It’s not a ‘Stone Cold Summer’ with South Arcade

Coming to a concert early, for me, is an unmissable opportunity: I have the chance to meet new artists performing as the opening act. In this case, however, those artists were not new to me at all: my headphones had already played their songs millions of times in the previous months. I'm talking about South Arcade, who I recently had the opportunity to hear live in Milan opening for Everyone's a Star Tour by 5 Seconds of Summer.

The lights are still warm, the venue isn't completely full, but here are these four guys ready to turn on the atmosphere. Just the time for Harmony Cavelle, singer, to arrive on stage that the notes of “Fear of Heights” intertwine with the roar of the audience. From the beginning they appear perfectly at ease: they sound full of energy, with a natural desire to interact with the audience.

The movements convey confidence that is difficult for those playing for the first time in a new country to find, but which, combined with their spontaneity, has helped warm up all the various spectators. As an opening act, it's not always easy to carve out space to talk between songs, yet they succeed, introducing themselves, talking about the main band and even showing, as is now a ritual, a writing made on the back of Ollie Green's bass that read Cal 6 figo (Calum you're hot in Italian).

In a blink of an eye their set has come to an end. To the final notes of Stone Cold Summer the band greeted fans by giving away various picks, drumsticks and setlists to a lucky few (including me). In less than an hour, they managed to transform an audience waiting for the main act into an engaged crowd that screamed and jumped to their catchy, retro sounds that gave away a kind of a No Doubt vibe.

Once the stage was empty again, I realised I had just witnessed a performance that rather than an opening for other artists seemed like an introduction to their world and I can't wait to find out more about that. That evening, the name on the ticket purchased was not theirs, but I hope it can be in the not-too- distant future.

Review written by Giorgia Nozza.