When you think of A Day to Remember concerts, crushing riffs, sweaty mosh pits, and furious headbanging come to mind. However, for their current “Reassembled: Acoustic Theater Tour,” the Florida rockers showed a softer side with a set performed as an acoustic-driven show. They also brought along metalcore crew (and fellow Ocala natives) Wage War, who also delivered similarly on the acoustic front. Here are five moments that stood out from the sold-out show at Detroit’s Fillmore on December 11th:
Wage War Act “Civilized for One Night”
As the crowd filtered in, everyone took their seats, which were arranged all the way up to the stage. “We can be civilized for one night, right?” the band joked. The audience certainly did their part, listening raptly throughout the set.
Wage War set the tone for their set early, bringing in the intensity of their metalcore roots to their acoustic-driven instrumentation with driving guitar riffs on set opener “Godspeed.” (The band recently released The Stripped Sessions, providing the basis for these alternate arrangements.) Elsewhere in their set, Wage War shined brightest with the combined forces of their vocalists on tracks like “Prison” and “Never Said Goodbye.”
A Day to Remember Thrill (and Surprise) With Early Classics
“This is usually the part where I ask for a circle pit,” quipped A Day to Remember lead singer Jeremy McKinnon at the start of “The City of Ocala,” the second track of the set. “But that’s not gonna work tonight.”
The band seized the attention of the room from the jump with their twangy arrangement of their hit “The Downfall of Us All.” Another early surprise? The band slotted in a reimagined version of fan favorite “All I Want,” which had not typically been included in the set earlier on the tour. The track provided a showcase for McKinnon to hold some powerful sustained notes, while leading an energetic call-and-response with the crowd. Impressively, McKinnon also noted that many of the chords for these alternate arrangements were “completely brand new,” so the band was playing their catalog in a new way.
Breakdowns, Acoustic Style
One of the most exciting parts of A Day to Remember’s usual live show is the breakdowns, from the pummeling guitars to the monstrous drums to the roaring shouted vocals. So how would that translate to the acoustic-driven format of this show? Tracks with breakdowns in their studio recording – like “Degenerates,” “Resentment,” and “I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” provided some of the most memorable live renditions of the evening. “Degenerates” leaned on a twangy acoustic guitar breakdown. “Resentment” incorporated a keyboard component for dramatic flair. And “I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” delivered one of the most conventionally heavy renditions of the night, but was also buoyed by baroque guitar flourishes in place of its traditional breakdown.
Finishing the Main Set Strong With Softer Moments
The back half of the main set featured some softer moments that aligned more directly with some of A Day to Remember’s more easygoing tracks, like the jangly and lowkey “I Surrender” and the wistful jam “Leave All the Lights On.” The band ended on a high note with another fan favorite, “All Signs Point to Lauderdale.” The crowd unleashed a huge cheer at the intro of the track and clapped along to the whump of the kick drum. The audience had been seated attentively for pretty much the entire set, but finally at the end of this track, the dam burst and fans began to give A Day to Remember a boisterous standing ovation.
A Well-Deserved Encore
As the band departed from the stage, it felt like all the emotions (perhaps those that would usually be put towards moshing) from the duration of the main set bubbled up throughout the crowd, as the huge call for an encore reached a fever pitch. The band opened with “Looks Like Hell,” carried by its dramatic guitars that were evocative of a dark Western film. The standing ovation returned with “If It Means a Lot to You,” with the crowd delivering a huge singalong from the get-go. And the crowd bounced along one more time to the band’s jaunty, rollicking take on “Right Back at It Again,” with some headbanging breaking through for the “brace for impact” line in the track’s coda. As the show wound down for real, McKinnon thanked the crowd again for embracing the band’s music in a reimagined way: “This is just as different for us as it was for you.”
