{"id":5427,"date":"2025-09-24T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-eternal-youth-of-the-starting-line\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:30:00","slug":"the-eternal-youth-of-the-starting-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-eternal-youth-of-the-starting-line\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eternal Youth of the Starting Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_Lupe-Bustos.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt=\"The Starting Line. (Credit: Lupe Bustos)\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Ken Vasoli connects with Taijuan Walker.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lot of Phillies fans, including plenty in the crowd around us at Citizens Bank Park, don\u2019t have much faith in him as one of the starting pitchers in a team with World Series aspirations in the business end of the season. Walker\u2019s having a tough night so far. It\u2019s the first inning and he\u2019s already given up three runs, and he doesn\u2019t seem to be in control.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/neil-young-beck-lana-del-rey-benefit\/\">Neil Young, Beck, Lana Del Rey Team For Benefit Show<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/portugal-the-man-new-album\/\">Portugal. The Man Tease New LP With Two Singles<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/the-brian-jonestown-massacre-rides-again\/\">The Brian Jonestown Massacre Rides Again<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vasoli, though, isn\u2019t worried. Taijuan Walker is a man after his own heart, he feels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s an underdog,\u201d he says over the crowd noise. We love an underdog.<\/p>\n<p>Walker escapes the inning to smatterings of equal parts relieved (or sarcastic) applause and dissatisfied grumbles. Sitting just a few rows off the field at Citizens Bank Park, though, Vasoli eagerly applauds Walker with each pitch, hoping his enthusiasm cuts through the tens of thousands of other fans who aren\u2019t so impressed with the start to Walker\u2019s evening. We\u2019re sitting close enough that Walker might actually hear us, and Vasoli is genuine in his pursuit to gas him up before he comes back out for the second. Maybe it\u2019s the frontman gene. He sees Walker is losing the crowd and comes to the rescue.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s all in on baseball these days. He\u2019s been shown the light by his Starting Line bandmate of more than two decades, keyboardist Brian Schmutz. Schmutz, stoically analyzing the early innings, is a long-time dedicated baseball fan\u2014the kind who dives into stats and says things like, \u201cHe dominates lefties\u201d seconds before a big hit off a lefty. Dude knows the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve even been going to some games on off days during the tour, but they agree that the crack of the bat and pop of the catcher\u2019s mitt hit different when you\u2019re sitting this close. We joke about ways they can incorporate baseball into their live show. As Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott comes up to the plate, we discuss the merits of his walk-up song, \u201cAOK\u201d by Tai Verdes, which is now a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Odd5R0u9xzs\" target=\"_blank\"> cherished group sing-along moment for the crowd<\/a>. We decide it\u2019s a song we\u2019d never choose to listen to on its own, but in this context, surrounded by this much excitement, it rocks. The topic of walk-up music comes up, and we consider what we\u2019d use for ourselves. I remind them that they already do get walk-up music every night when they take the stage. I\u2019m the only one who has to pretend here.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-1290x860.jpg\" alt=\"Ken Vasoli of the Starting Line. (Credit:Lupe Bustos)\" class=\"wp-image-473186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-1290x860.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805-498x332.jpg 498w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/143A8805.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ken Vasoli of the Starting Line. (Credit: Lupe Bustos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I ask them both, as guys in their 40s, whether sports fandom makes them feel old\u2014-like when announcers say things about how a guy in his early-to-mid 30s is on the other side of his career. Maybe he has one more big contract in him, or maybe his speed or strength has left him and he\u2019ll soon be put out to pasture.<\/p>\n<p>Vasoli says no. Instead, he looks at guys like Phillies 40-year-old relief pitcher David Robertson for inspiration, once again finding parallels to his own life in this team\u2019s bullpen.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no age limit to chasing your dreams and achieving greatness, Vasoli believes.