All Time Low bring 10th album ‘Everyone’s Talking!’ to The O2 in London
All Time Low proving emo isn’t dead with a full capacity show at London’s O2 Arena? Yeah, count me in!
Photo: Rory Barnes
After 23 years of touring, All Time Low show they do not miss a beat with an unbelievable live set, boasting a 26-song setlist that, for me, will be unforgettable. The tour was named after the release of the new and tenth studio album, Everyone’s Talking, and, yes, I will be talking about this show for a while.
The “it was not just a phase” experience was joined in kind by Taylor Acorn and genre heavyweights Mayday Parade. These were great additions, and despite the last-minute pull-out from Four Year Strong, who I was very excited to see, I felt like the whole show melded so well within the individual performances and later cameos that came in the headline act.
Unfortunately, I was not able to see the whole of the Taylor Acorn setlist — blaming London transport for that one. From what I did see, I was nothing short of impressed, despite not being overly familiar with her discography before the show, but she definitely has earned a deep dive. For those who are also not familiar, I would seriously recommend checking out Shapeshifting, Psycho and Crashing Out.
Next came a band that I massively grew up with, this being Mayday Parade. I have a lot of time for Derek Sanders and the guys, who to this day I still believe have one of the greatest pop punk albums of all time with A Lesson in Romantics. I was not disappointed with this performance at all. Obviously, a strong amount of the setlist was dedicated to A Lesson in Romantics (which I was not complaining about).
They did, however, open with Sad album highlight Under My Sweater, a jumpy, upbeat crowd pleaser and a great way for the band to introduce themselves to the show. Following this, they hit us with a double whammy from A Lesson in Romantics: Jersey and I'd Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About, which brought a big smile to my face.
Derek Sanders’ whimsical performance can be perfectly illustrated by the fact that he decided to not wear any footwear on the O2 stage. This checks out with the band’s vibe, and it did not stop Derek’s movements on stage one bit, with the long-haired headbanging and energetic jumps.
They closed the set with the very popular and karaoke favourite of mine, Jamie All Over — the crowd were electric for this, with Mayday Parade on multiple occasions letting the crowd sing, and seeing the happiness on their faces for this was priceless. The crowd’s vocals would be a heavy theme in the headline set to follow. An overall great support act with a band having a long history with All Time Low, and genuinely might as well have been the perfect choice for a tour such as this.
We now move on to the main event, what the 20,000 in attendance were waiting for. The lights dimmed, and Mr. Blue Sky by ELO looked to be the entrance for what we would think would be a fast-paced, straight-to-the-action opening. This was not the case, at least not yet. They showed the opening promotion package to get the crowd hyped but it faded to black, only for a spotlight to hit the stage with All Time Low lead singer Alex Gaskarth standing solo with a guitar in hand playing a very sombre [cold open], which then eventually led into the explosive start, opening with a song from the new album Everyone’s Talking: SUCKERPUNCH. Having listened to the album, I picked this song as a show opener; it just seems to hit all the right notes for crowd engagement, being fun with an insanely catchy chorus.
With the new album not long released and the tour itself being on the back of the album, there was a heavy push on the setlist for songs from this. From the 26 songs played, seven of these were from Everyone’s Talking, this included the [cold open] Alex opened with, Butterflies, Falling for Strangers, Little Bit, Sugar and also The Weather, which was played as part of the encore, and also my personal favourite song from the new album, and they were joined by Derek Sanders for his cameo.
However, with all these new songs, All Time Low still had plenty of time for the classics. They rolled out Poppin’ Champagne, Weightless, Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), just to name a few. This setlist really did cover all of the hits, it was very hard when looking back at this to pinpoint what they missed from their discography to play, and what would I replace it with — the only song that came to mind was A Love Like War, as it is a personal favourite of mine but, aside from that, they really hit all the bases. Every album got a slot, and everything was really well placed within the set.
About halfway through, they settled into an acoustic section of the set with Future Hearts’ Missing You, followed by the best moment of the entire show. The performance of Remembering Sunday, a song that is already close to my heart, can now be accompanied by a performance that fits the memories I have associated with this. This was definitely the emotional high of the gig, with the crowd taking over vocally.
Alex was being drowned out by the sheer volume of the full-capacity crowd, only for Taylor Acorn to come out to perform Lindsay Sterling’s vocals on the song, and this was truly mind-blowing. Lindsay’s performance way back when So Wrong, It’s Right was released was iconic enough, but this live performance from Taylor was phenomenal. He noted that they received criticism for removing this song from setlists. It begs the question, then: who in their right mind would remove this song from their setlist? Thank goodness they brought this back, as I feel an All Time Low concert would really miss it.
The encore came around, and they played the single from the new album, The Weather, with a cheeky Derek Sanders cameo, which led into the two most recognisable songs if someone was to tell you they know who All Time Low are. This being, first of all, Lost In Stereo, with the show closing with the genre-defining anthem Dear Maria, Count Me In. Minus points to Alex for not coughing before performing the intro as per the song, but this was very quickly forgiven with the pure joy of hearing this live. 14-year-old me would be so happy and made me realise, with a song like this, where were you the first time you heard this? A song within a league of its own and the undisputed anthem of All Time Low’s career.
From me, a thank you to All Time Low for being a mainstay musically during my teenage and adult years. We have had 23 years of All Time Low and, if they want to go for another 20 years, I will be there.
Setlist:
[cold open]
SUCKERPUNCH
Weightless
Poppin’ Champagne
PMA (with Lauran Hibberd)
Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t)
Dark Side of Your Room
Time-Bomb
Backseat Serenade
Sleeping In
Little Bit
Something’s Gotta Give
Falling for Strangers
Missing You (Acoustic)
Remembering Sunday (with Taylor Acorn)
Goodnight, C’est La Vie
Butterflies
Dirty Laundry
New Religion
Sugar
Sleepwalking
Hate This Song
Monsters
Encore:
The Weather (with Derek Sanders)
Lost in Stereo
Dear Maria, Count Me In
