Armor For Sleep Celebrates 20 Years of What To Do When You Are Dead with a Hometown Show at the Wellmont Theater
Written by wmscweb on April 21, 2025
Photography & Review by Amber Bintliff
New Jersey emo’s not dead! Armor For Sleep returned home to Montclair’s own Wellmont Theater on April 5th to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their sophomore album, What To Do When You Are Dead.
The night began with sets from hellogoodbye and Boys Night Out. Hellogoodbye is such a fun and silly band to see live. They closed their performance with a Spanish rendition of their classic “Here (In Your Arms).” While I’m still unsure why frontman Forrest Kline decided to do that, it made for a fun memory. For this being their first tour in nearly 18 years, Boys Night Out sounded great and were full of energy. It was a great way to kick off the show that left the crowd pumped for Armor For Sleep.
There was a perfect amount of nostalgia plaguing the room throughout the evening. Armor For Sleep played What To Do When You Are Dead in its entirety, giving fans in the crowd a chance to sing along to the music that has been in their lives for the last two decades. The Wellmont was filled with all ages and everyone was there for one thing and one thing only: to have an unforgettably fun night.
Armor For Sleep was fantastic live. Their stage presence was killer and everyone in the crowd fed off their energy. They were so grateful to be back home in New Jersey, with frontman Ben Jorgensen expressing to the crowd how much this show meant to them in between songs.
This show allowed Armor For Sleep and the audience to relive the memories from when this record first released and create new ones. I left the venue watching people gush over seeing some of their favorite songs from their teenage years live. I’m excited to see what’s next for Armor For Sleep and plan on catching them again next time they’re back at home in NJ.
