An honest and completely unbiased review of a 5 Seconds of Summer concert.

By Camille Rowlands-Rees

I flew to London for a total of two days to see my favorite band play their newest album live before it was released.

Or well that what I thought was going to happen.

On September 23, Australian pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) released their fifth studio album, 5SOS5, coupled with a One Night Only concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “The Feeling of Falling Upwards” featured songs from their newest work accompanied by a string septet and gospel choir the night before the album was released to the public. 

Interesting fact about the name of the event; fans have speculated that “The Feeling of Falling Upwards” was the original title for the album. “5SOS5” had become the fandom-wide placeholder for the album until the title was released. Merch for the then upcoming album was advertised with one piece featuring crossed out lettering that has since been lined up with “the feeling of falling upwards”. I think that the band had become so used to calling the album 5SOS5 given our predisposition to the title, that they decided to let us name it. 

Now to address my previous ominous statement: nothing bad happened. I safely made it to London and the concert with no issues except for a seriously messed up sleep schedule. The show was fantastic and I cried as hard as I knew I would. 

However, I had a certain set of expectations that the band did not deliver. Based on previous One Night Only concerts such as Harry Styles' events for the release of Fine Line and Harry’s House, I assumed 5SOS would be playing their newest work in full, top to bottom, and then a couple of the fan favorites from their discography.

Not only was the set just over an hour long, the band arrived late, which honestly is not unusual for them, and they only played three “first play” songs: “Carousel”, “Caramel”, and “Bad Omens”. With a 16 song setlist, seven were tracks from 5SOS5, while the remaining nine were a myriad of singles released throughout their career. When you look at the fact that the album itself is 19 tracks, the band didn’t even play the equivalent of this new work, and more than half the album was disregarded.

It is important to note that a few weeks before the event, 5SOS announced that there was to be a livestream of “The Feeling of Falling Upwards”. At the time I thought nothing of this element, but now I believe that this is the reason that the band did not feature the complete album.

Due to the time difference from London to the US, fans in the US would be watching the livestream 9 hours before the album dropped in that timezone. By only playing three new songs, they were able to ensure that those tuning in at home would still be motivated to stream the album when it was officially released. This boosts both their release statistics and generates more revenue from those purchasing tickets to watch the live stream. It was a strategic business move. 

Some may call me selfish for wanting more from this night; I shouldn’t complain because I got to be there and actually experience it all live, but it seemed like at the moment 5SOS was more focused on increasing revenue than curating a genuine concert. 

I see two solutions to this problem. The band could have released the recorded concert when the album dropped, whether as a bonus for buying the album or a reward to those who had pre-saved. This still provides an incentive to boost the streaming of the album on release day. 

The other option is that the concert could have been pushed back one night. This would eliminate the aspect of hearing tracks “unreleased”, but allows the band to play the entire album without fear of losing streams or excitement.  

As much as I was excited to hear the album before the rest of the world, it was more important to hear it all live. 5SOS has an incredible ability to elevate their songs when performing, and they truly are in their element when on stage. You can see this by listening to their two live albums released for the tours of their first and third albums. 5SOS has said that they plan to release a live album for 5SOS5, and One Night Only would have provided them the perfect opportunity to, rather than waiting for the tour when you know that many tracks will be cut from the setlist. 

I know that up until this point I have basically been bashing my entire experience, but I promise there were a multitude of memorable moments from this night. 

I have never been to a show that had the same energy this night did. For me, a big part of it was the venue. When I saw 5SOS at the Hollywood Palladium this summer, it was entirely general admission. I camped out for about 10 hours to secure my spot as close to the stage as I could get. By the time we got in, people were tired, had short tempers, and were passing out due to heat exhaustion. It was an incredibly chaotic event.

This, however, was Royal Albert Hall. 

If you were not aware, Royal Albert Hall holds significant history for this band. After gaining significant traction on Twitter, YouTube, and catching the attention of then One Direction member Louis Tomlinson, the band moved to London in 2012. They took to busking in Hyde Park and outside of Royal Albert Hall. Fast forward ten years and they are playing a sold out show for their 5th studio album at this venue. The band has talked publicly about how important this event is but what was really telling was their reactions during the concert. While playing “Amnesia”, a nostalgic tear-jerker from their debut album, I was watching lead singer Luke Hemmings, and he was watching us. I can only imagine he was thinking about how far the band has come since that time. This whole concert was an opportunity for us to appreciate the band, but also for them to show their love for us as a fan group.

