Stand Atlantic smash it out of the park yet again!
Stand Atlantic get better and better every time I see them and with the recent release of their album ‘WAS HERE’, they are going further than before to put on an insane show for their fans. This album is my ‘Album of the Year’ for sure, having knocked all the other contestants right off the podium, switching between slower songs and much more upbeat heavier songs, lead singer, Bonnie Fraser, really lets all her feelings out on the album, while ensuring they don’t get stuck in the ‘pop-punk’ box by mixing every genre together. They have been travelling around the UK playing sold out shows and beating the crowd surfing records at each venue and have now set off for their European shows, with very limited tickets left but I highly suggest going if you are able!
The evening started with Australian band Slowly Slowly. Having not listened to their music before I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed their set. Their set consisted of pop-punk, indie-rock songs, a few notable ones being ‘Gimme the Wrench’ and ‘Daisy Chain’ which I will definitely be adding to my playlists after seeing them live. They were well-received by the crowd and had them all jumping by the end of their high energy set.
Next up was Honey Revenge, who I had seen before, but their performance and crowd reception had vastly improved since last time and I enjoyed it even more. They even got their first ‘wall of death’ thanks to the London crowd, and the crowd surfers started right at the beginning of their set. Their fanbase seems to have grown so much since their last UK tour and they seemed to be so much more confident on stage throughout their energetic set full of high kicks. My favourite songs live were ‘Sensitive’ which has the best breakdowns, ‘Airhead’ and the recently released ‘Medicine’ from the deluxe version of their album ‘Retrovision’.
Then it was time for Stand Atlantic who entered the stage to Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I feel like a woman!’ before leading into the first song off ‘WAS HERE’, ‘WAKE UP-SIT DOWN-SHUT UP’ which set the tone perfectly for the evening. Before reaching into the back catalogue with ‘hair out’ and ‘Jurassic Park’. Then we were thrown back into the new album with ‘WARZ0NE’, I am a big fan of the heavier sound they’ve found recently with Bonnie Fraser throwing in screams every now and then. The crowd was going absolutely crazy with the crowd surfing and moshing which included every type of moshing you can think of from a ‘wall of death’ to a ‘rowing pit’ as well as the classic ‘circle pit’ and they even got their merch managers crowd surfing.
Having seen Stand Atlantic several times in smaller venues, it was lovely to see them headlining bigger venues with full production and room for fans to fully express themselves. ‘KISSIN’ KILLER COBRAS’ was by far my favourite song live. The set then continued with a good mix of songs off all their albums, slowing down a bit for ‘Lavender Bones’, ‘Toothpick’ (which included a segment of Train’s ‘Drops of Jupiter’) and ‘LOVE YOU ANYWAY’ but bringing the energy back up with ‘SEX ON THE BEACH’ and ‘switchblade’ before Bonnie silenced the crowd by holding her scream at the end of ‘KILL[H]ER’ for nearly 20 seconds, which was super impressive and showed off her incredible vocal range and control.
They then proceeded to bring out a slurry of surprise guests for the rest of their set, first up was Patty Walters from As It Is to sing Sueco’s part of ‘NOSE BLEED’ which was another highlight of the evening. Then another one of my favourites ‘pity party’ while Potter spun around on stage with his guitar and the crowd screamed all the lyrics back to this fan favourite. They then played ‘dumb’ and ‘CRIMINAL’ which also went hard live, before bringing out Holly Minto of Crawlers to sing nothing,nowhere.’s part of ‘deathwish’ which was amazing.
Then it was time for the encore which included ‘Coffee at Midnight’, which was one of the first songs I ever heard from them when it first came out in 2017, and ‘GIRL$’ which Devin Papadol, lead singer of Honey Revenge, came out to sing with them.
Despite Chappell Roan playing at a venue just down the road, they managed to pack out Electric Brixton and put on an incredible show, even joking with the crowd during a few technical difficulties and keeping fans on their toes all evening, before sending us off to ‘clown music’. This was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while! Be sure to catch them on their European dates if you can or their upcoming US tour supporting A Day to Remember in October or their 3 headline shows in Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Denver. You won’t regret it!
