The Academy Is... BACK AT IT

The Academy Is…
The Fillmore
29 E. Allen St.
Philadelphia
Sunday, November 23, 2025

I started listening to The Academy Is… back in middle school. I discovered them alongside their peers like Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes — at the time, the music of pop punk was always in my ears. Their song “Black Mamba” was even my ringtone for a long while in high school, that part in the chorus where it goes:

Pick it up, pick it up
It's what you wanted
Pick it up, pick it up
And you need it too

I think I kept it until us millennials put our phones on silent forever.

By the time I started photographing concerts a few months before my 16th birthday, The Academy Is… (TAI) was just too big of a band for me to get a press pass for, and by the time I had worked my way up to covering bands of their caliber (including the just referenced Fall Out Boy), TAI had slowed down touring and then ultimately decided to disband. The closest I got was photographing lead singer William Beckett when he went solo for a short time. For me, that was enough. Fast forward more than a decade, and the band is back together with all their original members (more or less, no one is brand new) in honor of the 20th anniversary of their 2005 record Almost Here.

I knew I had to get in to photograph this show one way or another. So I did. And after 20 years of loving this band, I'm here at The Fillmore in Philadelphia covering them for the first time. With the first note of the first song, I am immediately transported back to my teenage self, singing the lyrics that were burned into my memory thanks to so many repeat listens on my iPod all those years ago. It’s rare that I get so excited in a photo pit, but I’m bouncing all over the place, full-on jamming out to my old favorites, beyond excited to be hearing them live, much to the joy of the musicians who throw me smiles when I catch their glances. The whole venue is electric and radiating jubilation. It’s palpable.

The boys look a bit older, but don't we all? Their performance is just as enthusiastic as it was on the videos I watched when I was younger in lieu of seeing them live. They're still wearing their tight skinny jeans, if not a bit looser, and their hair cuts are mostly the same, if not splattered with a bit of natural silver. Dancing all over the stage, the five member band is clearly having just as much fun as their fans. Even though this is a tour dedicated to the songs off their debut record, they’re adding in fan favorites from all three of their studio albums. The cherry on top of hearing all our favorite songs? During the concert, William announces that the band is officially back together and will be dropping a brand new album early next year. The two tracks TAI play off the fresh record fit seamlessly into the nostalgic set.

I do have one request from this band, and frankly this is a request I have for pretty much every other touring band I've covered. Please, for the love of all things holy, stop hiding your drummer behind shadows and overactive fog machines. The front four members are lit perfectly by the choreographed lights, but I want to see Andy “The Butcher” Mrotek, who is largely invisible to the crowd. We, the fans, yearn to see each and every beloved bandmate, and that includes the drummers.

That said, this is an otherwise flawless show. When the hour long set list wraps, I’m left still wanting more. I cannot wait for the next tour, and I am beyond grateful to know I won’t be waiting long.