Bigger, louder and crazier
Neck Deep members Ben Barlow on vocals, Dani Washington on drums, Fil Thorpe-Evans on bass, Matt West and Sam Bowden on guitars are returning to Manila for their The Peace and The Panic Tour to be held at Skydome, SM North EDSA on March 18, 2018.
Presented by PULP Live World and Bazooka Rocks, it will be the band’s second time to party with their Filipino fans. Their last concert was on January 28, 2016. This time around, in support of their biggest album yet, expect the concert to be bigger, louder, and crazier.
Gates open at 6PM and show starts at 8PM.
Over the course of only five years, the Welsh pop punk band has become one of the most important bands in pop punk. Since their independently released debut EP Rain in July in 2012, they’ve been making waves nonstop.
They were signed to their current label Hopeless Records just a year after their formation. Their 2013 sophomore EP A History of Bad Decisions had “catchy songs with heart and soul,” said Rock Sound’s Andy Ritchie, and their debut full-length Wishful Thinking (released in 2014) was included in the publication’s “The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time” list.
With their second full-length, 2015’s Life’s Not Out to Get You, they gained the stamp of approval of A Day To Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon. McKinnon not only did guest vocals on the song “Kali Ma,” but he co-produced the album as well. In 2016, they caught the attention of more legends when they recorded two new versions of the song “December.” One features Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus, while the other features Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba.
Their third and latest full-length album is The Peace and the Panic. More introspective compared to their previous releases, Barlow told Alternative Press that after “a period of uninterrupted happiness,” he experienced an epiphany. He said, “This panic, this horrible dread, this anxiety, this stress – I’m meant to feel like this so I can experience the good with it. I can’t get one without the other.”
The band also branched out sonically with the help of producers Neal Avron and Mike Green. Barlow said Green “pushed [them] on structure” and made them “think about every part of [their] songs,” while Avron “brought in a rock-heavy feel and mix.” On the song “Don’t Wait,” they enlisted an unlikely guest: Sam Carter, vocalist of metalcore band Architects.
The emotional honesty and risks the band took evidently resonated with fans. The Peace and the Panic is their first album to land on the top 10 of the Billboard 200, hitting No. 4. Alternative Press reported that it is Hopeless Records’ highest charting effort in two years.
Exclusive: 15 Questions with Neck Deep’s Ben Barlow
Second time around
Supporting Neck Deep is Malaysia’s pop-mosh veterans, Patriots. The band composed of vocalist Ayeen, guitarists Aiman Afzal and Najmi Afifi, bassist Muhd Hakimi and keyboardist Faizul Bong is known for their high energy on and offstage and their heady mix of pummelling riffs and stadium-worthy choruses.
Formed in 2007 as Heart-a-tack, the band is currently signed to Universal Music Malaysia and has worked with international pop-punk/metalcore stalwarts Eric and Bert Poncet of Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! and David Escamilla of Crown The Empire.
The band’s debut EP Stand Off was released on January 22, 2016.
