Amanda's News Blog: Gamechangers Tour review

Headliner: A Day To Remember

Support: We Came As Romans, Pierce the Veil, Bring Me The Horizon

Venue: Roseland Theater, Portland OR

Inside the Roseland Theater at 6:30 pm on April 2nd, the floor was packed with anxious teenagers. The line outside had snaked around 2 sides of the building, equalling about 2 block lengths. The show was sold out, and 1400 people were now excitedly awaiting the beginning of the Gamechangers Tour. The lineup featured four heavyweights in todays Alternative Rock and Hardcore music genres: We Came As Romans, Pierce the Veil, Bring Me the Horizon, and A Day To Remember.

As lights dimmed the crowds noise got increasingly louder, until the 6 members of We Came As Romans took the stage and overpowered the crowds cheer with their fast paced opening number, Broken Statues. It was obvious right away that although WCAR was the opening band, they were in no way unknown to the crowd. It only took moments for a mosh pit to open up and for people to start jumping, shoving, and screaming along to the music. WCAR powered through 6 songs off their album To Plant a Seed and never ceased energizing the crowd.

At 7:45, Pierce the Veil took the stage, opening with their song Besitos. As surprised as I was at the immediate positive response of the crowd to We Came As Romans, Pierce the Veil did not disappoint either. It seemed as though the farther we got in the show, the rowdier and involved the crowd got. It was during Pierce the Veil's closing number, Caraphernelia, that things started getting really crazy. The crowds singing was almost overpowering the singing of lead vocalist Vic Fuentes. During the last chorus, Jeremy Mckinnon of A Day To Remember joined PTV on stage to scream part of the song in which he did guest vocals on the bands recorded version of Caraphernelia. Seeing the vocalist of ADTR before their set and before the crowd had expected to completely set everyone off, and Bring Me the Horizon kept the momentum up.

Bring Me the Horizon is a metal band originating from the UK where they built a huge following, and then began to build one in the US as well. They are now signed to three different record labels. One in the UK, one in the US, and one in Australia. It is less common for a band to start in the UK and make a large fan base in the US as well, as opposed to the reverse, so I was extremely impressed at how enthralled fans here are. BMTH played a 45 minute set, and led up perfectly to A Day To Remember.

Between sets, the venue was vibrating with excited chatter from the crowd. Everyone was talking to everyone, conveying which songs they hoped ADTR would play, and rumours they had heard of surprises that were built into the set. A black cutain was dropped from the ceiling 20 minutes to ten, concealing what was going on onstage. At 9:50 the room went dark and the entire crowd compacted forward toward the stage and began cheering loudly, anticipating the bands entrance. The curtain fell and A Day To Remember jumped into the song Sticks&Bricks. The opening song was one of their heaviest and made the crowd go instantly crazy. The whole crowd turned into a giant pit of jumping, dancing, moshing, and generally freaking out. The transitioned from Sticks&Bricks into a few songs form their breakthrough album For Those Who Have Heart. You could tell that the majority of the crowd were long time fans, singing every word of every song, even ones from two or three albums ago. Six songs in, during All I Want, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy joined ADTR on stage and sang part of the song, the first of many unexpected events. The next one came two songs later, during All Signs Point to Lauderdale, when stage crew members threw probably 30 rolls of toilet paper into the crowd. Streaks of white paper went soaring across the room for the rest of the night, the whole place looked like a raging house party. Toilet paper was not the only thing we were being hit with throughout the night. Water, beer, shoes, hats, and other random liquids and articles of clothing were constantly flying through the crowd and landing on people. Not to mention crowd surfers. It would have been impossible to tally all the crowd surfers that were bobbing along the tops of hands and heads. During the song 2nd Sucks, Jeremy challenged the crowd to do a more challenging crowd surf, in which someone had to be laying flat, like the board, and someone else had to stand on top of them, as if they were surfing. I thought this sounded crazy, but apparently the crowd was crazy, because many people succeeded in that challenge.

The next surprise, and my favorite of the night, took place during the title track of the bands third album, Homesick. Jeremy disappeared to the side of the stage, and less than a minute later he reemerged in a giant, clear hamster ball. He ran forward and launched himself in the ball into the crowd. I was amazed at his stability, he was able to sing the whole song while running around on top of the crowd in this giant ball, and only fell inside it a few times. Four songs later, the band thanked the crowd and exited the stage, much to the crowds dismay.

After a few minutes of chanting "one more song" and cheering, A Day To Remember took the stage again and did two final songs for their encore. First, Jeremy and guitarist Kevin played an acoustic version of their song If It Means A Lot To You. Before the song, Jeremy told the crowd "Sometimes I don't remember all the words to this song, so you all are going to need to sing this as loud as you can". The crowd did not disappoint. I could hardly hear Jeremy over the voices of the crowd as we all sang along. It was a beautiful moment in an otherwise rowdy show. Near the end of the acoustic jam, the rest of the band took their places and ended it fully instrumental. They led into their closing song, and what Jeremy referred to as "the jam", The Downfall Of Us All. A large net above the crowd released hundreds of balloons and the room turned into a colorful, sweaty, loud blur. Everyone in the room gave it their all for the final jam, band and crowd alike. There could not have been a more perfect closing number.

I would classify the Gamechangers Tour as one of the craziest, funnest, best concerts I have ever been a part of. The lineup was flawless, each band bringing their own flair to hardcore music. We Came as Romans with their songs conveying a sense of unity, connectedness, and loyalty. Pierce the Veil with their storylike lyrics, strobe lights, hardcore dance beats, and unique sound. Bring Me the Horizon with their established stage presence and unyielding metal breakdowns. And A Day To Remember with their variety of records and songs, strong messages and sing along lyrics, heavy breakdowns and distinct guitar riffs and drum beats, and all around quality music that has been building and evolving, and gaining a wide following, since 2003. A Day to Remember is a band that has stayed true to themselves and their music since day one and have worked tirelessly to get to where they are now. They deserve all the sold out shows and amazing success that they are receiving now.

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