A Day To Remember Live At Brixton Academy Review - 6th February 2011

I had been looking forward to this show for a long time, and for many reasons. One, after seeing A Day To Remember three years running at Download in half-hour doses I was looking forward to seeing them play a headline length set and two the gig was an opportunity to catch up with some old friends.

It was this catching up in the only pub between Brixton tube station and Brixton Academy that caused us to miss the opening band Pierce The Veil, but we arrived in plenty of time to catch main support band Bayside. Having listened to a few of their songs online prior to the show I didn't think there was much to them, but perhaps I chose the wrong songs to listen to. They played well and with a lot of energy and took everything in their stride, including the very mixed crowd reaction when they first took the stage. By the end of their 35 minute set they had won over the majority of the crowd and had enough about them to impress my friend Iain and make me think they were worth a second look. 6.5/10

Due to the shortish nature of the support band sets, come 9.15 and the lights were down for the entrance of A Day To Remember (early for a headlining band with 2 supports nowadays) and Brixton Academy was a wall of noise as the five members of ADTR took the stage. They immediately launched into "2nd sucks" from their new album What Separates Me From You, and pretty much everything in front of me became a bouncing mob for the next 2 and a half minutes.

Things continued at pace as A Day To Remember seemed very determined to deliver a high octane start with The Danger In Starting A Fire and A Shot In The Dark being an extremely popular double barrel blast from the For Those Who Have Heart album. A Shot in The Dark in particular was one of several songs where the band could have just let the crowd sing the whole thing for them without any problems at all. I'm Made of Wax Larry, What Are You Made Of kept things ticking over before another huge singalong for ADTR's latest single All I Want.

All three of the bands most recent albums seemed to get equal airings, Mr Highway's Thinking About The End sending Brixton particularly mental with the "disrespect your surroundings" breakdown showing why singer Jeremy Mckinnon had warned everyone to be careful around the barriers that stick out randomly from the different places on the floor in Brixton's standing area as people were flying left right and centre. Things calmed down a little towards the end of the main set with Monument and Have Faith In Me, before speeding right back up with Fast Forward to 2012. A huge singalong to Homesick brought the main part of the set to an end, but it wasn't too long before things were back in flow.

We're gonna do something we don't really do, remarked Jeremy before launching into the accoustic If It Means A Lot To You and prompting another enormous singalong. "You know, we try to get away without playing this song, but there's just something about it people love" Jeremy told the crowd. Cue the "dododododododo" over the PA and Brixton going mental one more time for the hugely loved "The Downfall of Us All" before usual set closer The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle brought things to a very satisfactory conclusion.

The Full A Day To Remember Setlist Was:

2nd Sucks
The Danger In Starting A Fire
A Shot In The Dark
My Life For Hire
I'm Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?
All I Want
Mr. Highway's Thinking About The End
This Is The House That Doubt Built
Sticks & Bricks
You Already Know What You Are
Homesick
Why Walk On Water When You Got Boats?
Fast Forward to 2012
Monument
Have Faith In Me
You Should've Killed Me When You Had The Chance
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If It Means A Lot To You
The Downfall Of Us All
The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle

This was the biggest headline show that A Day To Remember have played to this point in their whole careers and it's quite easy to see why in three years they've gone from playing club sized venues to the theaters that are just one step below the likes of Wembley Arena. They have a unique sound which pulls in listeners from all sides of the metal and rock spectrum. "Whoever thought pop music with breakdowns would work" is a remark often heard from the band. They clearly did, as they are on course to get bigger and bigger. There is a lot more to come from A Day To Remember, but tonight was perfectly on the money. 9/10