There’s a moment just before A Day To Remember come on where the venue feels like it might actually lift off the ground. The place is packed to the point of absurdity. Proper sardine territory. The collective buzz and anticipation in the sweatbox that is a sold-out ADTR show at Brixton Academy during a heatwave is palpable. You know it’s going to go off. You just don’t quite know how hard.
In contrast to other dates who’ve had Guilt Trip as openers – still an excellent band in their own right – tonight’s crowd is lucky enough to have Boston Manor supporting. They’re exactly the right band to be here. It can’t be easy playing to a crowd this impatient; everyone’s here for one thing, and it isn’t subtle, but Boston Manor don’t try to outpace it. Instead, they lean into their strengths. Their sound is darker live, punchier, more layered than you might expect if you’ve only heard the records in passing. There’s a sort of controlled chaos to what they do, tight as anything but still emotionally raw.
Henry Cox holds the stage without needing to shout for attention. There’s a quiet intensity to him, and when he lets rip, it hits. Songs like ‘Foxglove’ and ‘Carbon Mono’ punch through with real weight, and you can feel them winning people over as the set goes on. It’s not just filler; they’re the calm before the storm, but with their own thunder built in. The crowd is fairly still, but this is probably more down to the fact that it’s boiling, everyone’s exhausted, and people are conserving their energy for the main event.
Then the lights go black and it’s time. A Day To Remember hit the stage like they’ve been shot out of a cannon. No easing in, no slow burn, just bang, straight into the chaos with ‘The Downfall Of Us All’. Jeremy McKinnon’s voice sounds ridiculously good. It’s one thing to sound tight in the studio, another thing entirely to belt it out like that live, night after night, with that kind of power, especially when considering that this is show 26 of 28.
After the opener, McKinnon takes a second to look around, visibly moved. “This is where it all started – the rest is fucking history,” he says. It’s a real moment, and then they slam into an early classic, ‘I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?’ like they’ve still got something to prove. They don’t. But they play like they do.
What follows is the kind of set that feels designed to wear you out in the best way possible. There are three separate circle pits at one point. Confetti cannons go off multiple times. Beach balls fly. McKinnon calls for “as many people crowdsurfing as humanly possible” and gets his wish. It’s carnage – but it’s joyful carnage, the kind where no one really gets hurt and everyone goes home grinning.
There are quieter moments too, somehow. McKinnon talks about going home to Florida, seeing his parents, and thinking, ‘How the fuck did this happen?’ The honesty lands. It sets up ‘All Signs Point To Lauderdale’ perfectly, though they don’t play it just yet. He’s too clever for that. Keeps it in his back pocket for later.
There’s a surprise guest: Bobby Lynge, apparently fresh to the lineup and having learned the whole set on short notice. McKinnon asks him what song he wants to play and Bobby picks one Jeremy’s apparently said “fuck no” to for years. It’s ‘Since U Been Gone’ (allegedly), and it absolutely goes off. Even though it’s a cover, the band are clearly astutely aware that it’s one of their biggest hits – if and when it would be played has definitely crossed every person in this room’s mind at least once.
Later, McKinnon introduces a song that “people normally just stare at us for.” He tells us we hold its destiny in our hands, and for one glorious minute, you’d swear every single person in Brixton knows every word. It’s ‘Paranoia’. This is not just nostalgia, it’s participation. It’s buy-in. It’s the kind of communal noise that sticks with you.
There are a few newer cuts peppered in; the likes of ‘LeBron’, ‘All My Friends’, and ‘Miracle’ are weaved seamlessly into the set; for an album that only came out this year, fans are already very familiar with the tracklist. Though it’s not as well known (YET) than something like ‘Homesick’, ‘Big Ole Album Vol.1’ is soon to be a timeless classic.
The encore is all feeling. Following the acoustic ballad ‘If It Means A Lot To You’ that everyone came to belt out together, brought to a conclusion with the ‘All Signs Point To Lauderdale’ performance we’d all been craving. No one’s faking it. No one’s phoning it in. This is a band that still cares about their craft and it’s abundantly clear.
There’s a lot of talk about legacy bands becoming stale, going through the motions. But this? This is not that. A Day To Remember might’ve started well over a decade ago, but tonight proves they’re still writing new chapters and Brixton’s more than happy to be part of the story.
KATHRYN EDWARDS