5 Seconds of Summer - March 2014 UK Tour

(The publish date is not the date that I have written this, it is the date of the concert - written 31/05/2015)

As I've been to a couple of gigs and this blog is empty at the moment due to inactivity of bands and me not even leaving my room, I thought I'd write a couple of reviews from gigs that I've been to in the past, starting with 5 Seconds of Summer, who I saw over a year ago for the third time (excessive) at O2 Shepherd's Bush in London.

First of all, I cannot even remember if they had an opening act (good start, Kira) but when me and my friend, Chloe, turned up to the gig we were so late and it was so unorganised that we were able to jump the queue, getting close to the front and standing near some super awesome girls who had been there since 8am, which I felt so bad about seeing as we had arrived at the venue only 15 minutes prior.
The crowd was definitely split, seeming as we made some super rad friends that were so lovely on one side while trying to push away the other side that were trying to elbow you in the face in order to move forward; and the band wasn't even on stage yet. As Chloe is extremely tall, and I wore chunky boots that had a platform sole, we were quite taller than the others around us (also as we seemed to be one of the older lot) which seemed to annoy the other people in the crowd. You would think that having such a trait as being tall would be considered as something some could not help having, I mean she couldn't help being tall, but somehow the girl's behind got offended and started moaning extremely loudly about how they couldn't see and they wish there was a rule that the small people go to the front and the taller people at the back, which is so immature that I actually ended up laughing. If that wasn't enough for them to moan about, they furthered with the argument that because she has curly hair it was going in their mouth, so they began pulling at it, which caused the girls on the other side of us to turn around and ask what their problem was, with them replying rudely to them. Let me just remind you that this is all in the first 20 minutes of waiting for the band to come on stage.

When it came to the music, they played some awesome songs to get the crowd going, like classics from My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, yet also mixing in pop songs which seemed to influence the crowd around us even more. When Chloe and I go to gigs we almost always embarrass ourselves, but that's what is fun about the whole experience, but on this occasion it seemed like we were the only ones singing to Backseat Serenade, which is shocking for a band that preaches they are a "pop punk" (which clearly their following isn't as they didn't even know one of the most recognisable All Time Low songs).
When they came on stage a beat started playing, notifying the crowd that they were about to start the gig, with drummer, Ashton Irwin coming out before the others. He carried on the beat until the other 3 joined him and they opened with '18', a song that they don't usually play anymore seeming as the band are all of legal age and the lyrics clearly address the fact that they cannot wait to be 18 (at the time, Luke was still 17). They actually played really well, and the show was better than the times I had seen them in larger venues supporting One Direction, as obviously this time the crowd was for them only and the gig seemed more personal in a smaller space. Finishing the set with their song, 'She Looks So Perfect', that rocketed them in to fame, they finally finished with an encore consisting of three songs; a cover of 'What I Like About You', 'Good Girls' and 'Try Hard'. Personally the best song they sang was 'Disconnected', purely because no one knew it as it hadn't been released yet, meaning everyone was quiet and stopped pushing and trying to punch people me the face for a couple of minutes.

Overall, I think on the basis of music and performance, the band was amazing. Michael definitely made the whole performance for me, as he held a lot of energy and seemed like he was loving every moment. On the grounds of the crowd and how vicious some of the girls were, I felt like I was having a bitch fight every minute, something that always ruins performances for me, even though the music should be all that matters. In fact, I think it was more brutal at the 5 Seconds of Summer gig than it would be going to a Slip Knot concert and getting stuck in a mosh pit when your friend thinks it'll be funny to push you in to the middle; just saying.
I like the music the band plays, and although I feel like I have outgrown them a little, I still appreciate all they do and how important this is for them, and they are obviously trying to pull themselves back in to the genre they want to be in, and not down the path that large labels would want them to be, by inviting State Champs on their recent tour in Australia and NZ. Props to them for trying to be a band that they have always wanted to be, but it's a shame that their following is extremely young and naive.

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