On Saturday, March 21, the marquee at The Roxy in Lakewood, Ohio, will bear a name that, for many, serves as the ultimate shorthand for a specific era of emotional honesty and acoustic vulnerability: Secondhand Serenade. The solo project of John Vesely, Secondhand Serenade became a defining voice of the mid-2000s, bridging the gap between the DIY spirit of MySpace and the mainstream charts. This weekend, Ohio fans will witness a milestone event as Vesely takes the stage to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his seminal debut album, Awake.
For the first time in his career, Vesely is performing the entire album live, from start to finish, offering a nostalgic journey for those who grew up with his lyrics scribbled in notebooks and a fresh discovery for a burgeoning new generation of listeners. In a candid reflection on his journey, Vesely discusses the album’s unexpected staying power, the shifting cultural tides that have made being “EMO” cool again, and how his songs resonate with him today in ways he never could have predicted two decades ago. Above all, he expresses a profound excitement regarding his ability to appeal to a new generation of fans who weren’t even born when his journey began.
When Awake was first recorded in 2005, the music industry was in a state of flux. The digital revolution was in its infancy, and a young John Vesely was simply trying to find his footing as a musician and a father. At the time, there was no master plan for a multi-platinum career or a twenty-year retrospective tour. The album was born out of necessity—a creative purge of the emotions he was navigating as a young man with significant adult responsibilities.
When asked if he ever imagined that Awake would have enough staying power to support a tour twenty years later, Vesely admits his focus was much more immediate.
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead when I did it,” Vesely says. “I originally recorded the record because I wanted to have a record. And if it was going to be the last one I record, that’s fine. I wanted to do that for me. It was something that I had to get out. I had to get the music out, and it was a very important thing for me at the time. I was young and I had a kid. I had a lot of responsibilities and if I didn’t do it then, then I would never get a chance to do it. I kind of went for it and ran with it. I wasn’t really thinking that it would do what it did or my career would even take off. At that time, it was something that I just felt like I needed to do. So I did it, and here we are.”
That “just had to do it” energy is perhaps what gave the album its raw, unfiltered quality. Tracks like “Vulnerable” and “Maybe” weren’t polished for radio; they were visceral dispatches from a heart on its sleeve. This authenticity resonated with the burgeoning MySpace community, eventually propelling Secondhand Serenade from an independent bedroom project to a signed act on Glassnote Records.
The current tour represents a unique challenge for Vesely. While many artists include a few deep cuts in their sets, playing a full album in chronological order requires a different level of stamina and preparation. Awake is an emotionally heavy record, characterized by high-register vocals and intense lyrical delivery. For the Lakewood audience, the setlist will be a comprehensive exploration of that 2005-2007 era, supplemented by the hits that followed.
“I’ve been doing it from start to finish, plus I add a few extra songs in there just to keep people happy,” Vesely explains. “Obviously, I’ve been playing ‘Fall For You,’ because that’s a really important song for my career, and for the people that listen. A few of the songs that I play, I didn’t imagine playing all these songs on tour like day after day, and the toll it can take on your voice. It’s a very, very high record to sing. I did it the way I did. It’s not an easy record. Some of the songs I just never played because they just would wreck my voice. Luckily over the years, I’ve kind of figured out how to keep my voice and how to take care of myself. So it’s worked out so far. I haven’t had any problems.”
The technical evolution of Vesely as a vocalist is a testament to his longevity. In the early days, the strain of the high notes was a badge of emotional intensity; today, it is a disciplined craft. By performing the album in its entirety, he is forced to revisit songs that may have sat dormant in his catalog for over a decade, providing a rare “full circle” moment for both the performer and the audience.
Music has a unique ability to act as a time machine. For the fans at The Roxy, hearing “It’s Not Over” might transport them back to a high school hallway or a first breakup. For Vesely, the relationship with his own work is equally visceral, though it has transformed over the years. He no longer views these songs as open wounds, but rather as permanent markers of who he once was.