<\/p>\n<p>Vasoli and the Starting Line believe in <em>Eternal Youth<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Pop punk is not a genre that lends itself to growing up. It\u2019s a world of arrested development. And, even as the fans and bands do age with time, the genre\u2019s money-making apparatus is hellbent on selling the ideal past, the beautiful halcyon years, through things like nostalgia festivals and anniversary tours, freezing us all in a place in time, begging us to forget our wrinkles and graying hair and aching backs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With <em>Eternal Youth, <\/em>the Starting Line\u2019s first album in almost two decades, the band is firmly looking toward the future rather than its past.<\/p>\n<p>This is something of a novelty in their genre. The relatively few bands that have decades-long careers in pop punk or emo often return to the same wells of inspiration that they did as teenagers, to severely diminishing returns. It\u2019s just not the same to hear a guy sing about getting out of this town for that long, to say nothing about grown men singing about puppy love into their 40s.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few reasons why the album escapes the pitfalls that so many of the Starting Line\u2019s contemporaries fell into. Perhaps at the top of the list is the fact that the Starting Line weren\u2019t itching for any attention. Nor were they insecure about their profile in the scene or whatever disappearing if they weren\u2019t constantly putting out albums on a steady clip. In fact, they were pretty sure they were done putting out albums altogether.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kind of had a master plan to ride off into the sunset doing more 7-inchess, maybe three, four songs at a time, \u2019cause it seemed like an attainable goal,\u201d Vasoli says. \u201cIf people were going to be holding down jobs in the in-between, it seemed like a realistic way to approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-473454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/5-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Lupe Bustos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Starting Line hasn\u2019t put out a full-length album since 2007\u2019s <em>Direction<\/em>. 2007 was a very different time for the genre and for the members of the band. They were younger, the industry hadn\u2019t been fully nuked by the streaming era (and the Napster days seem quaint to think about now), Warped Tour was still going strong, the entire marketing of an album was miles away from what it is now, and cellphones looked different. But the band hadn\u2019t gone fully dormant in the interim. They still played live regularly, including their annual holiday show, usually in Philly.<\/p>\n<p>They still played together, they still wrote songs, and they still felt the urge to release them in some way. The plan just didn\u2019t include an album at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were talking to people, and in a conversation with a guy who turned out to be our current manager, I kind of told him the plan about the 7-inches,\u201d Vasoli remembers. \u201cHe said simply, \u2018You can do that, and I think you should do that if you want to, but you\u2019re going to have a better chance of people hearing your music if you make a full length,\u2019 which was really sound advice to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vasoli, still, was a little hesitant, given the fact that he\u2019s been in this world for so long and has seen both his contemporaries and his heroes fall flat on late-career albums, especially ones that came after a lengthy hiatus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I expressed to our now-manager, Tim, that I was hesitant to make a full length because I was scared it was going to be an effort of diminishing returns, because a lot of the bands that came from our era that are putting out some records in this day and age and are coming back to it, I\u2019ve been a little let down personally as a fan,\u201d Vasoli says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to fall into that. I didn\u2019t want to tarnish our reputation by doing something like that. I also was ultimately scared people didn\u2019t care. People wouldn\u2019t have interest in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I offer that their year-after-year performances to large crowds at their holiday show is a good enough indicator. He tells me that their manager chose his words differently when it came time to light a fire under the band.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just said one sentence: \u2018I think that\u2019s your insecurity talking,\u2019\u201d Vasoli says. \u201cAnd that was a big thing for me to have a mirror to. Yeah, it probably is just insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-473455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/6.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/6-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/6-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/6-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Lupe Bustos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Vasoli pauses as Walker gives up a home run. The vibes at Citizens Bank Park on this absolutely beautiful early September evening are turning putrid. It\u2019s not even just boos, it\u2019s the quiet that gets you more than anything. A stadium known for being a deafening fortress shouldn\u2019t be this quiet. The city known for its appreciation for the underdog isn\u2019t doing a lot of appreciating at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not too dissimilar to how yesterday\u2019s started,\u201d Vasoli says, referencing the night prior when the Phils came back from an early 4-0 deficit to the dreaded, evil, pathetic New York Mets. