What do you get when you put two Florida bands together for four nights? An amazing 4 days of music and concerts you will never forget. That was exactly what happened during Thanksgiving week when A Day To Remember and Underoath took over a sold-out House of Blues Orlando in Lake Buena Vista FL for The Degenerates Tour. A sold-out show at House of Blues Orlando is always an amazing experience. The energy from the fans, the talk of excitement, and the singing along to the songs line by line. There’s nothing greater than attending a show with hardcore fans. And it’s exactly what we had on Friday, November 30th.
First up was the special guest from Tampa, FL Underoath. The band formed back in 1997 and released their first album Act of Depression in 1999 and immediately gathered a strong fan base. Their high energy performances and music gathered the masses to their shows that helped support an additional 6 more albums with two of those certified as Gold. But, in 2012 Underoath announced they would be hanging it up and went on a farewell tour. In January 2013 the band played their final show at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, FL. Fortunately for their fans, the band announced their reunion in 2015 and in 2018 released their 8th studio album Erase Me. It was their first studio album in 8 years and was a huge success peaking at #1 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart. The band has been touring in support of Erase Me since it’s release. Underoath is Spencer Chamberlin (vocals), Aaron Gillespie (drums, vocals), Timothy Mctague (lead guitar), James Smith (rhythm guitar), Grant Brandell (bass), and Christopher Dudley (keyboards).
The stage went dark with nothing but words “Underoath” displayed on the big screen on stage. The band came out and started off the night with “In Regards to Myself” from Define the Great Line. They followed that with “Breathing In a New Mentality” from Lost in the Sound of Separation. Underoath had the crowd hooked and we were just getting started. The one thing I’ve always loved about Underoath is their passion and intensity on stage. Timothy, James, and Grant were playing hard and the more the crowd cheered and screamed the more it seemed to urge them on. Christopher was seriously a madman behind the keyboards, banging his head with his blonde hair whipping in front of his face back and forth. Aaron also did the same whipping away at the drums banging out some awesome drumbeats. As usual, Spencer‘s vocals were so powerful and clear and he led that crowd through every song. Underoath stuck to older music that night only playing three songs “On My Teeth”, “No Frame”, and “Sink With You” from Erase Me. The crowd was moshing, headbanging, and overall loving the performance. And when Underoath wrapped it up for the night, Spencer gave the crowd a nice surprise stating we’d hear new music from Underoath in 2020.
You can find Underoath music and merch HERE. Their setlist from that night included:
- In Regards to Myself
- Breathing In a New Mentality
- On My Teeth
- The Blue Note
- It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door
- No Frame
- Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
- A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White
- Writing on the Walls
- Sink With You
The stage was covered with a white curtain as the crew set up for A Day To Remember. As we were all waiting patiently, a rare, yet hilarious moment occurred. House of Blues Orlando starting playing The Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way” over the loudspeakers. The crowd on the floor starting singing along with the song. But, the group of fans who kept the mosh pit going decided to start moshing and crowd surfing to the song. It’s not every day you see a mosh pit to The Backstreet Boys!
Soon enough the headliners A Day To Remember would be coming to the stage. The band from Ocala, FL formed back in 2003. Focusing on gathering a fanbase, the band performed and toured as much as they could that starting year and in 2004 released their EP Halos for Heroes, Dirt for the Dead. By the following year, the band signed onto a record label and released their debut album And Their Name Was Treason. The album received great reviews and the band continued to build upon the momentum. When the band released Homesick in 2009, the album charted at #21 on the Billboard 200 and hit #1 on the Billboard Independent Albums Chart. The following year the band released both an EP of cover songs titled Attack of the Killer B-Sides but also released their fourth studio album What Separates Me from You. That album charted at #11 on the Billboard 200, hit #1 on multiple Billboard charts, and was even certified as Gold. A Day To Remember was on the rise with great sales, a huge fan base, and fantastic music. The band ended up entering a lawsuit in December 2011 against their record label at that time, Victory Records, over royalties not paid. As the lawsuit was ongoing, the band continued to make music and prepared for a new album release. A Day To Remember won the right to self-release their next album with Common Courtesy in 2013. That album did very well and charted #1 on the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart. In 2016 the band self-released Bad Vibrations. The album did very well and charted at #2 on the Billboard 200. A Day To Remember will be releasing their seventh studio album You’re Welcome with their new record label Fueled By Ramen. A Day To Remember is Jeremy McKinnon (vocals), Alex Shelnutt (drums), Kevin Skaff (guitar, vocals), Neil Westfall (guitar, vocals), and Joshua Woodard (bass).
When the curtain came down A Day To Remember was already onstage and immediately jumped into “The Downfall of Us All” from Homesick and then followed up with “All I Want” from What Separates Me From You. With bright lights on stage, two spotlights in the balcony, camera crew in the photo pit and at the soundboard display the action on the screen behind them, A Day To Remember made this show a huge production. The crowd was absolutely loving it all. They were singing along word for word, phones in their hands recording the action, and the mosh pit was moving hard, even requiring security to be in there to keep things safe. On top of that, fans were crowd surfing their way to the front to get as close as they could to the band. And the band themselves were having fun. Joshua was all smiles as he played bass. Neil was singing backup and smiling as he played. Kevin was wearing reflective sunglasses and grinning wide while he played. But, Jeremy was all over the stage running from side to side as he sang.
A Day To Remember sounded amazing during their performance. They played a huge setlist that night including songs such as “Paranoia”, a cover of “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit, “Rescue Me”, and their latest single “Degenerates”. Jeremy thanked the crowd often for supporting them through all the years and praised House of Blues Orlando, especially the security staff, for keeping all the fans safe. Jeremy also called out how impressed he was that not one crowd surfer got dropped that night and some people even crowd surfboarded each other without getting hurt. A very impressive feat. A Day To Remember also wanted to ensure the fans were having fun as they threw out beach balls, shot t-shirts out to the crowd, and even threw toilet paper around. When they came out to encore and close the show, the fired off tons of confetti and streamers covering the entire crowd.
A Day To Remember absolutely made it a memorable evening for the fans. You can find their merch and music HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- The Downfall of Us All
- All I Want
- Fast Forward to 2012
- Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End
- Paranoia
- You Be Tails, I’ll Be Sonic
- Better Off This Way
- My Own Worst Enemy (Lit cover)
- Right Back at It Again
- Rescue Me
- Have Faith in Me
- Degenerates
- I Heard It’s the Softest Thing Ever
- Resentment
- Sometimes You’re the Hammer, Sometimes You’re the Nail
- End of Me
- 2nd Sucks
- I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?
Encore:
- If It Means A Lot To You
- All Signs Point to Lauderdale
- City of Ocala
- The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle
It was an absolutely amazing night of great music from Underoath and A Day To Remember. This ranks as one of my top favorite shows for 2019. I hope they decide to come back around together again sometime in the near future.
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