“I kind of look at it like my tattoos,” Vesely reflects. “All my tattoos I’ve gotten kind of over the past 25 years and all of them kind of just, they’re almost like placeholders or like a scrapbook. The songs kind of really do that for me as well. All of them have my specific meaning for when I was writing them. It’s definitely different for the people that are listening because they kind of attribute it to their life in a way that they can understand. People get different meanings out of them and like a lot of the songs can take on different meanings. The way that I see it, all of the songs are definitely like memories for me. I remember how I was feeling and it kind of helps me remember the way that I felt when I was that age.”
This perspective allows Vesely to perform the songs with a sense of reverence rather than fatigue. While he may not be the same person he was when he wrote the lyrics to Awake, he respects the young man who did, acknowledging that those “placeholders” are what built the foundation of his life today.
While the Awake anniversary is the heart of the tour, no Secondhand Serenade show would be complete without the double-platinum behemoth that is “Fall For You.” Released on his second album, A Twist in My Story, the song became a global phenomenon. Interestingly, Vesely reveals that the song’s status as a career-defining hit was far from a sure thing in his own mind.
“You know what’s funny? I attribute that success to the president of my label, Daniel Glass, because I was not going for that song as a single,” Vesely says. “I didn’t think that that was the one that we should go with, and he just had a really, really strong idea that it is. I eventually caved and went with it. He’s the mastermind behind that. I was expecting it to stop, and somehow, it got to a point where it kind of had a life of its own, and I knew we definitely had something special. I thought was going to follow me for life when, all the memes started and the memes on TikTok and on Instagram and stuff. That was just kind of outrageous. It’s pretty wild seeing the life that it’s taken because it’s not just a generational song, it’s kind of become more than that, and it belongs to everybody, not just me. I think that it’s just pretty special when people can come together with something like that.”
The song’s resurgence on social media platforms like TikTok has introduced Vesely’s voice to millions of Gen Z users who use the track to soundtrack their own digital narratives. It has transitioned from a radio staple to a cultural touchstone, proving that raw emotional songwriting is immune to the expiration dates of musical trends.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the 20th-anniversary tour is the demographic of the crowd. While the core audience consists of Millennials reliving their youth, there is a significant and growing contingent of teenage fans. This “Emo Renaissance” has seen the genre shed its formerly pejorative connotations, becoming a source of inspiration for modern pop and rock stars.
“There’s a whole new generation of people coming to these shows,” Vesely observes. “I just played Texas, and there was this couple that was just so happy and they were like 18 years old and they were babies compared to me and they just randomly found my music somehow. It wasn’t even because of the radio because they weren’t alive when this music came out. They found my music and they’re in love with it. It’s a whole new generation of people that are listening to this because the whole genre of emos kind of come back with a vengeance. People would ask me, ‘So what do you feel like when people call you emo?’ It’s like an offensive thing. People would think it’s a bad thing, and now, that whole stigma is completely gone, because now you’re seeing the influence in a lot of pop music and a lot of new rock music and it’s a whole new life that has taken on, but now it’s everybody listening, instead of like just our little group that like started this movement.”
This shift has created a unique atmosphere at the shows, where parents and their children often find common ground in the music. For Vesely, who is now a father of three, this cross-generational connection is one of the most rewarding parts of the tour.
“I’ve been seeing that so much lately, and that even ticks back to like this whole new generation of people that listen to music,” Vesely adds. “Most of them listen to this now, like the younger generation, because their parents, they just grew up on it. I can still be like, ‘Shit, if the Beatles were still together and all still alive or at Beach Boys, I want to go to these concerts because I grew up on it and I love the music.’ Having that connection with their parents and getting to go to a concert, I mean, that kind of stuff is special. I’m a parent. I have three kids. Being able to do that kind of stuff is such a beautiful thing and connect on a level like that. It’s great to see these kids come.”
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