I Was Front Row At 5SOS' iHeartRadio Theater Show & Now I'm Deceased

Full disclosure: I've seen 5 Seconds of Summer live many times (sometimes front row; sometimes at soundcheck) and met them when they came into the iHeartRadio offices, where Luke and I joked about Family Guy for a hot minute.

I say this truly not to brag, but to pinpoint where in my fandom I was Wednesday night (June 27), when I was front row center at iHeartRadio's super intimate, 200-person-capacity theater. I was excited as all hell, but this is a band that’s familiar; they're like home.

But pressed against the barricade, literally rubbing elbows with every fan next to me, all of those 5SOS facts flew out the window. The second Luke, Calum, Ashton, and Michael took the stage, the feeling was instantaneous: I can’t believe they’re real people.

It’s a ridic thought (of course they’re real); one that had usually been reserved for artists or celebs I had never seen IRL before. Still, it entered my heart-eye emoji brain all the same — undoubtedly because it was the most intimate venue I had ever seen them in, the stage was low AF, and they were just merely inches away, about to perform. R.I.P. me. 

The guys did a standard set, kicking things off with "She Looks So Perfect," throwing some "Amnesia" and "Jet Black Heart" in there, but the obvious standouts were all from Youngblood: the title track, "Lie to Me," "Moving Along," "Talk Fast," ending things with "Want You Back."

The passion the guys poured into the show spilled out across the living room-esque stage. It was in Ashton’s ferocious drumming, in Michael's closed-eye guitar solos, in Calum's intense concentration on the bass, and in Luke's rallying cries to get the crowd to pour just as much energy and passion into the lyrics as they were.

It was a symbiotic relationship, the crowd electric with excitement for their faves, and the guys feeding off every outstretched hand, every fan singing their heart out, raising hands in the air in tandem with every beat the band played. 

The best part of any concert for me is when I feel like I’ve been taken to church. Eyes closed, if only for a moment, so touched by the music it basically becomes a religion. And that is exactly how I felt last night, crammed against the barricade and surrounded by 199 other fans — and feeling like I was the only one in the theater, just taking in every. single. note.

Photo: Katherine Tyler and Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio