The NewRxmantic

5 Seconds Of Summer ‘The 5SOS Show’ concert review

As a long-time fan who had never been allowed to go to concerts as a teen, I was not skipping The 5SOS Show when it came to a town near me. I’d been slow to get a ticket, but I was ecstatic to get one, weeks after the tickets went on sale. It was in…

Tererai Maenzanise

22/10/2023

4 minutes

On the day of the concert, anticipation was high. I went with a friend (who just happened to be a coworker), who kindly upgraded my seat to standing (she had a spare ticket on the day).

And so my review starts, as a long-time fan who got to experience The 5SOS Show deep in the pit, covered in confetti and singing my heart out.

The Opening Acts

The show had two opening acts. Charlotte Sands and Ar/Co. Due to the queue to get into the standing area, we missed the beginning of Charlotte Sands’ set, but the few songs we caught towards the end of her set were phenomenal. I found myself bookmarking the name in my head to check her out on Spotify after the show. Her sound is quite pop punk, which I love, and just makes you want to get up and scream sing along to her and dance around. So pretty perfect to open for 5 Seconds Of Summer.

Ar/Co had more rave vibes. We got to listen to the full set and it was quite enjoyable, they were very engaging to watch but the sound just isn’t one I’ve ever been a fan of. Again, they put on a great show and had the audience moving and ready for the boys to come out and start The 5SOS Show, so they did their job as an opener well.

The Main Act

Curtains drop. Lights and the crowd go wild. We get our first look at the band and Bad Omens starts. My heart. Racing.

The euphoria of being in the crowd when Luke started singing was something else. The light direction throughout the show was insanely good. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in my limited concert experience. There was so much thought and care put into how the show looked and it was just awe-inspiring. The way the lights pulsed with every hit of the drums from Ashton just carried an almost heartbeat-like character to the lights.

The boys performed incredibly well the whole show, you could tell how much they cared about giving us (the fans) the best experience with them.

I stood in anticipation for the random song dice that chose a surprise song in the show, although I had a feeling whatever we picked would be overridden with English Love Affair because duh. And it was, kind of. The dice barely made it away from the stage and made it back in record time, and mysteriously landed on English Love Affair. I had been secretly hoping for Voodoo Doll or Heartbreak On The Big Screen because those were two of my favourite songs as a teen. But I appreciate the commitment to making the show London-focused.

The show was incredibly interactive, with the lads keeping the audience as an active participant throughout the show, from the Dice, to Ashton vs The Crowd, the crowd getting ‘Sauced’ (mustard and ketchup coloured confetti being blasted over the crowd) to the screen during Best Friends showing fans hugging their friends and cheering along to the song and Micheal getting the fans to sing along to Pizza (Michael wants another slice) before erupting into the most punk guitar performance and a live rendition of the song for us. I was just such a beautiful merging of artists and fans throughout the show.

If I could go again this second, I would. Not just because I am a fan, but because you could tell that being on stage and performing to and with the fans is just something the band loves to do and I believe even non-fans would have been able to feel that excitement and high from the crowd.

All this to say, this was arguably the best concert I have been to in my life so far.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=59ZRHTBpgxY%3Fsi%3D9yuqjChw-aQvKdL9

You can find all my concert videos on my Youtube channel: Newrxmantic