A Day To Remember, Underoath @The Big Top, Sydney (13/5/11)

Tue 24th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Despite only six months having past since their last appearance on these fair shores, it would seem that the promise of A Day to Remember’s first headlining tour of Australia was far too good of an offer to pass up, with 3000 odd scene kids braving the blistering cold weather in favour of descending upon Sydney’s Luna Park for a night of hardcore madness.

Sydney locals The Bride were charged with kicking things off on the chilly evening, yet it’s never a good sign when the band takes to the stage as the doors are opening. With half of their set gone before the line outside the Big Top had begun to diminish, the prog-core quintet blasted the audience with a number of heavy yet technical tracks, before disappearing off stage as fast as they’d arrived.

It’s been a big two years for Underoath, who were last seen Down Under appearing on a side stage at the 2009 Soundwave Festival. Yet it’s with a new critically acclaimed album in hand and a new drummer behind the kit that the Floridan metalheads took to the stage, with vocalist Spencer Chamberlain wasting no time in warming up his vocal chords with one of the bands most successful singles to date, In Regards to Myself.

It wasn’t until the first chord was struck however that it became apparent how strong Underoath’s Australian fan base has become of late, with both the band and crowd launching into a frenzied state of headbanging and moshing that would rival even the most hardcore Cannibal Corpse audience. This energy however was only to be excited by Chamberlain declaring that Underoath will be returning for a headlining tour next year in support of their latest record Ø, which seemed to be the Floridan’s focus for the night, with new tracks In Division, Catching Myself Catching Myself and Illuminator all making an appearance.

But it was as their short set came to an end that the mosh pit truly exploded, with the mesmerising intro to A Boy Brushed in Red… Living in Black and White giving way to a massive wall of distorted sound, prompting an eruption of circle pits in the mosh pit. With a scarce sixty minutes on stage, it seemed fairly obvious that Underoath would have a few new fans joining them for their return to Australia next year.

After what felt like forever, it was with an arsenal of stage props and new material that A Day to Remember came to prove why they were the headlining, with the brutal intro to Sticks and Bricks assaulting the ears of the audience, instigating a ninety minute performance of pure intensity from the Floridian quintet.

Acting as all good front men should, the ever likeable Jeremy Mckinnon seemed to be taking great pleasure from leading the packed house though every chorus and breakdown. Yet the rest of the band certainly deserves mention for their somewhat more humble yet outstanding performance.

This was certainly the case when Mckinnon appeared on stage in a giant ball for the song homesick, before launching himself into the mosh pit, leaving vocal duties to guitarists Kevin Skaff and Neil Westfall. Surprisingly enough, the two proved themselves to be more than just budding axe-men, with the frontman’s vocal part completely covered in what was an impressive display of vocal talent.

Moving through their set with a sense of professional ease, it was inspiring to see that the five piece had moved away from using their third record Homesick as somewhat of a crutch in their set’s as has become common within their performances of late.

This change in tact lead to surprising appearances from a few early tracks including You Should Have Killed Me When You Had The Chance, as well as a handful of new material which seemed to go down well, with All Signs Point to Lauderdale just one of the tracks to spawn a raucous sing-along from the adoring crowd.

Moving towards the end of their set, the mosh-core Plot to Bomb the Panhandle proved to be the highlight of the set with the releasing of a massive net of balloons rounding out the bands audacious set. Although this high was quickly built upon, with the Semi-Acoustic If It Means A Lot to You feeding Straight into The Downfall of Us All with Mckinnon’s call to arms from the audience to give it their all, which they did in the most violent of fashions.

Yet it was all smiles and giddy teenage girls as the Floridan’s walked offstage, with a fitting farewell in the form of Akuna Matata prompting one last raucous final sing-along from the audience, who for lack of a better phrase, had certainly been left with another day to remember.