Way back in 2002 I remember going to the Metro Theatre in Sydney and I saw Papa Roach play their first ever headline show in our country, it was the Love Hate Tragedy Tour. Since then the band have made 6 more albums and their only other Australia tour date was on the 2015 Soundwaves in which they played the tour only. I hold the 2002 show in high regard and over the years have owned every single Papa Roach Album, placing Crooked Teeth in my personal top albums list from last year. So, I am thinking tonight’s second sold-out show in Sydney and the last one the tour is going to be something us Papa Roach fans will be holding onto for years to come.

I am just going to get this out of the way first, the band did not disappoint tonight in any aspect of the show, it was a fan’s dream. If you were only just finding your love for this band, then tonight should have had you hooked for life.

I walk in and find my place on the crowded Metro floor staring at the Crooked Teeth curtain covering the stage and as soon as the warm-up music cuts, a public service announcement crackles over the speakers telling us to raise our middle fingers and repeat” Fuck Papa Roach”. Once that curtain drops the energy in the room is electric as the guitars just roar out in volume to the opening track of Crooked Teeth. Frontman Jacoby Shaddix comes at us with the intensity and energy of a cage fighter jumping up and down on stage, it has the same adverse reaction on the crowd as the floor seems to become a trampoline as we jump higher and higher off the ground, but that wasn’t enough to sate the bands appetite for chaos, no they call for us to really open up the fucking pit for Between Angels and Insects.

The band came to get rowdy tonight and we showed them that us, their fans, really came to turn this motherfucker out. The energy in the room wasn’t just kept alive by a killer set list that kept it real for old school and new school Papa Roach fans, no it was the unique way they would be delivering a killer version of some of their greatest hits and then seemingly add a little something extra to them by covering other great songs. Like how the drummer Tony Palermo drops a beat and guitarist Jerry Horton leads into a cover of Blur’s Song 2 or how frontman Jacoby raps out Eminem’s Lose Yourself before erupting into Broken Home. And if that wasn’t enough to blow us away, as the song Forever ends they deliver a fitting tribute to the late Chester Bennington and cover Linkin Parks In The End.

I often say how live music has the power to bring us all together and I saw it again tonight as I screamed my lungs out when they played a stripped back version of Scars, a song that means a lot to me on a personal level. I couldn’t help but notice I wasn’t the only one being moved by it and when they left the stage tonight the band delivered a message that they are about believing in peace, equality, humanity, and most of all us, the people. It was in hearing these words and being present for those unique music moments that I am thankful so much for live music and hope they keep their word about returning to our shores soon, I know it is only January but ask me again in December and I will tell you that tonight’s show was the gig of the year.

Review – Chad 

Read Our Interview With Tobin Esperance