I’ve been a fan of A Day To Remember since my high school days, so I was pretty excited to have gotten tickets to their most recent show here in Pittsburgh, featuring opening acts Moose Blood and Wage War. Not long after I purchased my pair of tickets, the show sold out, and the line outside of Stage AE before the show made that pretty clear!
My friend and I arrived just before Wage War hit the stage, and they definitely impressed me. Out of the three bands performing, Wage War had the heaviest sound, and the energy they drew from the audience helped to set the tone for the rest of the night.
After Wage War, Moose Blood hit the stage, an English band whose more old-school, softer feel calls to mind Brand New circa Deja Entendu. I’ve started listening to these guys a lot more as of late, so I was excited to see them live for the first time. All in all, they put on an engagingly genuine live performance and their stage presence kept the crowd invested in the moment. I’m interested to see where this band’s talent will take them!
When A Day To Remember finally hit the stage, the crowd was expectedly ecstatic. At this point, they are well-known for their immersive stage presence, so between songs when lead singer Jeremy McKinnon encouraged fans to use their fellow concert-goers as surfboards for crowd surfing, it came across as a relatively average statement! The band performed a set filled with new hits like “Paranoia,” as well as older fan favorites including “If It Means A Lot To You,” and “All I Want.” They closed out the show with one of their biggest hits from 2009’s Homesick, “The Downfall Of Us All,” with an explosion of streamers and confetti for added theatrics, of course!
It’s pretty wild thinking of all the times I saw this band a decade ago, as opening acts in venues less than half the size of Stage AE. And now, just about every time they perform in Pittsburgh it’s in front of a sold out crowd. I’m glad these guys are still killing the game and I can’t wait for their next stop in our city!