A Day To Remember takes over Nashville Municipal Auditorium

I was stoked to catch A Day To Remember on the last stop of their “The Least Anticipated Album” tour here in Nashville TN. They’ve been a band I’ve wanted to see live since the early 2000’s and I’ve never had the opportunity until now. Arriving at the venue the line up was wrapped completely around the building and I knew we were in for a good night with this many fans waiting to pack the floor.

Kicking things off for the night was Scowl, a hardcore punk band from Santa Cruz, California. I find myself awestruck as people pour into the auditorium, which is a massive 306-foot diameter domed venue that towers over a large open floor and stage. The crowd is hit with Kat Moss’s wild stage presence and hardcore vocals as they arrive, and before long the auditorium is packed. With their fast riffs, commanding stage presence, and Kat’s range of vocals they packed a dozen or so songs into their opening set and proved to be an opener no one would soon forget.

Up next, pop-punk and hardcore fans alike were in for a great set from Four Years Strong. They featured new songs off their unreleased album, Analysis Paralysis, as well as crowd favorites like “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)” from their 2010 album Enemy Of The World. Within the first few songs a circle pit forms on the floor, and by the end of their set, people are continually crowd surfing over the barricade towards the stage.

The Story So Far took the stage with slightly less energy than the first two bands. While their music and vocals were exceptional, it took a bit of feedback from the crowd, and a few songs before their set truly gained momentum. Although they may have lacked an energetic stage presence, they easily made up for it with pop-punk anthems the crowd loved, moshing and crowd surfing throughout their set. At times I found myself watching the sign language interpreter signing their lyrics rather than watching the band, but it was awesome to hear them perform tracks from their latest album, including “Letterman,” which has amassed over five million streams since its release this year. This achievement and the crowd's reaction to their set is a true testament to the band's standing in the pop-punk scene. 

Just before 9:30, A Day To Remember took the stage, strobes flashing, and kicking their set off with a bang! The first two lines of “Sticks & Bricks” are growled out by lead singer Jeremy McKinnon, and confetti cannons blast across the crowd as Neil Westfall and Kevin Skaff hit the opening riff on guitars. The crowd absolutely erupts as confetti falls slowly down from the massive domed ceiling above. Their second song “All I want” is the track that got me hooked on their music in 2010, and I find myself screaming the lyrics at the back of my camera while capturing Alex Shelnutt slamming the drums from the elevated stage behind the band. “Paranoia” is up next and as soon as we hear the lyrics “I’m like a timebomb ticking in your head” the front of the stage is blasted with columns of cryo below the bands feet, followed by pyro effects from eight sources across the entire stage, the heat being felt from the front row! 

After taking a seat in the stands, I continued to watch a crowd more engaged than any I had seen in years. Throughout the show the band threw beach balls out in the crowd for one song, toilet paper streamers for another, there was a massive circle pit, and my favorite spectacle crowd surfing on top of a crowd surfer! To quote Jeremy explaining it “somebody crowd surfs on top of the crowd like normal, and then you stand on top of them like they’re a fucking surfboard, and you surf them all the way to the security guards!” Before he could even start the song “Mindreader”, there were several people already surfing to the front! 

When the band decided on the setlist, Jeremy explained, they wanted to put the maximum amount of songs they could into an hour and half set. This included a track they never play on tour, a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” which any pop-punk fan will confirm is better than the original. Their set ended with the acoustic song “If It Means A Lot To You” where the entire auditorium was lit only by cellphones in the crowd. The band returned for two encore songs including “It’s Complicated” and “The Downfall Of Us All” and as the lyrics were cut short at “Devil of us…”, the crowd had the last word and screamed “ALLLL” as a final blast of cryo, and confetti shot out across the crowd!