Live Review: A Day To Remember and Guilt Trip | O2 Academy Brixton | 24/06/2025
There aren't many bands that do what they say on the tin when it comes to their live performances, but A Day To Remember give exactly that - an unforgettable day of music and unparalleled showmanship, coupled with a London heatwave turning the sold out Brixton Academy into a sweat box packed to the brim with overjoyed hardcore fans.
Guilt Trip
Opening the night’s proceedings were Manchester’s hardcore outfit Guilt Trip, who were determined to “fuck Brixton up”. They opened with ‘Sweet Dreams’ and promptly asked anyone in the crowd with a hardcore t-shirt on to open up the pit – and the pit didn’t really let up since. Jay Valentine, the frontman, was unrelenting in his calls for an even bigger pit between each of the songs, and he had an incredible command of the stage and the crowd, together with jumping, 2-stepping and sprinting from one end of the stage to the other, showing the moshers how it’s done.
He was tough to please though, just before the band launched into ‘Severance’, Jay judged the pit to be “7, 8 out of 10 – I need you to be a 10!” – it was really difficult to turn it up to 11 (or even 7) in the sweltering heat of the Brixton Academy, but the mosh pit didn’t disappoint. The band’s heavy metal influenced hardcore was hitting the sweet spot with the audience, and proved to be the perfect opener.
It was also a full circle moment for Guilt Trip – Jay reminisced how A Day To Remember were the band that made him want to get up on stage and perform, so seeing the Mancunians perfectly warm up a sold out O2 Academy, Brixton felt incredibly special. Ending their set with ‘Tearing Your Life Away’ and ‘Thin Ice’, Jay thanked the audience on the behalf of the band for their “time, positivity and patience”, visibly moved by the reception.
The crowd clearly game for this evening, during the wait for ADTR, the room turned into a huge hardcore karaoke, as familiar tunes like Linkin Park‘s ‘In The End’, Papa Roach‘s ‘Last Resort’ and Bloodhound Gang‘s ‘The Bad Touch’ came through the speakers, resulting in a five thousand-strong sing along.
A Day To Remember
When it was finally time for A Day To Remember to take to the Brixton stage, they did so with a bang – opening with ‘The Downfall of Us All’ and smoke throwers, they had the five thousand strong crowd in the palm of their hands from the get-go. Jeremy McKinnon had an excellent rapport with the audience, encouraging “as many crowd surfers as possible” – and he thanked the security towards the end of the set for their exemplary handling of the steady and never ending waves of happy surfers coming over the barriers.
McKinnon remarked that “the vibes were immaculate” – and ADTR ensured that the crowd as much fun as humanly possible. There were smoke and flamethrowers, confetti cannons, beach balls and a Super Mario launching t-shirts into the crowd with a t-shirt gun. On the music side, the focus was firmly on this year’s release Big Ole Album Vol.1 (with which the crowd was already very familiar, singing along to every word) – and the banter between the songs was just as good, with ‘Bad Blood’ introduced as a “Taylor Swift cover”. There was a room for covers though – Jeremy introduced Bobby, the “new friend on guitar who had to learn a lot of new songs for this tour”, and who was given an opportunity to pick his favourite song to play, a song that McKinnon “has been saying a ‘FUCK NO’ to for the past over ten years” – and the band launched into a hardcore rendition of Kelly Clarkson‘s ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, which resulted in a huge mosh pit and an influx of crowd surfers.
At some point an object landed on the stage, which McKinnon picked up amused and quizzed the audience about – it was hod dog like, and gold and unfamiliar – he asked the audience whether ‘Maryland cookies’ meant anything to them, and was taken aback by the absolute eruption of cheers, which made him realise he was holding onto an absolute national treasure.
‘All My Friends’ was dedicated to everyone who came with a friend, everyone who came to drink (it was also the song where Mario with the t-shirt gun made the appearance) – and McKinnon himself appeared with the iconic red plastic cup, so familiar from all the college party scenes in American films – and that song could sum up the whole evening:
“It’s like, ah, shit, here we go again
Another night out here with all my friends
Put your drink in the air and toast to the right here and right now
Paint this town tonight
Put your drink in the air and toast to the right here and right now
Burn it down tonight”
Looking around the Brixton Academy, the room was full of small and big groups of friends who sang along, laughed, cheered, sweated buckets – together. Despite the relentless heat (cups of water were always on standby at every bar and handed out by security), the crowd went as wild as to attempt to crowd-surf on top of a crowd surfer – which was neither encouraged nor discouraged by McKinnon: “it is not safe, and you probably shouldn’t do that, you can go home safe – or a living legend, the choice is yours”.
Towards the end of the set, the band introduced their song ‘LeBron’ with a question whether anyone liked sports, which got a mixed reaction, but Jeremy McKinnon remarked that “you gotta appreciate being on top for 26 years and succeeding” – and the same could be said for A Day To Remember. They never miss a beat, their songs have that magical appeal that will make them communal hardcore karaoke staples for years to come, and their live performance is simply incredibly fun. For a band that formed in 2003, they are in their peak form and an absolute joy to watch.