Before the music even got started, I took some time to talk to the people sitting near me and sought out people that I knew were coming due to our interactions on TikTok. There was an interesting divide between those of us that had traveled to attend this concert and those who honestly seemed to just be there. One girl, who I’m hoping simply misinterpreted my question since I seemed to catch her off guard, said she was only a fan in 2014 and didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the new album. Another said she hadn’t even looked at the album tracklist and was going into the concert “blind”. I forget that not everyone was practically glued to their phone as 5SOS painstakingly released the tracklist, song by song on Twitter over the course of 6 hours. 

You could also see this divide when you looked at people’s outfits for the night. Fashion has become such an integral element of concert experiences, and I can easily blame Harry Styles’ Love On Tour. I too have fallen victim to the mindset that I have to dress to match every concert I go to, and there was a plethora of people who went just as all out as I did. I saw multiple dresses that would fit right in at Prom, and pant suits for days. On the other hand, some people showed up in jeans and a t-shirt. Not to say that something as materialistic as an outfit dictates your right to be at a concert or dedication to a band, but given the prestige of this event and location, I would have expected people to want to be more involved in this aspect.

From the moment they started playing I knew sonically this was going to be such a special night. I think the best word to describe the arrangement of these songs would be cinematic. The biggest difference was in the upbeat songs. “Teeth” is the heaviest track from their previous album CALM, and I was both not expecting them to play it in this setting and completely blown away by how dark it sounded with a leading chello rather than Calum Hood’s usual bass. It was hauntingly beautiful while continuing to capture the spirit and energy of the studio track. Two of the tracks they played acoustic versions of were “She Looks So Perfect” and “Youngblood”, arguably the band’s biggest hits. The crowd completely took over during “She Looks So Perfect” and it was one of those rare moments where you could hear the blend of the crowd singing, rather than the customary screaming that comes with this song played live. 

As sonically interesting as the upbeat tracks were in this setting, I was more excited to hear the way the ballads would be enhanced by the strings. My favorite songs in 5SOS’s discography are their slow songs; topping the list are “Lie To Me” and “Ghost of You” off their third album Youngblood. The latter I experienced during their last tour, and then accidentally walked in on 5SOS soundchecking before this event. The former I haven’t had the chance to hear as they removed it off the setlist after the Meet You There Tour of 2018, despite the fact that it remains at the top of my Spotify Stats Top Tracks (All Time) list. 

So picture this: I’m standing there, listening to the instrumental intro to the next song, talking to my friends about how we have no idea what song is coming next, and I hear Luke Hemmings sing the opening line to my all time favorite 5SOS song. Cue emotional break down. I'll spare you the gory details of me almost passing out on the floor of Royal Albert Hall, but I will never be the same experiencing that. Never in a million years would I have expected them to play this. 

To make matters worse, 5SOS followed this up with a brand new track, and then an equally as anticipated song that fans had been speculating they would play: “Outer Space/Carry On”. Debuted on their sophomore album, Sounds Good Feels Good, this song features the line “lost here in London,” so you can imagine that fans made the most of the opportunity to scream this. The collective gasp as the recognizable track began shows the deep connection fans have to this song. If you have never listened to this song, it is already beautifully produced, but the addition of the orchestra brought it to a celestial level one could only dream of. 

The not so surprise guest of the night was Hemmings’ fiance, singer-songwriter Sierra Deaton. The one feature on 5SOS5 is a 50s-love-song inspired duet between the couple, “Older”, my personal favorite track. Hemmings introduced the track with the somewhat depressing sentiment: “inevitably one of you is going to have the worst time of your life when the other one dies”, but he is right that there is something beautiful about the idea of finding a true, all encompassing love like that. Although the singer warned us that “there would be no refund for crying … in the audience”, the inevitable tears were shed by most of the audience, given the beauty of the song and the couple singing.

Since I returned home, I have been questioning the rationale behind my trip. If I was going to listen to the new album live, and didn’t even get to hear half of it, was the trip worthwhile? My doubts have been echoed by many of the people I talk to about this trip when I explain the motivation and duration of this trip. It really gets to you when people keep saying you were “crazy” or “irresponsible” or tell you how they would never consider doing what you did. I have to remind myself that I chose to go on this trip because I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I didn’t know I was going to finally get to hear two of my all time favorite songs, but I knew I was going to experience a show that would never be able to be replicated. Never again will any of these songs be accompanied by a gospel choir or string arrangement. Never again will I get to go to Royal Albert Hall for the first time. Never again will I get to go to London for the first time just to see my favorite band. So at the end of the day, regardless of what others think or say, it was completely worth it.