Tuesday November 15, 2011

Review and photography by Frances Roach

Support from: August Burns Red, The Ghost Inside, Living With Lions

Promoted as the final ever Eastpak Antidote Tour, starting in mainland Europe, ending with a string of shows in the UK, it brings a stellar lineup of bands from the other side of the Atlantic.

Vancouver outfit Living With Lions successfully warm up the sold out 2,400 room in preparation for what is yet to come. Next on is hardcore quintet The Ghost Inside, with a dramatic increase in the pace, pits begin to evolve and out comes the start of the great sweat. Blasting through their best songs from last album Returners along with old live favourites, they leave with a pleasant reception that they will be happy to come back to when they return to the venue next April with Parkway Drive.

The main and final support of the night is August Burns Red, bringing it with all guns blazing. Given a generous 45 minute set, there was more than enough time for pits, walls of death and the relative few crowdsurfers. A balanced weighting of their choice of songs from their back catalogue provides the majority of the audience, who are most likely new to the band, the chance to see all they have to offer via their fully energised set. They leave the crowd roaring in anticipation for the band they came for, through what has been a rather long wait.

Finally dominating the Academy stage are the Floridian hardcore-pop-punk-whateveryouwanttocallthem five-piece A Day To Remember, blowing up over the past year after the release of latest album, What Separates Me From You, and deservedly so. Successfully carving out a niche in the saturated market of bands in relative fields, they have helped to create their own, breaking down any borders and redefining genres to create the music they want and undoubtedly the music the fans want. Most bands leave their pyro and confetti displays until the end of their set, yet ADTR go straight in. Starting with the first song ‘Sticks & Bricks’ off their current release, the crowd turns into instant insanity, with confetti blasted everywhere.

Punching through the next few songs from previous albums with no breaks, the energy level is at its fullest. A mass amount of toilet roll is flung around as they play their way through current single, ‘All Signs Point To Fort Lauderdale’, following up with “the heaviest song we’ve ever written”, ‘Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End’, from album Homesick. Keeping the tempo high, they blast through ‘2nd Sucks’ and classic ‘Why Walk On Water When We’ve Got Boats’ where frontman Jeremy McKinnon requests a giant circle pit from the participating members of the crowd.

The last song before the band go off before the encore is a song that’s most probably in every fan’s top 5, the ever popular ‘The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle’, before returning to the stage one last time for a stripped down acoustic version of ‘If It Means A Lot To You’, receiving the loudest sing-a-long of the entire lengthy set.

Finally ending with an insane amount of confetti, balloons, blow-up beach balls and crowdsurfers for ‘The Downfall Of Us All’ and witnessing a superb show from start to finish- it is likely to take the majority of the dripping wet crowd a while to recoup and recover, but my gosh was it worth it.

5/5

www.adtr.com