Much like their namesake, Papa Roach are impossible to defeat. Just over a year since they sold out Wembley Arena, they’re back to fill the O2 on a Sunday night, adding on another leg to their Rise Of The Roach tour. Somehow, it’s been thirty three years since they burst onto the scene, and over that time, they’ve amassed an insatiable fanbase drawn by their relentless optimism and flammable riffs, and tonight feels like a party that we’re throwing for each other.
We’re talking almost feverish levels of being up for it from the crowd tonight, and realistically Landmvrks could have read their shopping list for half an hour and people still would have started a pit: that’s how much Papa Roach mean to the fans. Of course, the French hardcore stars would never give less than their absolute all, and as Flo Salfati’s choirboy vocals cut through the churning guitars on ‘Sulphur’, we’re struck by how well Landmvrks combine the highs and lows at the extreme ends of their sound. There are moments of architectural chiming beauty in their harmonies and within a second we’ve thrown back into the roughest of rock-tumbler sludge, each side of their combination highlighting the strengths of the others. ‘Self-Made Black Hole’ ends their set with a scream like a singularity, calling only a temporary halt to tonight’s constant pit.
From the second Jacoby Shaddix’s beaming grim greets us from their walk-in backstage cam, we know that tonight is about us: our triumphs; the low points where we clung to Papa Roach’s lyrics, and our determination to stick by our faves for decades. All the way through tonight is a thread of infinite understanding and compassion for the struggles that we all face down every day, and a well of strength that we tap into to dance it out. The frontman’s grip on us is magnetic, and somehow, after a lifetime of screaming, he still has one hell of an impressive voice. ‘See U In Hell’ provides a necessary and an almost otherworldly sincerity to their sound, his vocals almost like Vessel’s above a huge chugging martial beat. He weaves from foot to foot like a boxer, his diamanté “Roach” jacket sparkling, as he watches a full body slam ripple all the way to the back of the arena.
“This is a fucking banging-ass show!” Shaddix declares, and he’s absolutely right. Part of his mission is to start “honouring the greats of the era” via his “Nu Metal Time Machine” medleys, which pop up throughout the night and will undoubtedly start further debates about whether Deftones can fall under that umbrella. It’s a spot-on move to give us an outlet for our nostalgia while also placing Papa Roach’s hits in their proper place in the pantheon. ‘Scars’ (“it saved the life of this band”) beams with personal and shared triumph, and ‘Between Angels And Insects’ sends the crowd flying. The shoutout to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 gets a cheer before ‘Blood Brothers’ booms out across the arena, the fan service only overshadowed by how much of a groove they can conjure when they need to.
While no one would say no to hearing the hits played really loud, giving the rest of the back catalogue from after the MTV years an airing is a solid move. ‘Braindead’ adds a crunching edge to a message of resolution, and ‘Help’ offers an echoing message of despair and redemption through the force of personal resonance, turning the darkness into dance. When they add a little metaphorical grit to the gears in the form of the spiked riffs that smack ‘Getting Away With Murder’, Papa Roach feel like a different band, and suddenly we’re looking through a window to the time they were teenage menaces. We love the gloss and applaud their success, but these glimpses make the fight they lyrically portray seem all the more real.
It goes without saying that after the occasional intro teasers throughout the night, ‘Last Resort’ is a huge moment when it finally drops. It’s almost beyond real, a few minutes which seem more HD than the real world should be and suddenly we’re back in a place where that song was everywhere. But the whole show is peppered with these little sequins of magic moments: Shaddix reminding everyone to go outside and take a deep breath, when a well-intentioned fan was invited onstage during their cover of System Of A Down’s ‘Chop Suey’ and did not get the message about leaving, or ‘Tightrope’s position as ballad interlude in the evening. Even a cursory glance around the room reminds you that Papa Roach mean so much to so many people, and that we mean just as much to them. Tonight really is a celebration of everything good about persevering as a fan or as a musician, and we’re all incredibly lucky to be here – in every sense of the phrase.
Kate Allvey
Photo: Harris Tomlinson-Spence