It’s safe to say the UK leg of A Day To Remember’s tour got off to a bad start, with the Cardiff date being cancelled due to a problem concerning lead singer Jeremy McKinnon’s health. Nevertheless, two days later, the show was back on the road, and four days after the cancellation came the all important London date at Alexandra Palace, with promises of an extravagant production and the show being filmed for a DVD. No pressure to get back on form, then.
Sadly, the night begins early (at 6:30pm), and nobody at Punktastic manages to catch the mighty The Story So Far. By all accounts they put on a brilliant show as usual, but unfortunately we can’t say that from personal experience.
Next up are Buffalo wonders Every Time I Die, and they put on a stormer of a show as usual. The sound is slightly muffled, but there’s no hiding the fact that Keith Buckley and co have one of the best live presences in the world. With bangers like ‘We’rewolf’ and ‘Bored Stiff’ lighting up the stage, they’re just as great as ever. Bravo, ETID.
Next up are main support (and the only British band on the bill), Mallory Knox. Surprisingly, they actually have the best sound out of all the bands on the line up. They sound absolutely flawless, and for a band that until recently have been fairly small, they work incredibly well on that gigantic stage. Frontman Mikey Chapman shines tonight, and Mallory Knox show that they deserve to be up there, playing to thousands of people in Alexandra Palace.
And last but not least: A Day To Remember. First things first: their stage set. So, tonight’s theme is a house party. And the night begins with a giant screen showing ADTR plotting this house party, before a gigantic house is revealed. The garage doors slide slowly upwards, and the band emerge. Kicking straight in with ‘All I Want’, it’s a spectacle to behold.
The rest of the show provides fireworks, numerous displays of pyrotechnics, fake snow (and Father Christmas to go with it), lead singer Jeremy McKinnon running over the crowd in a Zorb ball, a police helicopter and more. There’s no doubt it’s a wonder to behold, and there are barely any bands who manage to pull off a show as entertaining as this one. In fact, they’re probably only outdone by Rammstein on the pyrotechnics front (and that’s something not many bands can get close to).
The one thing that lets the show down is the sound itself, which is a huge shame. During some songs, it’s so muffled that it’s hard to tell which track they’re playing until halfway through. The time that the band actually sound the best is during the beautiful ‘If It Means A Lot To You’, which is mainly played as an acoustic track. It’s an unlikely one, but it’s probably the clearest they sound all night.
Despite the sound problems and a couple of technical issues (during the ‘DUH DUH DUH DUH’ part in ‘The Downfall Of Us All’ intro, for one), A Day To Remember still manage to put on a storming show. They’re bloody brilliant to watch live, and the amount of bangers they have in their discography is enough to blow your mind. The fact that they’re playing to a full room at Alexandra Palace is testament to just how far they’ve come. And from the looks of it, they’re not ready to stop there. To the stars!
LAIS MW