With a lot of anticipation in the air, the crowd could not wait for this fatal four-way of pop punk champions to clash.
Making their way to the ring first was Seaway this 5-piece from Oakville ON are the newest of the American cousins visiting our shores. As soon as they struck their guitars with punk anthem ‘Your Best Friend’, the usual reluctance of an audience to get moving had all but evaporated into a wall of moving bodies and screaming vocals. This trend would continue with vocalist Ryan Locke’s smile widening with every song as cheers and screams come for ‘Sabrina The Teenage Bitch’, inciting the crowd to a circle pit. It seemed Seaway were also pleasantly surprised with a crowd surfer or two. Ending with the hit ‘Shy Guys’, their energy and momentum never stopped; no one would blame you for betting these guys could be contenders for the world title. This was only the beginning of the night, and one of the strongest opening bands I’ve ever seen.
Next up and newest to the game Trophy Eyes a 5 piece from Newcastle, New South Wales. They may be the youngest band on the tour, but for what they lack in age, they make up for in energy and athleticism. Coming out swinging with ‘May 24’, their unique brand of groove-oriented punk sends heads rocking, and the crowd can barely contain themselves long enough for pleasantries between songs. The fast pulse of ‘ In Return’ hits the chests of the crowd, sending many whirling off into a circle pit, again the crowd response grows even stronger for such a young part of the night. Finishing with ‘Penfold State Prison’ and by this point having the audience right where they want them crowd surfers and high fives all round as Trophy Eyes leaves with one last hurrah, which gets them recognised as a band that know what their audience wants.
Suddenly, the atmosphere seemed to twist and turn as if everyone knew something big was about to happen. With everyone’s attention on the dark stage set before them, it was time to bring out the current number 1 contenders, Knuckle Puck Southern California’s finest. As soon as the lights were up and ‘Your Back Porch’ began, there was so much noise and excitement one could have been mistaken for thinking this was their show. With hard-hitting beats, irresistible melodies and crunching vocals by this time the crowd were in full swing. With newer songs ‘Bedford Falls‘ and ‘But Why Would You Care‘ receiving a strong display of acceptance and encouragement it wasn’t long before old favourites like ‘Gold Rush’ a deep, fast paced song ticking all the right punk boxes to lure even the most petrified crowd into moving and ‘Give Up‘, 2 minutes of gut kicking, pop punking joy. The climax came in the form of final song ‘No Good’ after these twos words slipped from lead singers Joe Taylor’s lips the crowd were so loud he felt no need for the microphone held in his hand and with everyone singing the words so loud it even gave his cutting voice a scare, he could’ve comfortably continued for the last few minutes without it. Knuckle Punk finished to a baying crowd wanting more and looking around at the sweat drenched faces, bruised heads from crowd surfers and the empty cups scattered around the floor it certainly felt as if the headlining band had just finished, although these observations only proved to be a sorbet to cleanse the pallette because the defending champions weren’t going to be written off so quickly.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for Neck Deep are hitting the stage hard, no time for introductions, all that needed to be heard was the intro for ‘Losing Teeth’ and well, the rest you know. Screams, cheers, whistles, crowd surfers, kids throwing themselves off stage, mosh pits, circle pits, every tool you can name, a crowd may have to show their love for a band, it was being shown right here. That’s what’s so wonderful about pop punk, these are the requisites of live music and deemed acceptable behaviour, especially for a Neck Deep show. When the melody starts for ‘A Part Of Me’, frontman Ben Barlow can barely keep the microphone to himself with all the crowd launching themselves at him screaming the lyrics back, usually the noise from the band tends to overwhelm the crowd however, in this particular circumstance, it was very much the opposite. Playing a mixture of ‘Wishful Thinking’ and their two other EP’s ‘Rain In July’ and ‘A History Of Bad Decisions’ the night see’s pop punk gold in the form of everything from ‘Sweet Nothings‘ and ‘Staircase Wit‘ to ‘All Hype No Heart‘ and ‘What Did You Expect’ and the heavy weight titans Neck Deep smashed it and continue their reign at the very top of the pop punk mountain but with 3 hot contenders on their heels how long before we crown a new champion?
Words – Marc Allum
Photography – Kayleigh Warren
