Live Review: All Time Low - O2 Brixton Academy, London 23/09/2021
On Thursday 23rd September, All Time Low graced the hallowed stage of O2 Academy Brixton for a sold out show, bringing with them their friends in The Maine and Meet Me @ The Altar.
With a queue spanning around the block before doors had even opened, the excitement was palpable. All Time Low’s last England shows had come at the end of February 2020, just before lockdown hit, with intimate settings including London’s The Garage and an acoustic set at Black Sheep Coffee & Cocktails. And then, like every other band, everything was put on hiatus — live music wise anyway. Lockdown gave the band the perfect opportunity to finalise and release Wake Up Sunshine, their eighth studio album, from a rental house in the Palm Desert, an album which received its full length debut on a special livestream performed by the band last October. But livestreams never really count as debuts — so, for the majority of the thousands of people waiting impatiently for the Pop Punk heroes, this was as much a fulfilment of a year’s waiting as it was an All Time Low show.
With such pressure heaped on a tiny UK tour at the start of September, one has to wonder whether the three bands on the billing would be able to deliver.
First up to the plate was Meet Me @ The Altar, an all female pop punk group that first met through Youtube but quickly soared in 2020, thanks in part to All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth’s endorsement. It seemed fitting that the global breakthrough band were able to come and play their first UK shows with the band that, while not making it possible — such a statement would be disingenuous to the band’s own brilliance and hard work — certainly fast-tracked their rise.
Straight away, with pink and blue hair flitting across her face, chased by what seemed to be small chains, the explosion of colour that is vocalist Edith Johnson made for quite a vibrant sight. Accompanied by surprisingly heavy riffs, the five members on stage — or at least the four not glued to a drum kit — raced around the daunting Brixton stage with a footfall that would make a PT proud. Flying through a mixture of originals and covers — including a riotous medley of iconic pop punk songs, such as Lit’s My Own Worst Enemy and My Friends Over You by New Found Glory — the band seemed somehow both immensely comfortable and in intense awe of their slot. And yet, for their second ever UK show, the crowd seemed to be lapping it up. Most had made it into the venue by this point, as the queue slowly began to recede; it meant Meet Me @ The Altar got the sort of sized crowd they deserved. It’s easy to see how the band has made such a name for themselves; and, as they broke into recent single Feel A Thing, the only question on everyone’s mind was when the next UK shows would be!
The Maine, who seemed to draw in as many band T-shirts as All Time Low had, seemed worried that the crowd wouldn’t know who they are. The sheer number of contingencies, just in case, seemed to help settle their nerves. Between playing one or two of their own songs in the intermission, some jumbo-sized images of the album artwork for XOXO bedecking the stage, and a huge ‘You are watching a band called the maine (now available in red)’ banner hanging from the ceiling ensured that the band were covering all of their bases. But they needn’t have gone to the effort — from the crowd’s reaction to the opening strums of single Sticky, the crowd knew precisely who they are. In fact, I think very few All Time Low fans wouldn’t, with their inclusions in the Sad Summer Fest tour and their emotive yet fantastic blend of relatable pop punk.
Coming on stage to a red carpet-esque audio play of Sweet Caroline, the band had the entire crowd singing without even uttering a word. Frontman John O’Callaghan seemed as much a compere as he did the lead vocalist of such an iconic band — selecting members of the audience to act as ambassadors to the rest of their peers, their responsibility to make sure that everyone was moving. “You don’t have to know it, you just have to feel it”, John informs us during opener Sticky, from the recent album XOXO; later in the set, after appropriating a white-dot-speckled red cowboy hat, John stands at the front of the stage like an Americana Messiah. “We’re a band called The Maine, make a noise if you give a shit!” From the roars and cheers back, everyone did in fact give a shit.
A litany of crowd surfers during Slip The Noose and a slow, laid-back intro to crowd favourite Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu, leads the band to their final few songs. But this was more than simply a set; rather, this was a celebration. “Look around you — real people! Real live music”, John cries, before leading the crowd in a sing along. “Why...” he starts, as the crowd finish the chorus to recent All Time Low hit Monsters. Then, as the band fly into closer Numb Without You, their message is really driven home — the real casualty of the past 18 months is just this loss of connection. “We’re a band called The Maine”, they remind us. I don’t think anyone’s going to forget for a long while.
After a short wait, alleviated by some well-received tunes blasted into the five-thousand strong crowd — a few Don Broco tunes, some The Kid Laroi, all culminating in the iconic Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus — the audio turns to elevator music. Here, the crowd are introduced to All Time Low’s virtual assistant Sharon, who pops up throughout the show to offer little interludes and breaks for the band. Yet more than anything, Sharon serves as the first introduction from the band to the crowd of the most impressive part of their live show: the lighting. Even in opener Some Kind of Disaster, the psychedelic light show glaring from behind the Baltimore boys was as impressive as the band’s actual live performance. And the explosion of streamers over the crowd never hurts!
After the first few songs — Dark Side of Your Room, Six Feet Under The Stars — the band break into the ever-popular Lost In Stereo. Here, a huge pit opens up in the crowd, although very few people actually take advantage of the moshing possibilities. Yet it was in the quieter moments that the band really shone. With the band leaving the stage, Alex Gaskarth was left standing alone with an acoustic guitar, breaking into the crowd favourite sing-alongs of Therapy and Missing You. With a swaying crowd and the blisteringly loud response from the crowd, it reflected a band as capable of moments of emotional contemplation as they are sing along anthems.
Yet that’s not to say the anthems weren’t there. With the fantastic Weightless and Something’s Gotta Give intermingling with the newer singles of PMA and Once in a Lifetime, All Time Low’s set perfectly blended the new and the old, all the way back to 2008’s So Wrong, It’s Right.
These new ones still take centre stage though. The closer Glitter & Crimson — prefaced by Alex’s affirmation that “the best thing about love is that love loves whoever the fuck it wants” — saw the crowd shining flashlights and lighters back onto the stage before the band promise to come back next summer.
Similarly, the encore — introduced by an 8-bit Dear Maria, with dancing retro arcade faces of the band — was the recent smash hit, Monsters, with Alex doing a remarkable approximation of blackbear’s rapped second verse. But, regardless of any song’s recent success, there can only ever be one encore. And, even without the now iconic cough at the beginning — that I’m still bitter isn’t part of the live version! — everyone knew it. Over five thousand people chanting a thirteen year old song must never get old, because the band’s jubilant smiles sure seemed genuine as the night finally began to draw to a close. One final set of streamers, this time bright yellow so as to co-ordinate with the Wake Up Sunshine aesthetic, and that was that (bar the massive throng of people taking over Brixton tube station on the way out).
A tremendous night from a brilliant set of bands whose re-emergence has been long-awaited.
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by James Baker