roam”. They definitely used the loud volume to their advantage, one of my favorite experiences was feeling Kelen Capener’s bass riffs in my ribs.
Finally, the headliner, pop punk legends The Wonder Years, came onto stage. They brought loads of energy to the theatre and definitely talked the most to the crowd, which I really appreciated. Someone I talked to before the shows managed to get on stage and sing a line or two on stage with the band. Dan Campbell was delivering motivational mini-speeches and awesome vocals all night. The crowd, as well as the band, were the most energized during their classics “Passing Through A Screen Door”, “Came Out Swinging”, and encore, “I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral”. As a small show, The Wonder Years generously decided to surprise us with songs they had never before played for a show.
Overall, these four bands were a touring match made in heaven, I couldn’t think of a better lineup. Campbell only recalled 4 other pop-punk bands that he knew of that played Cheyenne, and The Wonder Years, The Story So Far, Modern Baseball, and Gnarwolves all expressed their excitement to be added to that short list. While the Wyoming pop-punk scene may be small, it’s strong, and I’m excited to see it grow.