Review: 5 Seconds of Summer Sounded Live Felt Live at the o2 Arena – 08/04/16
Aussie pop-rockers of 5 Seconds of Summer are currently on their second ever headline arena tour, the Sounds Live Feels Live Tour in support of their latest album ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’. They occupied London’s O2 arena for two nearly sold out nights in a row – we got over our fear of the mystical water creature seen swimming by the venue recently and went to the second.
The main support of the UK run, Don Broco were busy playing before Bring Me The Horizon in Milan yesterday and will join in for the rest of the dates later. As a fan, it was total bummer because their super energetic performance would’ve been perfect to warm-up the London crowd. Instead, the two nights at the capital hosted one-man army of Jessarae as support.
The idea of a very almost entirely seated arena gig is as strange as it gets when as frequent concert goer, you’re not used to it. However, it didn’t stop anyone letting the good times roll as 5SOS took the stage with the echoey ‘Carry On’ then hit straight into ‘Hey Everybody’ and ‘Money’. It took them a few changes but the final version of the set-list turned out nearly okay – there was the ultimate pop tune with awesome lyrics in ‘Disconnected’ and other big favourite ‘Heartache On The Big Screen’, co-written by none else than Lower Than Atlantis’ own Mike Duce *heart eye emoji* (we do hope LTA get to play their own songs to such big crowds soon). The two songs off the new album we looked forward to hearing the most were ‘Catch Fire’ and ‘Waste The Night’ – they didn’t disappoint. Having a love-hate relationship with ‘Vapor’, we still don’t know why everyone prefers it over those two.
It will definitely take some time for the band to get into the routine playing new material as ‘Outer Space’ is a truly hard one live and it didn’t go quite smoothly – additional technical difficulties seemed to trouble as well. The guitar battle after ‘Castaway’, in which Michael Clifford beat Luke Hemmings, was an impressive way to lead to emo anthem ‘Jet Black Heart’. The best moment of the night goes to Calum Hood slaying ‘Amnesia’ and ‘Beside You’ – a lit arena and the audience singing as one will never get old. Ashton Irwin’s solo on ‘She’s Kinda Hot’ was other memorable one. It’s not common to have the drummer sing but when he does it good, you want more and that’s one of the two reasons ‘Safety Pin’ should be played live as well (the other is the gang vocals).
Having seen footage of last year’s London show, this one seemed more of a stripped down version. Playing an arena, with the capacity of 20.000 people, shouts for more memorable stage production. Anything from confetti to the good old elevated drum set-up would’ve been a nice plus (our fingers were tightly crossed for a string quartet to be honest) – except from pyro. We all know how that went down last time.
All-together, it was a great night filled with great tunes and singalongs, the ‘Fish ‘n’ Chips’ – song is as funny as it gets, and the on-stage banter is nearly All Time Low’s level. If they won’t get too caught up in the Hollywood life, and keep focus on their growth as performers and musicians, things can only benefit for the future.
Side note: Never ever attend a 5SOS gig without earplugs. If our hearing wasn’t damaged enough already, it surely is now from all the screaming. Props to the sound guy for making the band still be heard decently! [Ed’s note: check out here for earplugs!]
