A Day to Remember, Jannus Live, St. Petersburg, May 2, 2013.
Originally published by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay on May 9, 2013.
Ocala native rockers A Day To Remember landed at Jannus Live last Thursday and filled the St. Pete venue to its capacity on one of the last stops of their completely sold-out “Right Back at It Again Tour.”
Warm-up started with metalcore outfit Issues, founded by ex-members of Woe, Is Me, and mashing up dance beats and DJ turntablism with heavy breakdowns. Next up was Of Mice & Men, another metalcore opener, this one with a healthy following of their own. Vocalist Austin Carlile hardly handled his band’s set as a support slot, commanding the stage and crowd as any great frontman should — encouraging high jumps and moshpit launches to usher in a new song, ordering crowd surfers to make sure and high five him at the stage, and challenging any able bodies to get as high as they could, whether it be by climbing shoulders, climbing the “Jannus Tree,” or otherwise.
Finally, A Day To Remember hit the stage. This year marks ADTR’s 10th year together, and it showed in the band members’ confidence and sense of comfortable camaraderie they seemed to be sharing with both each other and the crowd. Cannons blasted big bursts of confetti to the opening beats of brand new song “Violence (Enough Is Enough),” kicking-off the fun and friendly atmosphere, and causing an eruption of cheers from a crowd that began moshing and dancing in earnest amid a blizzard of multicolored tissue paper bits.
During the course of their set, ADTR delivered a well-received combination of songs ranging from their earliest album (2005’s And Their Name Was Treason) to Common Courtesy (their yet-to-be-released follow-up to critically-acclaimed 2010 LP, What Separates Me From You), finely balancing hardcore screams and breakdowns with pop punk hooks and melodies with impressive ease. A skeptic of the band’s musical style might even “get it” in this setting, surrounded by exuberant fans, and faced with the undeniable musicianship and dynamic stage presence of the band, and if that didn’t do it, ADTR’s acoustic encore might be enough to warm the heart of even the most hardened concertgoer.
Excellent performance aside, the night proved most memorable because of its collective party atmosphere and A Day To Remember’s continued efforts to engage and interact with their fans. During “All Signs Point to Lauderdale,” the ADTR road crew threw countless beach balls into the crowd, and there was just something so absurdly satisfying about seeing frontman Jeremy McKinnon happily kicking the balls into the crowd while singing the lines “I hate this town, it's so washed up; and all my friends don't give a fuck.” Add to that the crew toilet papering the crowd during “Another Song About The Weekend,” their merch guy donning an Angry Birds costume and using an air cannon to shoot tee-shirts into the crowd before surfing on an inflatable raft during “Better Off this Way,” and you have the makings for an endearingly immature concert experience and overall ridiculously good time. Some bands should take notes from A Day To Remember: Concerts can still be fun if you take your music, but not yourselves, too seriously.