25th of February at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville saw one of the many sideshows that were organised thanks to the Soundwave Festival. The night brought Baltimore pop-punk four piece, All Time Low to the Factory, along with Polar Bear Club and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! as support.
The night started off with a "Hustler Club" Meet and Greet, which gave about 50 dedicated fans the opportunity to meet the band. 'The Hustler Club' is All Time Low's fan club and offers the special privilege of getting a chance to meet and greet with the band before the show in your city. All the fans have to do is sign up, and the day before the gig, a list is posted online, letting the fans know if they were lucky enough to score a spot in the pre-show hang out.
After a quick run through by the band's tour manager, letting the fans know that they weren't to take videos of the band for their friends, ask the band to record their voicemail message, get the band to write out lyrics for them, or touch the band inappropriately, the fans were free to get photos, autographs and hugs for the next half hour.
When the meet and greet came to a close, the select hustlers also got early entry to the venue, helping them to secure a spot on the barrier for the show.About 15 minutes later, the rest of the crowd entered the venue, and after about half an hour of waiting, the first band made their way to the stage.
Pop punk band all the way from France, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! were the first to hit the stage, warming up the crowd with their upbeat pop-punk, post-hardcore tunes. The band played a few tracks off their newest album, Pardon My French, as well as their Punk Goes Pop cover of We R Who We R, originally by Ke$ha. The band closed with their most well known song, In Friends We Trust, which was obviously the crowd favourite.
Next to the stage were Polar Bear Club, and although the crowd were getting slightly restless and seemed to would have much preferred to cut the second support act and skip straight to All Time Low, the punk rock, post hardcore band from Syracuse managed to keep the crowd entertained with their extremely energetic set, particularly due to the excellent stage presence of front man, Jimmy Stadt.
Next up was the moment that everyone had been waiting for, All Time Low were finally making their way to the stage. The band opened with Somewhere In Neverland, a track off their most recent release, Don't Panic.
The band managed to play the perfect mix of tracks from each of their albums, and seemed to make almost all of the fans there very happy with the choice of their set list.
About half way through the set, lead vocalist Alex Gaskarth had to leave the stage due to a sickness he had been suffering with during the band's trip to Australia. Guitarist, Jack Barakat, called on any males within the crowd who could sing, to get on stage with them if they knew the lyrics to Dammit by Blink-182.
Luke McChesney from Forever Ends Here, an upcoming band from Sydney was quick to get on stage, taking up the opportunity to perform with some of his idols. Jack also called on good friend standing side stage, Jaime Preciado, bassist for Pierce The Veil to join them. They played two blink covers, Dammit and All The Small Things before Gaskarth made a return to the stage.
The band continued to play a few more songs, including a slowed down Remembering Sunday and Therapy. The band played one of their most popular tracks, Time Bomb and left the stage but returned not long after for an encore, playing Weightless and Dear Maria, Count Me In. The band said their thank yous and their good byes, also making a promise to return to Australia sometime in the near future.
All Time Low put on a great show and all fans left extremely satisfied and impressed. The band kept to their promise and are returning to Australian shores this August & September.
