Right Back At It Again! On the front row for ADTR’s Floridian homecoming at Rockville 2026

“Holy shit Daytona, are you alive out there?” Jeremy McKinnon teases a churning audience who have very much turned out for A Day To Remember. He pauses a second, then his friendly features can’t help to break onto a grin, ready to unleash a barn-burning All My Friends. “I’ve got to tell ya’, this has been absolutely electric this evening. So, how many people here are drinking? And how many people turned up here with their friends? Well, have we got the crossover song for you...”

Just an hour-and-a-half east of ADTR’s colourful birthplace of Ocala, this is about as close to a big festival homecoming as it gets for the proud Floridians. And no expense – or excess – is spared.

Indeed, it’s already their second set of the weekend after levelling the Kona Big Wave skate park with a secret show at lunchtime on Saturday. Officially unscheduled, but leaked on the festival app about an hour in advance, that performance was a chaotic ode to their roots. Filled only with songs from 2007 breakthrough For Those Who Have Heart, it was also arguably the highlight of the whole damn festival for the few thousand fans who managed to crash the space. Those inside got a cramped, no-frills throwback performance loaded with rarities they’ve not played in years (Fast Forward To 2012, Speak Of The Devil, Show ‘Em The Ropes) which almost collapsed in on itself under the weight of crowdsurfers and pits that came with The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle.

This evening’s conclusion of Rockville’s second stage headline set is a more conventional, albeit still glefully helter-skelter, affair. UK fans who caught last year’s landmark Slam Dunk headline shows will have a fair idea of what Jeremy and the boys throw at a show like this. They toss out lashings of confetti, eyebrow-scorching pyro, reams of ticker-tape that could blot out the sun, and enough dudes with T-shirt cannons to to trigger PTSD in fans of Maude Flanders. But it’s how the music reflects that maximalist attitude that makes them perfect for festivals like this – in Florida or anywhere else.

From the timeless sing-along aggro of The Downfall Of Us All to the endlessly swaggering defiance of I’m Made Of Wax Larry, What Are You Made Of?, the unhinged brutalism of 2nd Sucks to a melody-drenched cover of Marshmello’s Rescue Me, they’re overflowing with syrupy moments to put shit-eating grins on fans faces and bloody-nosed breakdowns to wipe them right back off again.

A glorious Have Faith In Me is dedicated to all the maternal figures in attendance on American Mother’s Day before Jezza gets the audience to illuminate the storm-swept site one last time on If It Means A Lot To You. “If you’ve got a lighter or a cellphone, put it in the air for this one, because it makes us feel a whole lot cooler about ourselves!” As if more affirmation is needed.

Except, perhaps tonight is proof that ADTR remain underrated 23 years since they first got going just along the road. Their highlights are as unforgettable as any on show this weekend, from the jittery Paranoia to the iconic ‘Disrespect your surroundings!’ war cry of Mr Highway’s Thinking About The End. So why haven’t they reached the level where they can close out the whole damn show? Maybe it’s because they’ve never left behind the wide-eyed kids they were. But that’s not something real fans or the band themselves would swap for all the top-line status in the world.

“If I had to grade this show out of five,” Jeremy laughs, even as punters begin to surge away towards My Chem and Architects, “I’d be giving you fuckers full marks.” And as his young daughter rushes on for an embrace at the surging climax of All Signs Point To Lauderdale, the feeling is very much mutual. Uncomplicated, unpretentious good times delivered on a massive scale. Awesome.

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