THE BEST ONE YET: 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER CONCERT REVIEW

(Photo credits to @polestralian on Twitter. I was too far away to get decent ones!)

I’d like to think myself a bit of an expert on 5 Seconds of Summer tours. I’ve been to shows at each of their headlining tours (except the promo tour '5SOS3' from earlier this year) and also saw them supporting One Direction at Wembley Stadium in 2013. So I feel like you can solidly believe me when I say; this was 5SOS’s best live tour to date. From the stage confidence to the vocals to the songs themselves, there was something about this tour that was different but in the absolute best way.

This tour, named the Meet You There tour is the official first tour of their 3rd album 'Youngblood' which has been a very successful album, so expectations for this tour were certainly high. I went to their show on the 30th October 2018, at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.

THE OPENING ACT

5 Seconds Of Summer were supported by LA indie-rockers ‘lovelytheband’ for the Europe leg of the Meet You There tour. Unfortunately due to various reasons (one of which including a mascara-in-eyebrow related disaster) we were pretty late getting in the venue. The Apollo only has one main door and when you get an act as popular as 5SOS, we ended up literally queueing around the block. Although we got to the venue at 19:15 we didn't get inside til gone 8, so we didn't see the complete Lovely set. However, the small part we did get to see was thoroughly impressive. From getting the crowd pumping with an surprisingly good cover of Mr Brightside by the Killers - which obviously got the crowd pumped - to a heartfelt speech about mental health preceding their most famous song ‘Broken’ which they closed with. If I hadn't heard of lovely the band beforehand, I’d definitely be interested in checking them out and I’ll definitely be interested when they inevitably tour in the UK.

5 SECONDS OF SUMMER

Now, we get to the band themselves who came on at dead on 9pm, and any one of you who have been to a fair amount of concerts will understand how often acts are late on stage, so even from the get-go I had a good feeling.

The band, consisting of Luke Hemmings on lead vocals and guitar, Michael Clifford on guitar and vocals, Calum Hood on bass and vocals and Ashton Irwin on drums and vocals, came out to their epic track from the deluxe version of ‘Youngblood’: 'Babylon'. 'Babylon' is an incredibly powerful song and a really great choice for the band to come out to, especially as they came out to the instrumental rather than the verse This was an interesting choice on their behalf, but worked incredibly in their favour. It was as if they were coming out saying ‘Yep, these instrumentals show we’re a serious and talented BAND before anything else). It was also an interesting choice  as Hemmings, the lead vocalist, isn't actually the lead vocalist on Babylon. It is instead Hood on bass who opened the show with his vocals. Interesting choice, but an incredibly good one.

Aside from this introduction, to me, the stand out part of the show really was what I’m going to call the ‘emo section. 5SOS had chosen to perform their sadder, slower songs all in a row in the middle of the show. Starting with the emotional but outstanding ballad ‘Ghost of You’ , two songs from their first album, and then back to Youngblood again with 'Lie To Me' and the absolute power ballad of 'Why Wont You Love Me'. 'Why Wont You Love Me', in my opinion, was the highlight of the entire show. The combination of rocky instrumentals but emotional lyrics made for an absolutely incredible song to be performed live. WWYLM wasn’t one of my favourites of the album originally but it is almost definitely my favourite live.

One outstanding part of the entire show, wasn't actually to do with 5SOS at all; it was the crowd. Hearing 5000 people sing emotional lyrics at the top of their lungs gave the room an incredible atmosphere and 5SOS were clearly aware of this because they were consistently encouraging it. A lot of artists these days don’t associate with the crowd a lot, and I’ve never understood why because getting the crowd involved whether it be through encouraging them to sing lyrics or just chatting makes everyone in the room feel welcome. It bridges the gap between artist and audience and makes for a heartwarming time, which is exactly what 5SOS provided.

Although there was a segment of mayhem in the middle with Clifford going to drums, two fans being called on stage and various wigs being put on due to the show being the night before Halloween, the show ran absolutely seamlessly and the transitions from song to song were perfection. The stage graphics were simple but effective with different colour schemes and movement for each song. It's the little things like that that really make shows at small venues like the Eventim Apollo better.

Do 5SOS still have room to improve? Absolutely. Just as with their albums, they learn and grow with each tour they do. Seeing how far they've come even from their last tour is very impressive, and I think by the time their next tour comes around, they’ll be masters of the stage.

A fun time was had by all (except maybe the young girl stood in front of me with her mother, assumingly at her first concert, who was complaining the entire time about the concert being too loud.) But for the rest of us it was the best kind of loud, emotional and quite frankly a damn good show.

To check out some clips of the show, head to my instagram highlights on @rubyonmusic_

Written by Ruby Crowhurst.