Emo Nite landed at Stagecoach on Friday night, bringing a flash of eyeliner and youth to a festival built on cowboy hats. The roving pop-punk party took over the Honky Tonk stage, curated by Diplo, with a set that leaned hard into the 2000s.
Founders Morgan Reed and T.J. Petracca started with Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down” before tearing through remixes of Panic! at the Disco, All-American Rejects, Paramore, and My Chemical Romance. The crowd, a mix of country regulars and curious newcomers, sang every word.
Ashlee Simpson appeared for a short set, cashing in on an unlikely but palpable revival of her 2004 debut. The songs, once dismissed as teen-pop fluff, now sound like a blueprint for a generation’s earnestness. She moved through the hits quickly, and the field responded with loud, maybe slightly sheepish, affection.
Electropop duo 3OH!3
