A Day to Remember outshined by Parkway Drive

(Courtesy of Victory Records)

It’s not often one sees hardcore dancers and moshers having a stand-off on the floor of the Aggie Theater in appreciation of punk-pop music.

A Day to Remember headlined the show in Fort Collins on Sunday.

The band rushed onstage, opening with their crowd pleaser “The Downfall of All of Us” with most of the audience singing along to a wordless intro; there was no doubt who the majority of the high school fans had come to see.

As a whole, A Day to Remember’s songs weren’t as hardcore or brutal as second-headliner, Parkway Drive’s, but they had breakdowns in the middle that were surprisingly intense, considering lead singer Jeremy McKinnon has a distinctly pop voice.

“They are a little too My Chemical Romance for me,” Jordan Schaefer, a 18-year-old freshman open-option major.

Schaefer said he came to see Parkway Drive.

Many concert attendees weren’t satisfied by A Day to Remember’s set.

“There were parts of their show that were super sick, but then there were the parts that I thought were pathetic,” said Max Roselius, an 18-year-old Front Range student.

Despite having their fans’ full support, A Day To Remember failed to impress and several people were seen leaving the show early.

But the people who continuously knew all of the words stayed with band until the last note of the set, moshing, fighting and screaming with them the entire time. A Day to Remember’s intensely devoted and rowdy fans saved the band from looking like one of the chart-topping boy bands of the moments after Parkway Drive’s brutally satisfying act.

Parkway Drive took the cake for most hardcore band of the night. As soon as the petal hit the bass drum the crowd was in chaos. The mosh pit exploded and took most of the central standing area with it.

Schaefer explained the difference between hardcore dancing and moshing at a concert.

“They ruin the show for everyone,” Schaefer, a mosher, said.

‘Hardcore Dancing’ is a form of concert celebration that connects closer to wild apes dancing in the jungle than dancing.

When a mosher would try to take the pit back from the mad men that were just swinging their arms around like rabid animals, they would immediately be double-teamed and pushed out.

“They travel in packs, and keep everyone out,” Michael Kienbusch, a 19-year-old freshman at CSU.

Soon Parkway Drive fans were able to take control of the mosh pit after several people were escorted from the building. Parkway Drive’s energy fed directly off the mosh.

Lead singer and screamer Winston McCall encouraged as many people as possible to get up onstage with them to dive off.  The crowd accepted this challenge. Over 20 different people who were not part of Parkway Drive had their moment on stage only to jump off and be carried directly to the middle of the violent mosh pit.

At times McCall would encourage the crowd to get even rowdier and soon the ability to listen to the music was lost as everyone concentrated on staying alive, and if they were wise, out of the pit.

Despite chants for one more song, Parkway Drive left the stage after a rather anti-climactic song and didn’t reappear again.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Halie Noble at [email protected].