Pop-punk emo band Such a Mess returns to Chinatown Youth Center

Mark Reynolds remembers going to his first Van’s Warped Tour in 2005. He wasn’t playing at the festival (that would come later). He was there as a high-schooler and music fan.

“That was a transition year,” says Reynolds, who plays guitar and writes music for the Los Angeles pop-punk band Such a Mess. The band plays an all-ages show Sunday, July 26, at the Chinatown Youth Center.

That was first year that the pop-punk bands (traditionally the mainstay of the tour) started having to vie for attention with the emo and post-hardcore groups that were coming up, Reynolds says.

“That snapshot of time is represented in our music,” he says.

That’s evident on “Greetings From,” the split 7-inch record the band shares with Pennsylvania’s Post Season.

Both bands would classify as pop-punk, with Post Season tending toward the upbeat and melodic.

Such a Mess plays it more mid-tempo and with a bit of melancholy, Reynolds says. The band pays homage to its punk-rock roots, while embracing the emo music its members listened to in high school. The band’s last album — last year’s “Good Intentions, Giving Way” — has “heavy-emo leanings,” he says.

The “Greetings From” record took a year to complete and is the first release from Common Ground Records. The independent label is run by friends of the band.

The record will be officially available Aug. 28.

In support of the the release, the two bands just embarked on a two-month coast-to-coast tour that ends Aug. 29 in Pittsburgh.

The tour’s Fresno stop is a return trip for Such a Mess. The band played Chinatown Youth Center just last month at a show Reynolds says was one of the best they’ve ever had on tour.

He knows that sounds like a line they give in every town they play. It’s not.

“We had a blast,” he says. “Shows like that remind you why you’re doing this.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Pop-punk emo band Such a Mess returns to Chinatown Youth Center."