NECK DEEP AT STARLAND BALLROOM IN SAYREVILLE, NJ
Peace and panic were certainly two emotions I felt recently while attending Neck Deep’s “The Peace and the Panic USA Tour Part 2”. The tour lineup came stacked with pop punk acts including WSTR, Stand Atlantic, Trophy Eyes, and Neck Deep; enough to make you want to jump into the nearest pit and proclaim your hatred for your town. The energy from each band was off the charts, which made for a very entertaining show.
First up on the stage was English pop punk band WSTR. The band had the entire crowd jumping around and singing to tracks such as “Footprints” and “Featherweights”. Right from the start the audience were mesmerized by the insane amount of movement on the stage from the members of the band.
Following WSTR were Australian rock band Stand Atlantic. Watching Bonnie Fraser on stage was a wonderful experience as she delivered powerful vocals behind driving pop punk beats. I have a soft spot for strong female vocalists who stand their ground and show that they belong on the stage just as much as anybody else. Stand Atlantic did a great job of getting the audience involved and moving.
Taking the stage next was Trophy Eyes, who proved early on to be a clear crowd favorite. From the minute their set started there was a never ending sea of crowd surfers flying over the barricade and angsty finger pointing from the audience. Trophy Eyes jumped and spun across the stage enough to make me feel like I needed to start adding a little hop in my own step. It was my first time getting to see them perform live and I was happy to get to jam out to tracks such as “Broken”, “Lavender Bay”, and “Friday Forever”. They did a great job of keeping the crowd pumped up and sweaty for the headliner.
As mentioned earlier, peace and panic were two emotions I experienced during this show; both happening during Neck Deep’s set. The peace came in during moments where things slowed down such as the performance of “19 Seventy Sumthin’” when front man Ben Barlow explained that the song was written for his parents. The panic kicked in during more energetic tracks such as “Motion Sickness” and “Crushing Relief (No Remedy)” while photographers in the pit ducked and dodged the never ending sea of crowd surfers being thrown to the barricade. Stand out moments for me were during the band’s cover of “Torn” and during “In Bloom” when they invited their friend Saxl Rose on stage to accompany the band on alto sax, and towards the end of the show when the band requested that a slice of pizza be crowd surfed to the stage. Can you get any more pop punk than that?!
Neck Deep’s “The Peace and the Panic USA Tour Part 2” was the epitome of a pop punk tour. Put on your mosh socks and make sure to grab tickets for one of the remaining dates rolling through your town!
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!