Wednesday night, A Day To Remember’s headlining tour with Underoath stopped at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island.  I arrived at the venue to find it completely packed with kids, a large amount of them hanging out near the entrance hoping to score a last minute ticket to the sold-out show.

Metalcore act Underoath, from Tampa, Florida, was first up after opening acts The Word Alive and Close Your Eyes.  Although this was my first time seeing Underoath with their new drummer, Daniel Davison (formerly of Norma Jean), the band didn’t miss a beat— literally.  The band kicked off their set with “Illuminator” off their recently released album Ø (Disambiguation), following up with the well known adrenaline-pumping “In Regards to Myself”.  A most enjoyable aspect of seeing Underoath perform live was their amazing use of visuals, each song equipped with multi-colored lights which flashed to the beat of the song in addition to their notable use of a video screen in replacement of a backdrop.  At first I thought this might take away from the performance a bit and draw the focus away from the band, but this was not the case at all.  Throughout each song the screen pulsed between the band name and their famous UØ logo, and continuously kept the audience entertained by kicking into full gear during their song breaks, showing random video footage of television screens and a woman walking.  The band undoubtedly promoted their new album, mixing four new songs into the playlist of older songs and crowd favorites such as “It’s a Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door” and closing tune “Writing on the Walls”.

After Underoath’s seamless performance it was hard to imagine how any band would rise above the bar that had just been set, yet A Day To Remember definitely rose to the challenge.  As the anticipation for the heavy pop-punk band increased, the teenage crowd took up a loud chant of “A-D-T-R”, in the same fashion of cheering for your favorite team at a sports game.  When the band rushed the stage, the backdrop fell with an image of red boxing gloves and “A Day To Remember” written around the edges.  The band jumped right into their set with their newly released hit “2^nd Sucks” off their latest album What Separates Me From You, sending the crowd into heaps of madness on the first word “Fight!”.  Regardless of a couple weak song beginnings and rushed timing, the band definitely made up for this in terms of energy and crowd interaction.  With memorable lines such as “My friends come first, that’s the bottom line” and “Mark my words, we’re taking over the world”, ADTR had the entire venue jumping around and screaming lyrics in unison.  Towards the end of their set, front man Jeremy McKinnon encouraged the crowd to “open this entire place up!” which sent hurdles of kids in every possible direction, mostly into the air.  After the band’s 16-song set, they returned with an encore of 3 more favorites and ended with a powerful performance of “A Plot to Bomb the Panhandle” equipped with a blast of confetti over the crowd.