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That last line sounds like he\u2019s talking about the mental hurdles he and the band had to overcome to decide on releasing their new music as an album rather than EP drops here and there. It made for a perfect segue that I\u2019m not sure he made consciously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was reverse psychology when he said that,\u201d Vasoli says. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m as secure as they come. I know that I can write the best songs that I can now more than ever. I feel like I have experience on my side.\u2019 [\u2026] That one sentence really blew my mind. A big thing is knowing bedside manner and how to talk to me, and how to talk me into things. And that\u2019s a good way to do it, just call me insecure. That\u2019ll be a good way to get an album out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schmutz chimes in that they felt like they could stand up to the challenge of creating something larger than they originally planned on. The process went from scary to exciting, now buoyed by their own experience and trust in each other. Also, there was a wealth of new influences to draw from in the greater punk rock ecosystem since their last record came out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Songs like \u201cBlame\u201d show the influence of albums like <em>Hyperview <\/em>by Title Fight, whom Vasoli cites directly as a band that really blew up during TSL\u2019s hiatus that he now has the fortune of using for his own inspiration. \u201cBlame\u201d is a rush of driving eighth note downstrokes and screams, with Vasoli pushing his vocal chords to their brutal, exasperated limits in the moment, but with pretty twinkles of Schmutz\u2019s keys weaving in with the distortion. To use a word I\u2019d sworn I\u2019d never use in music writing, it\u2019s pretty lush.<\/p>\n<p>That one gives way to the danceable second single \u201cCirculate,\u201d name-dropping bands like Murphy\u2019s Law, and after a few stutter steps of a pre-chorus and subtle layering, \u201cCirculate\u201d opens up to one of the album\u2019s most gratifying moments. With each lap around the verse and chorus, the song learns and improves upon itself until the free-for-all bridge and final chorus, which by now we\u2019re all screaming and drumming along, even if we\u2019re just on the bus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"Gnir7Q-IqVk\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>And with its shimmering bass groove, the title track feels like it could be an adaptation of something Vasoli came up with while working on his Vacationer indie-poppier project, which he did during the Starting Line\u2019s quieter years, giving his ears and brain a break from punk in favor of often headier genres like jazz.<\/p>\n<p>Then, just when you think you\u2019re in for a slow dance for \u201cCurveball,\u201d the track makes good on its name and ends with a very mosh-pit ready double-time crescendo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Eternal Youth<\/em>, as an album from a band that has been around for a long time, has a lot of dignity to it. It\u2019s loud when it needs to be loud, it\u2019s reflective when it needs to be reflective. It doesn\u2019t simply rehash or re-establish the band\u2019s presence. It pushes the genre into where it seems like it should go in 2025. <em>Eternal Youth<\/em> shows what a punk band of any age or pedigree can do with a clear vision and the confidence to swing away.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, it\u2019s not cringe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the easiest way to answer that is that we have a philosophy, whether it\u2019s spoken or not, where we just try to avoid anything cringe and anything embarrassing within the band,\u201d Vasoli says. \u201cI think that\u2019s an overall mission statement for the band: Try not to embarrass ourselves, try not to embarrass the band. And I think a large part of acting your age when making music is to not revert back to movements that you made when you made the first record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an album made by men of a certain age for men of a certain age, to some extent. And it was an album made without the imposing presence of any major label pushing the songwriting in any particular direction, having been through the Geffen and Virgin Records ringers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_EY_COVER_WEB_2500px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-473448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_EY_COVER_WEB_2500px.