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While on paper, Don Broco and Papa Roach are fairly different musically, they are both to be admired for paving their own way in the music scene. When Papa Roach burst onto the scene in the 90s, their merging of rock and rap was new and fresh. Likewise, Don Broco’s genre-bending songs, established 15 years later, possess a similar uniqueness. Both have deserved their rise to fame for being round pegs that don’t fit into the obligatory round holes. They have done things their way, on their terms.
A few days before this tour, rock mainstays Papa Roach released the deluxe version of ‘Ego Trip’, their latest and 11th studio album. It makes sense to kick off their set with opening track ‘Kill The Noise’, a hefty missile that’s enough to mutilate the crowd in one swipe. ‘Getting Away With Murder’ is next up and an older favourite that creates a rush of excitement. Jacoby tells the crowd he’s missing his son’s 21st for this. Papa Roach have been known to cover The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’, but tonight they do so with the added input of local Prodigy member Rob Holliday on guitar.
The band pull out all the stops and frontman Jacoby Shaddix asks the crowd to open a circle pit for the energetic ‘…To Be Loved’ (preceded by a chant of ‘Hey Ho, Let’s Go’). With rotating lights and contagious ‘woah’s, the infectious song is another song that has everyone moving. The always-hyper Jacoby gets off the stage towards the end and goes along the front row barrier, taking things from a nine to a ten.
Shaking things up a bit, we get a docile instrumental jam of The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’ before leading into fan favourite ‘Scars’. Jacoby gives a little speech before ‘Scars’, telling the venue that he’s grateful to be on the stage with ‘brothers that don’t phone this shit in’. He tells the crowd that they appreciate everyone for coming out and supporting rock ‘n’ roll, and that over the years they’ve ran into a lot of people that have told them their music has touched them, it’s brought them out of a dark place, or it’s been a sense of comfort when they’ve been isolated up in their head. Jacoby says that was never their intention, but now that they know that, it makes it so much more worth it to do it every day. He gets everyone to light their lighters up. ‘Scars’ gets a huge cheer and does not disappoint, worth the ticket price on its own. The audience singing along is enough to give you chills too.
‘No Apologies’ is another gem right from the heart, while, as the set works its way to a close, the band’s ace card, ‘Last Resort’, is dealt out, with a line of ‘We Will Rock You’ buried inside of it. Ending with ‘Born For Greatness’ and its tribal-like beat courtesy of drummer Tony Palermo, the band inspire one final time. While not being headliners, Papa Roach’s set was definitely worthy of headlining.
But on this tour, it’s UK boys Don Broco who top the bill. Their rise to success has been staggering, but also deserving. While the Utilita Arena isn’t sold out, there are a hell of a lot of people here. Opening with ‘Bruce Willis’ from latest album ‘Amazing Things’, the main four, Rob Damiani, Si Delaney, Tom Doyle and Matt Donnelly, stand at the back of the stage on a tall riser, vocalist Rob holding a red smoke flare up in the air. As they head to their positions on stage, they’re joined by their touring keyboardist Pete, whose birthday it just happens to be today. The madness of opening number ‘Bruce Willis’ is what makes the crowd love them. It’s an ear-melting fusion of rock, metal, dance, pop, techno and probably five other genres added in for good measure. The band are not ashamed to mix and match – that goes for music and clothes! Rob Damiani is dressed in a bomber jacket and baggy trousers, with some 90s-style orange shades. Songs like ‘Gumshield’ are hilarious, with lyrics such as ‘I put my gumshield in, protect me from myself, I put my gumshield in, I think I need some help’. The crazy song has the audience bounding up and down. Drummer Matt Donnelly adds harmonious backing vocals while Rob covers the lead. Frontman Rob talks about playing Birmingham in the past and how they’ve been cursed by plumbing issues, with their album show at The Mill being cancelled due to a leak. ‘Technology’, ‘Uber’ and ‘Come Out To LA’ continue the entertainment. The Bedford band are always refreshing, you can’t help but get enjoyment out of listening to them or seeing them. ‘Technology’ is a bounce-fest, while ‘Uber’ is another fun song with lyrics such as ‘Been a long night, I’ma call Uber’.
‘Pretty’ is dedicated to Rob’s Nonna, who also comes out to local shows. There are some fans dressed as Power Rangers, and Rob mentions them when he incites a pit on the floor. “Protect the Power Rangers at all costs,” he says. ‘Manchester Super Reds No. 1 Fan’ sees a guest appearance by Jacoby Shaddix (and ‘David Beckham’ – not the real David Beckham, but a lookalike). Jacoby stays onstage for a snappy version of the cacophonous ‘Thug Workout’, before the band tone things down for a more tuneful ‘Automatic’ (the audience is asked to crouch down and jump back up at one point). Some of our favourite Don Broco tunes make their way into the set as the show continues: ‘What You Do To Me’, ‘Priorities’, ‘Everybody’ and ‘Superlove’. Rob goes off the stage and along the front row during ‘Everybody’, while the gentler ‘Nerve’ goes out to Luke Barnes, a fan who sadly passed away recently.
The band’s encore consists of ‘Fingernails’, a photo of the band with the audience behind, and ‘T-Shirt Song’, the latter, as always, seeing many of the audience swinging their T-shirts around over their heads. Rob tells the story of the song, how he was going through a bad time when he wrote it. It’s a song about coming back stronger. And with the lockdown, he says this is what the song is about, “Music can get you through anything, trust me.”
It’s an amazing sight - seeing so many T-shirts whipping around throughout the arena, from the front to the back, and side to side. It’s a sight that hopefully we’ll see again soon.
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