Adam Lazzara (born September 22nd, 1981 in Sheffield, Alabama), is the lead singer of the American post hardcore band, Taking Back Sunday. He grew up in High Point, North Carolina, attending Southwest Guilford High School, before moving to Long Island. His first band was Dumbfound, a punk band formed in the mid 90's in North Carolina. He was the inspiration of the band Brand New's quote, "Mics are for singing not for swinging" due to his obsession for throwing and swinging his microphone around everything, including, but not limited to: his neck, arms, legs, guitars, amps, people, and mic stands. While swinging his microphone he accidentally hit bassist Matt Rubano in the head recently in front of roughly 15,000 people at Earls Court during the Give It A Name Festival of 2006. He is capable of both singing and hardcore screaming on his studio albums, and his live shows are extremely energetic. They are sometimes characterized by frenetic bursts of energy and vocals. The crowd loves to sing along and he loves to interact with as many of them as possible. Adam Lazzara has often been referred to as an "Emo sex symbol". He originally sang co-lead vocals with John Nolan, currently of Straylight Run. After a fairly bitter fight between the two of them, he developed a very innovative dual vocal system of bickering friends through the lyrics. This may have resulted due to an affair Adam had with Nolan's sister, Michelle Nolan (piano and back-up vocalist of Straylight Run), that ended bitterly. Fred Mascherino has since taken over Nolan's duties as singer/guitarist. Band member Shaun Cooper also split to Straylight Run. He was replaced by new bassist Matt Rubano, who has taken a somewhat leader position to the band. The disagreement between Adam and Nolan led to the betrayal of a longtime friendship of Adam and Brand New lead-singer, Jesse Lacey.
The music video for "Cute Without The 'E'" is based on the movie Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. He has a self proclaimed "almost Homosexual obsession" with anything Brad Pitt. In a scene for the "Great Romances of the 20th Century" video, you can see a movie poster for it behind Adam. The video for "Cute Without The 'E'" was not based on the fight between Lazzara and Nolan, as the video was made prior to the actual issue.
