O2 Academy Bristol, 24th October 2024
A few months out of the release of their latest album, The Story So Far return to Bristol for a triumphant headline show celebrating the release of I Want To Disappear. Here, they’re headlining the O2 Academy for the first time in their career after playing it once before a decade ago supporting New Found Glory. Although the night isn’t sold out, it’s clear that pop-punk fans had come out in droves to see the Californians rip the venue like it’s their second home.
The last time The Story So Far played Bristol was a year ago, headlining SWX, where they opened with the lead single to the latest album, ‘Big Blind’. It left a lot of fans in the room bopping their heads waiting for them to play the classics. This time, opening with ‘Big Blind’ again had the entire room bouncing and screaming along to the lyrics louder than some of the songs they’d released years ago. From here, they lead straight into ‘The Glass’, considered almost a cult classic in the genre. It is a song that sometimes doesn’t get the love it deserves on The Story So Far setlists, but here it makes its presence known. People are climbing on top of each other during the entire song and belting out lyrics seemingly louder than vocalist Parker Cannon himself. This is the theme of the night for the entire hour-long set. In fact, it is hard to hear what is being played on stage due to the rabid crowd screaming along to every lyric of every song.
In the hour that they play, The Story So Far manage to squeeze in a whopping 18 songs into their setlist. With it being a tour to promote the new album, they play pretty much the entire thing, only missing out on ‘Jump the Gun’ and the title track ‘I Want To Disappear’. Due to the number of songs played in such a short amount of time, there was hardly any breathing space for anybody in the venue. The only breaks in the set allow for Cannon to introduce the other members of the band and their touring drummer, joking about the fact that he is single and has been “forever”.
For the last song of the night, to give the crowd some sort of break from the jumping, moshing, and crowd surfing, they play a new song, ‘White Shores’, about Cannon’s late father, takes the crowd into a sort of emotional rollercoaster. The song starts with just guitarist Kevin Geyer and Cannon playing together, with Cannon singing in falsetto. The crowd, seemingly tired, don’t know how to react to such a calm song. Instead, they decide to sit down and truly revel in the calm ending to a hectic night. Halfway through the song however, when the rest of the band kick in, the entire crowd jump and scream along to the lyrics one last time before the band swiftly make their exit.
Despite leaving arguably their biggest songs, ‘Quicksand’ and ‘Empty Space’, out of the set list, the additions of the new songs well and truly made up for their absence in what was a night I’m sure every fan in that room will remember for a very long time.
Words: Sonny Farman
Photos: Kate Feast
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