Gallery & Review: Neck Deep in Nashville
☆ BY Gomi Zhou ☆
Digital Photos by Gomi Zhou
Neck Deep jinxed it with the album name. All Distortions Are Intentional, but the distortion of a global pandemic is certainly an exception. A whole year after the original dates and almost two years since the first tour announcement, Neck Deep finally kick started their latest 29-stop US tour last Thursday in Nashville.
Neck Deep holds a special place in most pop punk fans’ hearts. Despite its late formation from the year of 2012, Neck Deep had and still preserves a very “classic” pop punk sound. They last toured the US in 2019, supporting the Blink-182 and Lil Wayne co-headline tour. Their last album, released during the quarantine, once again scores perfectly on the pop punk checklist: a decently standardized tempo throughout all the tracks, a perfectly correct pop punk accent despite the band’s UK origin and of course, all the agonizing feelings.
After participating in an eye-opening “Wall of Death” from the Boston Manor set, most attendees of that night would probably agree that when in comparison, the Neck Deep set felt like a wholesome singalong. Marathon Music Works was far from selling out on Thursday night, but even the warehouse securities were visibly stunned by the endless crowd surfs they were witnessing. This in itself is a reflection of Neck Deep’s presence as a band. Their influence is not as wide as the acts on the charts, but their impact to their own fans are persistent and prominent. Nevertheless, energy never once dimmed during the 90-minute long Neck Deep set. The endless crowd surfing created a sharp contrast to the stage setup: a carefully put-together set that resembled a small and cozy bachelor apartment, displayed with different levels and decked out with classic American furniture. While lead singer Ben Barlow remained close to the audience for the most part, everyone else in the band took liberty to jump up and down the different levels, dodging the ecstacy of colorful beams.
No one could have possibly felt left out at the show. Some people came for the album that helped them go through the quarantine, but most were people in their late 20s coming to see a band that has helped them go through the weirdest decade of their lives. Every line omitted by the singer was picked up by the crowd members instead, whether it’s an older track like “December” or a new fan-favorite like “Lowlife,” fans knew the words, all of them.
In between songs and surfing, Barlow held lengthy conversation with the audience members. “Honestly, it’s been a hell of a couple years for sure, we feel it just as much as you feel it.” Said Ben Barlow during one of his first conversations with the audience. The same concept is reiterated again and again throughout the night. From both him and the rest of the band, whether it is through words or the skillful playing short of any sign of little practicing, there presented sincerity and dedication.
Since the pandemic, Neck Deep had evolved. There’s a deeper understanding of their own music among the band members themselves, and the need for a band like this has never felt stronger by their fans.
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