The difference between a concert and a show is often unclear. When I saw Enter Shikari back in October, it was the greatest concert I’ve ever been to but it wasn’t necessarily a show (that’s not to say it wasn’t absolutely amazing and life-changing because it was). Last time I saw A Day to Remember (last April) they put on a fantastic concert but still not really a show.
This time, when A Day to Remember played Metropolis in Montreal last night on their Gamechangers Tour along with Bring Me the Horizon, We Came as Romans and Pierce the Veil it was undoubtedly a show, along with a concert. The opening bands were underwhelming save for a few moments but ADTR delivered nonstop and was just plain fun.
Pierce the Veil was one of the better opening bands, I don’t know a lot of their music but they rocked out a few modern pop hits (Black and Yellow and Like a G6) both of which fell somewhere between the categories of ‘jokes’ and ‘awesome’ and succeeded in getting everyone into the show. Highlights of the setlist were Besitos and, naturally, Caraphernelia the only problem with which was that Jeremy (the lead singer of A Day to Remember who is featured in the original song) didn’t come out to do his parts of the song but that’s nitpicking.
We Came as Romans I found generic and repetitive, I don’t really know much of their music but I definitely enjoyed Pierce the Veil more than them. I couldn’t really tell when one song became the next and can’t remember a single song they played. They also have two singers but don’t seem to make full use of them, only having one of them singing/screaming at a time, something that could have been done by a single singer.
Bring Me the Horizon was fine, but for how well known they are they didn’t really steal the show. Sure, the chants of Diamonds Aren’t Forever were infectious and the raw intensity of Chelsea Smile got everyone nice and crazy but I find that most of their songs lack memorability and that’s just a complaint I have about the band, not their performance. The show was good, I guess I just don’t like them enough to really get into it.
Before A Day to Remember got on something happened that I’ve never seen before at a concert. There’s always music going in the background while the next band is setting up and it sort of sets the mood, it’s usually in the same genre as the performing bands but it’s subtle. Anyways, everyone must have been very on edge before ADTR because Chop Suey by System of a Down came on and everyone realized (while singing along) that everyone else was singing along too. So everyone started singing louder. It really caught on and soon everyone was singing the choruses together and just having fun. It ended with cheers and an amazing sense of community between concert-goers.
Finally, A Day to Remember hit the stage and the difference between them and the opening bands was staggering. The show was a lot more intricate than last year’s. For starters the stage had these sort of street-lamps on it and lights on the side set up to look like streetlights as a sort of theme. The stage was also equipped with steam and confetti launchers (the confetti was there last time but that was about it). Balloons were falling, toilet paper was flying, a dude in a spiderman costume started launching shirts at people. They really went all out on this one. The highlight was definitely Jeremy running across the crowd in a giant hamsterball while singing homesick. Fucking legendary. As for the music, ADTR just relentlessly whipped out song after glorious song. There were plenty of songs from Homesick and What Separates Me From You, and a good amount off For Those Who Have Heart- they didn’t focus too much on the newer stuff but definitely incorporated it well with older tunes.
So all in all, A Day to Remember puts on an amazing show and you should go see them on this tour if you can. The opening bands have some nice breakdowns but altogether were kind of mediocre. If you like them, though, go for it.
Here are some pictures i took with my phone of Jeremy in a hamster ball.
