Review | The 5 Seconds of Summer Show

Luke Hemmings, the electric lead vocalist of pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer, looked out into the screaming audience of adoring fans at their sold-out Kia Forum show and reminisced, “We first played here when I was….” He thought for a moment, and (very helpful) drummer Ashton Irwin chimed in, “17!” Hemmings continued, “Now … I don’t want to talk about how old I am,” he laughed.

The band 5 Seconds of Summer did indeed start incredibly young, first gaining traction with homemade videos of themselves singing covers during their early teenage years. You could see their rapport and ease playing with each other from the get-go, and with their shared interest in pop-punk and rock sounds, friends Hemmings, Calum Hood, and Michael Clifford started to write songs and play original music together. Drummer Irwin joined in and they went on to become one of the bigger bands of the modern era. I first saw them live opening for One Direction in 2014, and, equipped with the support of that phenomenon, 5 Seconds of Summer was catapulted to a whole other level of recognition.

The setlist for 5 Seconds of Summer’s most recent tour, The 5 Seconds of Summer Show, was a hearty mix of newer material and throwback hits. Highlights from more recent projects 5SOS5, Calm, and Youngblood included “Caramel,” “Easier,” “Want You Back,” “Teeth,” and “Youngblood.” Until the show, I didn’t quite realize how many of their older songs I knew from my teen years of sharing and listening to my friend’s CDs, until they played standouts “Disconnected,” “Don’t Stop,” “She’s Kinda Hot,” and “Amnesia” lighting the venue up with a buzzing energy that only 17,000 voices chanting every lyric can bring.

The band also played fan favorites, tying them into the show in an interactive and exciting manner: They throw gigantic, inflatable red dice with six crowd-pleasing songs on them (a few of them unreleased) into the audience and have the fans throw them back onstage with a ticking time limit (if the clock runs out, the band chooses the song). Whichever song it lands on, they play. They joked about how lately “it’s been landing on ‘Heartbreak Girl’ a lot,” and, of course, it did yet again. The band immediately jumped into the song, and the crowd joined in, chanting every single word.

My favorite part of the evening was when they performed their breakout hit “She Looks So Perfect,” and did their synchronized punk jump from the music video. I was immediately transported back to middle school, and it unlocked a very adorable memory I had forgotten. Some audience members dressed in 2014 attire in tribute, and the band even joked about fans’ nostalgia by showing a video of them as doctors diagnosing a 5 Seconds of Summer fan with symptoms of black skinny jeans and a flannel. With much of their early music having a carefree attitude sonically and lyrically, the time travel was very welcome and created a palpable buzz and energy in the audience. It was fun for not only me but also the rest of the audience to go back to that time, and also be able to see how much the band has grown.

Toward the end of the show, Clifford said, “I’m so glad you all showed up today…. We played to a 200-capacity venue for our first show and 12 people came.” With the tightness of their playing, and each member moving through the set with ease and immense confidence, it’s hard to imagine that was where they started. Although Hemmings lamented that he feels old, they’re surely not even close to reaching their end. If The 5 Seconds of Summer Show is any indication, the band has a great deal of success to come.