Neck Deep @ O2 Academy, Glasgow, 26 Jan

Neck Deep, the five-piece from Wrexham, have cultivated a mass following, so the room is packed to the rafters and there’s clearly a lot of excitement in the air. As they released their self-titled album at the start of last year, the first five songs come from that offering. What could be jarring to a casual fan is still well received, perhaps helped by onstage theatrics in the form of a blast of white confetti during opener Dumbstruck Dumbfuck, as well as a flash of pyrotechnics. 

Before playing Take Me With You, frontman Ben Barlow references Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge, stating “Tom was right” in regards to his belief in aliens. It’s not the first time they reference the band, known for the explicit onstage humour between DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus. Clearly an influence on Neck Deep, Barlow makes an attempt at banter. Given that the guitarists either side of him, Matt West and Sam Bowden, are without microphones, there's no one to bounce off, and it falls a little flat.

In spite of this, when they play, they are a lot of fun. There are clap-alongs aplenty as the band perform their own digestible version of a sometimes polarising genre. There's a magnetism throughout their performance that carries through and doesn’t waiver, helped in turn by anthemic guitar riffs and pounding drum fills. There’s a notable absence of one of their best loved tracks, A Part of Me, an acoustic angst-filled duet. However, other more upbeat fan favourites like Can’t Kick Up the Roots and December (Again) fill the void towards the end of the set. 

When they exit the stage and come back for their inevitable encore, the highlight of the evening comes in the form of In Bloom. Togetherness and camaraderie are present, as all of the voices in the room belt out the lyrics in unison that they are, in fact, 'all, in bloom'.