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_EY_COVER_WEB_2500px-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_EY_COVER_WEB_2500px-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/TSL_EY_COVER_WEB_2500px-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>Now with a smaller operation from the business perspective but with the ironclad trust of it being the same gang it\u2019s always been from the music perspective, the band relied on their own tastes and instincts. If it was good enough for them, it was good enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think just trusting in ourselves to make a record that we\u2019ll like ourselves\u2014that\u2019s really what it is\u2014-if the five of us like it,\u201d Schmutz says. \u201cWe can be our own gatekeepers on ideas and stuff. If it gets through the five of us, it must be pretty fucking good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They certainly feel that it is, in fact, pretty fucking good. It fits in snugly with the other more commercial and trendy punk rock of today, without some of the highly curated visual elements or merch collaborations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was very easy to focus on, \u2018What\u2019s going to make us happy? What\u2019s going to sound good to us?\u2019\u201d Schmutz says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to get through any goalies to get it out to people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maybe he meant to say \u201cinfielders\u201d rather than \u201cgoalies,\u201d but I don\u2019t correct him.<\/p>\n<p>By this point in the night, the Phillies bats have started working and the score now looks very different. With every player reaching second base, the three of us send back the team\u2019s inside-joke hand gesture they\u2019ve been doing all season, (the meaning of which we have no idea) as if they\u2019re doing it to us, rather than the dugout. Nick Castellanos, the lone Phillies player who is thanked by name on the liner notes of the album by Vasoli (again for his gritty underdog spirit) is now in the game, to Vasoli\u2019s delight. The sold-out crowd has gotten excited again. We\u2019re now basically yelling to do an interview and we\u2019re sitting right next to each other. I will at least be hoarse by the end of the game. Vasoli, who had practiced singing with his \u201cwhole chest\u201d for <em>Eternal Youth,<\/em> fares a little better. At one point I catch Vasoli say to me, or Schmutz, or just to himself, \u201cI love this town.\u201d It is, after all, the town that shows up for them year after year, even before the promise of new music.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"HzXA-QbOcI0\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I ask them, on the record, \u201cIs it the year?\u201d I\u2019m referring, of course, to the Phillies and their World Series chances, and they both emphatically tell me that, yes, it is the year. But their answers could very much be about the band.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s certainly gearing up to be a huge year for Vasoli, who found out he was going to be a father after he and his wife returned from Mexico City, where the album artwork photoshoot took place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had no idea that our baby girl was there with us as we were shooting this album cover and doing these videos and stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy looking at the album cover now and knowing that <em>Eternal Youth<\/em> has this whole new meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By now it\u2019s the eighth inning and the Phillies are leading comfortably. After a few pitching changes, we\u2019re now watching Robertson like Vasoli had hoped we would. Robertson is only a year younger than Vasoli, so it gives Vasoli hope that he can achieve some great height that he hasn\u2019t met yet. At 41, Vasoli\u2019s far from finished. Why can\u2019t he and the band keep going? Who\u2019s to say they\u2019ve peaked? That\u2019s silly. They\u2019re already working on the next one.<\/p>\n<p>New life is at the heart of <em>Eternal Youth<\/em>. It\u2019s the product of a band that had every intention of putting their foot to the brake and steering toward the exit ramp, but at the last minute decided to floor it back onto the highway and drive somewhere new. There\u2019s plenty of gas in the tank, so why stop now? Ride the momentum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe future feels very bright,\u201d Schmutz says, as we start to file out from our seats, slightly hoarse and exhilarated, the ballpark speakers blasting Harry Kalas\u2019s version of Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u201cHigh Hopes\u201d all around us. The grounds crew is out raking the infield, the staff is making their way through the aisles to shepherd people out of the ballpark as they clean up empty hot dog cartons and peanut shells underfoot. All\u2019s right with the world, or at least in this corner of South Philly.<\/p>\n<p>Of course the future feels bright. It\u2019s the year. Maybe next year will be, too.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ken Vasoli connects with Taijuan Walker. A lot of Phillies fans, including plenty in the crowd around us at Citizens Bank Park, don\u2019t have much faith in him as one&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,3819],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pushly","category-the-starting-line"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}