A Day to Remember
May 12, 2016
The Fillmore Silver Spring- Silver Spring, MD
After waiting years to see A Day To Remember live, they finally came around and brought The Just Some Shows Tour, which sold out The Fillmore Silver Spring pretty quickly. The tour arrived in Silver Spring on Thursday, May 12th. From my understanding this tour seems to be what is one of the most anticipated tours of the month of May. This lineup seems to be a “Dream lineup” to some fans, which I can definitely second that opinion. With A Day to Remember headlining and support from New Yorkers in, State Champs and a little help from a local band, Guns Out A Sundown, fans were truly in for a treat.
State Champs, who have been known to sell out tours of their own took the stage after the local band got the crowd a bit rowdy. Looking back into the crowd it seemed to fill up pretty quickly as State Champs took to the stage. Opening with Breaking Ground, a track off of their most recent record, Around The World and Back, definitely set the tone for their whole set, which was a few songs longer than previous dates considering Parkway Drive was not on this stop of the tour.
State Champs are very known to have not only a very energetic sound, but a very energetic stage presence which is made up of fast movements and getting the crowd as hyped up as possible. Singer, Derek Discanio, took advantage of almost every square foot of the stage to run and jump around as he sang. The most energy given by the crowd during their set was the when Discanio belted out the opening verse to All You Are Is History, their most popular single off of Around The World and Back. The crowd sang over the music. Throughout the entire set the fans kept flowing over the barricade, security guards could hardly keep up with all the crowd surfers that continued to pop up out of nowhere. The band ended their 10-song setlist with their most popular single, Elevated, which is off of their older record, The Finer Things.
Finally the moment we all have been waiting for. After being a bit delayed, A Day To Remember came bursting onto the stage with cannons shooting massive loads of colorful confetti as well as tossing beach balls into the crowd, while they chanted at the top of their lungs, the opening chant to The Downfall Of Us All off of record, Homesick. the crowd went crazy as did the ones who opted to surf on top of the crowd who immediately started flowing over the barricade. Jeremy Mckinnon began the opening verse by screaming “LETS GO!” as the crowd got even wilder. A Day To Remember are usually known for putting on a huge production, but being that this tour was hitting up much smaller venues, they decided to go with a very easy flowing stage setup. Of course with fantastic lighting that played along with each song and a huge backdrop that simply had ADTR spelled out.
As the headbanging worthy song, 2nd Sucks, kicked off, McKinnon screamed “FIGHT!”, the entire crowd began to mosh harder than before with even more crowd surfers added to the mix. Not only were there people surfing the crowd, but it also turned into the start of a massive circle pit. ADTR played many heavier fan favorite songs which included Sometimes You’re The Hammer, Sometimes You’re The Nail and Dead and Buried off of their most recent album Common Courtesy and I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of? which was another track off Homesick. They also debuted their latest single PARANOIA which had everyone in the whole venue going crazy. “Closing” their set with All Signs Point to Lauderdale, the band had not even barely left the stage yet before the crowd started to chant “A.D.T.R.” Shortly after a few moments of screeching chants, clapping and cheering, Jeremy McKinnon and lead guitarist, Kevin Skaff, returned to the stage with nothing but two acoustic guitars. Screams and hollers came from the semi-calmed down crowd when McKinnon and Skaff started to play the chords of, If It Means A Lot to You, originally a duet with Juliet Simms. For real this time, the band closed out the evening with a song off record, For Those Who Have heart. The song they closed out with was The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle. All of the energy left in the crowd had reached its max and during the last song the fans crowd surfed once more, and any fan on the outskirts of the venue got a chance to get into the wild pit to enjoy the last of the moments of the night. Being my first time seeing A Day To Remember live, I must say they are one of the BEST live bands I have ever see a concert from. I highly recommend making out to one of their Just Some Shows Tour stops before it comes to an end.
Review by: Alyssa Howell
A Day to Remember
State Champs
