Pop-punk band State Champs sold out Detroit’s St. Andrews Hall Saturday night with special guests Against the Current, With Confidence and Don Broco. This was only the second date of the tour, celebrating the anticipated release of Around the World and Back Deluxe Edition.
English rock band Don Broco opened the night with their upbeat hits from their LP Automatic. Vocalist Rob Damiani hopped off stage and joined fans at the barrier. Don Broco is a band that fans have long waited for to come to the states, and they did not disappoint as they started the night off with a huge amount of energy.
Pop Punk Australian band With Confidence took the stage next, rocking out to songs from their debut LP Better Weather. They opened with fan favorite “Voldemort”. Guitarist Luke Rockets was constantly head banging and interacting with the crowd. The band carried the pop punk image that their music reflects, as fans sang along to almost every song.
Against the Current blew me away with how amazing of a performance they gave. The monochromatic lights set the stage for Chrissy Costanza’s powerful vocals. Paired with her nonstop intense energy on stage, the crowd was beyond hype. They performed a majority of songs from their recently released LP In Our Bones but did not exclude singles “Gravity” and “Talk” from their debut EP Gravity.
Finally, State Champs took the stage by storm, opening with “Remedy”. Vocalist Derek Discanio was constantly getting the crowd up and moving.
The band performed their newest single “Slow Burn,” a new track on Around the World and Back Deluxe Edition. Alongside songs from Around the World and Back, the set included singles from the band’s debut LP The Finer Things such as “Deadly Conversation” and “Elevated.”
Detroit was a special stop on the tour for guitarist Ryan Scott Graham, whose hometown is Westland, Michigan. After praising the crowd for selling out when Ohio didn’t, the crowd erupted into a chant of “F*ck Ohio” which Ryan enthusiastically chuckled about. State Champs set was full of constant crowd surfing and moshing. Lyrics were screamed back to the band for every single song. The band closed their 17 song set with an encore of “Secrets”, which incited the rowdiest crowd to close the night.
Around the World and Back Deluxe is due to release May 5, and includes a full feature DVD, 2 new songs including “Slow Burn” as well as 2 live songs and 2 acoustic songs. Pre-orders are available now at http://statechamps.merchnow.com.
