Words – Clare
Photos – @photo.amai
Everyday Metal headed to Rod Laver Arena again as A Day To Remember and Papa Roach were joining forces for Big Rock Tour, presented by Destroy All Lines, with special guests LANDMVRKS.
The five-piece known as LANDMVRKS brought to the stage an effortless cool that elegantly and skilfully straddled a line between hardcore, nu-metal and electronic, and infused with French rap. Included from their 2025 album release, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been, were the tracks Creature which opened the night, Sulfur, slowing down a bit with La valse du temps, and Blood Red but it was during their track Lost in a Wave from the 2021 album Lost in the Waves that received the biggest reaction, beginning with a focused guitar solo and continuing with the crowd instinctively splitting for the hard breakdown ‘Everybody fucking move!’ Demanded the lead vocalist, Florent Salfati. The tight set concluded with Self-Made Black Hole, and with a sincere ‘merci beaucoup’ from Florent, spoken in the musical cadence of his native Marseille.
A huge crack and blinding flash sparked from the stage, giving all of us a heart-stopping fright before Papa Roach appeared, launching straight into the title track from last year’s album, Even If It Kills Me. Straight off the bat were pyrotechnics and CO2 cannons, firing off in succession, my pupils dilating and constricting. They continued with a couple of tracks from 2000’s album Infest where Jacoby Shaddix pointed up to the seated section exclaiming ‘Get out of your seats’ and ‘this is a rock show’ and I have to be honest, I was a little offended, especially when I remembered Jacoby is almost 10 years my senior – but I can assure you that by the end of the set, even my cranky old ass was up out my seat. He then led the crowd with a ‘ONE, TWO’ as they responded ‘DEAD, CELL!’ Accompanied by a double fist pump and to pump up the crowd further, he launched into the pit barrier and then took off with impressive speed down the length of the pit, stepping up into the stands and climbing onto the seats, wading through elated fans as …To Be Loved was performed from the stage.
On his return, the showman exclaimed, ‘If you’ve got demons, they’re dying tonight!’ And motioned the room to split, ‘Come on, Banana-man, you got this!’ The crowd laughed in delight as the metal gig’s omnipresent concertgoer started a raucous wall of death in the pit for Kill the Noise. Also from the 2022 album Ego Trip was Liar, but not before the 2Pac cover California Love was played while the band member introductions were executed. The night slowed down with a heartfelt message around mental health and suicide, the stadium lit up with twinkling lights in the crowd for Leave a Light On, and a one-minute silence was conducted for ‘Those we have lost and those left behind’.
From 2004’s Getting Away with Murder was Scars, which infused the room with a boundless energy, allowing a very entertaining segment where Jacoby played conductor with the audience’s cheers. But it was during Help from 2017’s Crooked Teeth that the bloody legends in the mosh pit showed Papa Roach what Melbourne is made of and officially launched the most crowd surfers of the whole tour – like some kind of bucket brigade using bodies to try to put out a fire! A new school Papa Roach track then played, BRAINDEAD, a track ‘built for the mosh pit’ followed by Between Angels and Insects, ending in a guitar solo, but it was also time for another visit in the stands. Jacoby ascended up the stairs (passing by yours truly) while the band took us on a journey in their ‘Nu-metal Time Machine’ with a nu-metal medley including Blind, My Own Summer (Shove It), Break Stuff and Chop Suey. Everyone on their feet sang along with every lyric (me included), which blended into the final track ‘CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES, THIS IS MY LAST RESORT’, showing that we were all there, ready to rumble.
The fun wasn’t even remotely done, which is how it goes when attending a double-headlining tour. A Day to Remember was up next to give us ‘A Night to Remember’ (sorry, PA guy outside of Rod Laver Arena, I totally stole your joke). The powerhouse band powered through a few crowd pleasers, including The Downfall of Us All, I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?, 2nd Sucks and Right Back at It Again, which invited the first of many confetti canons of the set. In contrast, fire canons accompanied 2025’s track Bad Blood ‘No Taylor Swift this time’ exclaimed frontman Jeremy McKinnon. Paranoia invoked a big fucking circle pit with Jeremy clarified, ‘You don’t have to be involved, but get the fuck out of the way’. The band then quipped that they love Australia so much they were looking for 5 husbands so they could move here legitimately when it all winds up. I’m sure there will be plenty of volunteers when it comes time. A Super Mario cosplayer appeared on stage for All My Friends, throwing shit into the crowd and as usual, Have Faith in Me went out to all the ladies in the crowd, many of whom were lifted up onto their friends’ shoulders while singing along to the lyrics ‘with the weight of the world on my shoulders’.
Flowers, another new track from Big Ole Album Vol. 1, was a big hit with the crowd while Mr Highway’s Thinking About the End, Resentment, and It’s Complicated set the mosh pit on fire with a couple of champions attempting the dreaded ‘crowd surfer surfing’. All bodies deployed as everyone in the seated section watched over in delight as mosh pit goers spilled over the barrier like a powerful waterfall; it was a thing of beauty. Then, for the track LeBron, a couple of comically oversized hoops were wheeled out on stage and tons of giant inflatable basketballs followed, another spectacle for the crowd while the GA section battled it out to see who could score the most baskets – I don’t know why exactly, but I got way to into this one and was overjoyed when my team Stage Left won the game while Stage Right scored a big fat zero!
A couple of old tracks activated the crowd with All I Want and The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle before Jeremy, keeping it real with us, said, ‘Fuck encores, we’re just gonna play you three more songs. The audience sang along to If It Means a Lot to You and multi-coloured confetti danced all around us for Closer Than You Think, and as the night came to an end with All Signs Point to Lauderdale, the band’s crew stormed the stage TP-ing the fans below.
A huge thanks goes out to the Rod Laver Arena crew, DESTROY ALL LINES, and Dallas Does PR for having us!
