Papa Roach and Don Broco
Utilita Arena // Birmingham, England // March 24, 2023
Photos and review by Sophie Jones
Papa Roach
Don Broco are back touring arenas, and tonight, they graced Birmingham’s Utilita Arena stage along with special guests Papa Roach.
Papa Roach opened up with their set with “Kill the Noise,” and it wasn’t long before frontman Jacoby Shaddix took a moment to speak to the crowd, telling them it was his son’s 21st birthday. As he continued to speak, he mentioned, “some of you gamers or old school fans might know this next one from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2” before diving into playing “Blood Brothers.”
They continued to plow through several albums of hits they selected from their back catalog, but to make things that extra bit spicy, they really got the crowd going with a couple of cover songs, including a rendition of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter,” which saw them bring out Rob Holiday, the guitarist from The Prodigy, along with many other bands he shreds his guitar for.
As always, “Last Resort” saw the crowd go wild; it’s that Papa Roach classic that gets everyone singing along to every word. I think it’s fair to say that the crowd was truly warmed up and ready for the headliners by the time Papa Roach was finished with them.
Papa Roach Setlist:
Kill The Noise
Murder
Help!!!!!!!
Blood/Cell
Firestarter
To Be Loved
Lullaby Jam
Scars
No Apologies
None of the above
Still D.R.E
Between Angels & Insects
Last Resort
Born for Greatness
Don Broco
No intro music played as the lights dimmed and the members of Don Broco took the stage and assumed their positions, lights illuminating from behind them.
Frontman Rob Damiani sets off a smoke flare, grasping the audience’s attention if they didn’t already have it. The bass kicks in for “Bruce Willis,” and you can already feel the excitement building in the room, with the fans screaming on the barrier as each member comes forward on the stage.
There’s the immediate swagger from Damiani’s stage presence. Rocking a mullet, a red bomber jacket and some retro sunglasses, he gave me Power Rangers vibes. Nonetheless, he commanded the crowd along to every beat that dropped.
After performing “Technology,” Rob took a second to speak to the audience, saying how lucky the band is since the last time they played in this room was when they supported Bring Me The Horizon. He continued to say Birmingham has also brought them bad luck, too. He asked the crowd who came to their album launch shows, saying, “We played this venue called The Mill, and just as we were about to go on stage, we had to cancel the show due to plumbing issues, and the venue was flooding with not nice substances.”
The whole night up till this point just felt like a feel-good, happy atmosphere and you could clearly see everyone was enjoying themselves. After “Nerve,” the boys lefts the stage, but soon came back to the pounding drums of “Fingernails,” which is the first time they’ve played this song on U.K. soil, I believe.
Both the crowd and the band were feeding off of one another’s energy all night and when it came to a close, they ended the night on “T-Shirt Song.”
Don Broco Setlist:
Bruce Willis
Gumshield
Technology
Uber
Come Out To LA
One True Prince
Pretty
Manchester Super Reds No.1 fan (feat Jacoby Shaddix)
Thug Workout
Automatic
What You Do To Me
ACTION
Priorities
Endorphins
Anaheim
Everybody
Superlove
Nerve
Encore:
Fingernails
T-shirt Song
