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Back again for their third UK appearance, State Champs went out with a bang after headlining their first tour on this side of the pond. Joined by ROAM and Knuckle Puck, Liverpool where set for a Pop Punk extravaganza from the start.
Walking back into the O2 Academy was a clear sign of Déjà vu for most of us. Less than 18 months ago State Champs were there to Support American Pop punk band, The Wonder Years, then again a few months later supporting New Found Glory.
Clearly gathering quite a following a long the way, front man Derek Discanio was not short of support from the crowd.
First up were UK band ROAM who had no problem hyping the crowd almost instantly.
Shortly after, Illinois originated band Knuckle Puck were a tough act to follow by making crowd surfing look painfully easy for all of those involved.
Starting off with a playlist of songs during the sound check interval, State Champs managed to hype the crowd without even making an appearance by using Shia Leboufs “Do it” sound clip to silence the entire room.
After starting off with their newest release Secrets, Discanio hit it out of the park with his crowd interaction, I don’t think there was a person in the venue who wasn’t charmed by his down to earth persona.
Playing songs from their most popular album The Finer Things such as Simple Existence, Easy Enough, Hard to Please and Elevated the guys really managed to make such an amazing night practically perfect.
After performing two more of their newest releases – All You Are is History and Losing Myself, Discanio talked about the release of their new album Around the World and Back, which is set to be released in Oct 2015.
I honestly cannot fault the connection the guys had which the crowd and their stage presence. Pop punk was definitely defended in Liverpool this evening.