It’s hard to believe that 5 Seconds of Summer are now 15 years into their musical journey, but fresh from last year’s new album EVERYONE’S A STAR! they are, sonically, at their peak.
Their return to what lead singer Luke Hemmings called their “second home”, London, on Thursday night marked a phenomenal balance of musical maturity and the same boyish bravado that earned them their fame in the first place. It was chaos, it was hilarious, it was a journey through their career with all the self-deprecation and fan service you couldn’t help but love.
Hyped up by the electric support of Haiden Henderson and South Arcade, the crowd waited in suspense for that beautiful moment at the start of a gig when the lights finally drop and there’s a split second of silence before the realisation– the main event is about to arrive.
And arrive in style they did– the ignition of a limousine on the center of the stage cuing the voice of Hemmings with the first song, the new album’s NOT OK. Fans were quick to join in shouting the anthemic opening lines whilst we watched the four band members live on the screen, sipping tea from union jack cups inside the limo.
As they emerged, the crowd erupted, channelling that vivacity straight into the belting lyrics and commands of JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! from the frontman. This high energy was the staple of the gig, the band doing incredibly well to maintain such a level for over two hours of vocally and instrumentally demanding songs.
Flashing red and white lights led right into the next track, another from November’s release, No. 1 Obsession. The synergy between the crowd and four on stage was brilliant to see, the benefit of it being nearly five months since the album’s release meaning the 16,000 fans inside the arena knew every single word, pointing fingers and chiming in with the ‘Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh’s of the chorus like it was already a classic.
This was even further proved when the opening beats of 2020’s Teeth rang out through the building, Hemmings not even needing to sing its iconic bridge as the crowd did it for him. Then came the first of many documentary-style interludes of the show, pre-recordings on the stage’s massive screens with interviews and dramatised scenes, the sort of mockumentary that shows, despite the band’s ever-expanding outreach, they’re still more than happy to parody themselves.
Importantly, these comic breaks kept the energy high with the audience whilst also letting the band prepare to rattle their way through tracks Easier, More, istillfeelthesame and No Shame, the lyrics of which the loyal fans continued to share every bar of.
Hemmings then took the time to thank the fans for coming and “singing their hearts out”– “How do we keep doing this, the O2?” he asked. “This is the biggest and best show we’ve ever done.” Each of the band’s members, Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin introduced themselves one by one, Irwin on drums getting the biggest cheer, before they launched into possibly the most memorable part of the show– the fan-favourite PowerPoint presentation.
‘A 5SOS how to: have the best rock show’ was exactly the charismatic and unserious intermission you’d expect of the Aussie boyband. From ‘Step 1: pump up the crowd’ getting huge cheers, to the fans who rejoiced in correctly guessing which band member had said the quote in ‘Step 2: speak in lore’, to a nod to the home crowd- ‘Step 3: know local pop culture’ where each of the four joked about Harry Potter, pie and mash, and taking the tube to the gig, it was the kind of unique personal touch that shows just why 5SOS has survived so long on from the revered boyband era.
Step 4, ‘Give the people what they want’ led straight into the tune that even the boyfriends that had been dragged along to the gig stood up and sang along for, the opening guitar riff of She’s Kinda Hot taking me back ten years to the summers when a friend with a speaker would play it in the park.
You almost forget how many great tunes like this 5 Seconds of Summer has, songs I had no conscious memory of until I suddenly found myself knowing the words. Taking their audience from that 2014/15 boyband scene and bringing them into today’s musical era with a very different style in their new album was risky, but seems to have proved successful; staging a ‘Boyband of the Year Awards’ to tee up new track Boyband was genius and got a good kick, sandwiching in Telephone Busy with another of their latest, Evolve.
“We should have ended with that song”, Hemmings reflected, laughing and surprised at how much the crowd had loved the new tune.
Another on-screen skit made way for Bad Omens, the only song from album 5SOS5 making the setlist, as well as Ghost of You, which took a much slower, emotional tone, fans creating a sea of phone torch lights and singing along– ‘So I drown it out like I always do/Dancing through our house with the ghost of you’.
I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again was next, another of the eight new tracks on the night’s set list, before each of the band took turns performing one of their solo songs from their time pursuing music as individuals whilst on a break.
Hemmings was first, with his introspective Starting Line looking back on the craziness of his youth; Irwin followed with the incredible talent of drumming and singing at the same time with his song Have U Found What Ur Looking For?. Calum Hood’s Don’t Forget You Love Me was notably the crowd favourite of the solo projects, and Clifford’s enough was an interesting conflict of high energy with heavy lyrics and messaging. What was astounding to see was the support of the fans on each of these individual songs; still knowing every word, embracing them as part of 5SOS and not as ‘other’.
From here, each and every song was an unmistakable gem. The soulful, earnest Amnesia reignited the 16,000 torches across the room, Hemmings reflecting “We’ve been a band for 15-odd years… we’re very lucky, very grateful, to be here with you right now”. It was then a complete tonal shift, fans wiping tears to go crazy for English Love Affair, a track that’s always been a topic of speculation as it’s rumoured to be about drummer Ashton Irwin’s relationship with Gemma Styles, the sister of One Direction’s Harry. His cheeky grin whilst playing the song was as close as fans got to confirming the matter.
The crowd barely had time to regain their voices from this before being treated with back-to-back hits in Voodoo Doll, Waste the Night and Jet Black Heart, Clifford putting on the performance of a lifetime in the last of those on both guitar and vocals. It only took the iconic first note of She Looks So Perfect to get fans going feral, the amplified voices of those on stage completely drowned out by the ocean of heads in the audience who cherished the classic as much as the band, who owe their fame to the breakout song.
A brief goodbye and drop to darkness foreshadowed what everyone in the arena already knew; heads turning, awaiting the arrival of the boys who started their penultimate track, Everyone’s A Star!, walking through the standing crowd and back on to the stage. In my notes on this song from the show, I just have ‘INSANE guitar solo from Michael’, which says all you need to know about its standout moment. I’d only ever really seen 5 Seconds of Summer as this boyband who started on YouTube and got big because of One Direction, but this song, alongside the likes of Evolve and Boyband earlier in the set, had me genuinely impressed by their musical talents.
“We love playing here. We love being in the UK, we love London,” Hemmings started, introducing the last song. “This is our second home.”
There was almost a hush in the moment of expectation that preceded the next words to come out of his mouth– ‘Remember the words you told me, Love me til the day I die’– Youngblood’s two billion Spotify streams easily realised in the O2 Arena with every person in there singing, jumping, covered in confetti. They couldn’t have picked a much better way to round out the night.
It’s a testament to how far the Australian group has come to have such a catalogue of varied tracks, and fans that love and appreciate them all just the same.They embraced the new, heavier, rock sound just as they did the boyband pop classics ten years ago, and with the band spelling that this is only the beginning, the only question is where will 5 Seconds of Summer take their ever-evolving music next?
