Neck Deep played the 8th show of their ‘The Peace And The Panic’ UK tour last night, selling out Brixtons’ O2 Academy.
Neck Deep is a pop-punk band formed of Ben Barlow (lead singer), Sam Bowden (guitarist), Dani Washington (drummer), Fil Thorpe-Evans (bassist) and Matt West (guitarist). After the recent release of their 3rd album ‘The Peace And The Panic’, the band has become even more popular than before, selling out venues.
Woes, Real Friends and As It Is, three very talented bands, are supporting Neck Deep on their UK tour making each night unforgettable for all the fans. All the bands supportive of mental health reminded us throughout the evening that it can happen to anyone and that it’s okay to get help, along with a mental health charity present for advice and selling t-shirts which sent out a warming message to fans. The queue to enter the venue went around the entire building making it a long a wait to get inside. Sadly I missed Woes due to the lengthy queue which means I cannot tell you what they are like live but I do recommend checking them out! I have seen Real Friends play before and being a big fan of these guys I was really excited to see them again. Their performance was even better than the first time I saw them. They only played a few songs but still managed to get the crowd going with favourites such as ‘Summer’ and ‘I don’t love you anymore’.
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Next up, As It Is came out singing ‘Okay’ from their latest album, fans instantly started singing along and dancing.
As It Is are a popular pop-punk band who will be doing a headline tour very soon according to lead singer Patty Walters, so if you haven’t listened to them yet what are you waiting for? I only managed to get a circle seat so I wasn’t in the main crowd, but from what I could see looking down was that the venue was packed out, people were going crazy with excitement all night. There was a sensation of energy throughout the venue that reached as far as the seated area. After As It Is, a big white curtain dropped down to hide the entire stage whilst staff prepared for the headline act. Fans started to chant and then finally the stars of the show, Neck Deep, made an epic entrance playing ‘Happy Judgement Day’.
The band played nineteen songs in total, a mix of older songs and songs from their latest album. The set included their first ever song ‘What did you expect?’, sang along to by nearly everyone in the venue, you could tell that many fans have stuck by them since the beginning. Neck Deep put on such a good show, I could see so many people in the stalls crowd surfing and mosh pitting, the heat from everybody’s energy was rising up to the top, you could actually feel it. Even people in the circle seats were standing up to join in with the band and the guitarists were sliding down slopes on stage, there was so much energy.
Being out of the main crowd isn’t all that bad, I had an amazing view looking out on the stage with Neck Deep’s insane light effects, fire, sparks and smoke.
They were getting us to join in and stopping to hear us fans sing; they even told us to hug the person next to us before playing ‘Parachute’ which really gave a feeling of love and understanding, reminding us all to be there for one another.
Fil and Ben sang ‘Wish You Were Here’, a beautiful song coming from their recent loss of people close to them. People in the crowd were shining their phone lights, it was a heartwarming moment because this song is relatable to absolutelyeveryone and felt very emotional. It definitely brought tearsto my eyes.
The band went off stage after ‘A Part Of Me’. Whilst waiting for them to come back on stage for the typical ‘encore’, we all started chanting. They came back to sing a classic ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots’ and ‘Where Do We Go When We Go’; the atmosphere was incredible, it was such a big finale.
Thank you to all the bands for such an incredible concert, it’s so special to see bands who are genuinely passionate about what they do and who care about their fans.
Sarah Perry