Live Review: Papa Roach - Wembley Arena, London
8th February 2025
Support: Wage War, DJ Alyx Holcombe
Photos: Tom Atkin
Can we have summer back already?! It's a lovely wintery trip down to Wembley for me this evening, celebrating twenty five years of the legendary Infest album from Papa Roach, this is gonna be good.
Arriving to the OVO Wembley Arena, you'll notice the music a bit louder than usual for pre-band entertainment, that's because we have DJ Alyx Holcombe providing a great soundtrack to get people in the spirit of things. I just want to point out. This is a much better idea than just your standard PA music.
First band tonight are Wage War. I hadn’t listened to much of their music before tonight, however that is going to be changed after this performance. An absolutely incredible show to open the night and for any one that has not listened to them before this is a hell of an introduction.
Cited as being a metalcore band, they are definitely on the heavier side of the genre majority of the time. Briton Bond’s vocals are amazing, whether it be his almost haunting cleans or his brutal unclean he absolutely nails it. And he knows how to get the crowd moving, three maybe four pits open up before we were even midway through their set, which is rare for an opening band. It is clear to see that these guys are loving every minute of being in front of a pretty much sold out Wembley.
It's a tight performance, it's loud, and some of the songs properly return to older nu metal rhythm. 10/10. Would definitely recommend Wage War.
Now for Papa Roach, the whole of Wembley is packed out, barely a single empty seat. Opening the celebration of Infest with their latest single, “Even If It Kills Me”, is certainly a brave choice. But, after around three seconds it is very clear that it paid of. The moment the curtain dropped, every single person on the floor absolutely went for it. It is very rare to see this sort of movement from the crowd from the word go and it is obvious that this show is going to be flawless in every way possible.
Looking through the set list it is stacked, twenty three songs spanning the whole of their discography. Obviously as its the 25th anniversary of Infest, that album spawned the most songs for the evening. All the favourites including “Blood Brothers” and “Dead Cell” being flung out nice and early, both of which received with a great amount of noise.
I love Papa Roach, and have been listening to them since the release of this album, however I did not realise just how many amazing songs they have, and tonight every single song is played so incredibly well. The atmosphere in here is unreal. For “...To Be Loved”, “Kill The Noise” and “Getting Away with Murder” I don’t think there is a single silent voice or still body, I was sat quite close to the stage, looking around the crowd, the looks on every ones faces was that of pure happiness.
Jacoby’s has everyone in the palm of his hands and the rest of the band provide the perfect soundtrack to this puppetry. We get treated to a somewhat impromptu cover of “California Love” by the late 2Pac, which I am not sure how, but blends perfectly in to 2021’s “Swerve”. It’s clear to see all the different influences that help to shape the Papa Roach sound.
One thing I haven’t touched on yet is the stage/lighting setup. It’s impressive with so many lights, flame towers and smoke machines. All of it adding to the atmosphere and becoming an absolutely mind blowing entity. The wrap around screens playing a combination of old clips of Papa Roach’s younger days, CGI and of course live playback. It all feels like it is being done for a purpose rather than just being there.
Back to the music though, this part of the show takes a more sombre turn, we get “Forever” with an "In The End" snippet and “Falling Apart” before a video being played of Jacoby talking about the bands support of Mental Health. Proceeds from tonight’s show going towards local charities to help provide support those in need. They know that their music has helped an awful lot of people get through bad times and it is nice to see them giving even more support.
Continuing this them for a few more, “Leave a Light On” is played with almost no stage lights, however the crowd lit the place with their phone lights. A lot of bands do this these days and every time it just hits different.
“Roses on My Grave” finished the emotionally loaded section equally as beautiful as the rest of this slowed down part of the night. Tony Palemo then gets his limelight part of the show, with a great drum solo, that is a nice little break away before going into arguably one of Papa Roach’s best songs, “Scars”.
Finishing off the main part of the set is 2017’s “Born For Greatness”, the amount of energy put into this finale is incredible, from both the fans and Papa Roach themselves.
We get the standard band leaving the stage, oh it’s the end of the show stuff that non of us fall for anymore. Then a video starts playing of maggots, cock roachs and bugs, and a weird spacey, synth tune plays, with heavily edited lyrics from “Between Angels and Insects”. The band returns to the stage and plays the song in all its glory. This is the song that made me fall in love with Papa Roach, so this was most definitely a highlight of the night personally, and judging by the singing coming from the crowd, I would say it was the same for many people!
I believe it was during this song that I saw the biggest pit that I have ever seen at Wembley Arena. I have seen countless bands here now, including the likes of Machine Head, but tonight’s pits were huge.
The encore is all old school, “Infest” into “Broken Home” (with a snippet of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem) then a hell of a throw back to the proper nu-metal era, A medley of "Blind", "My Own Summer", "Break Stuff" and "Chop Suey". Not going to lie, it made me feel like a teenager again. This was my era of getting into alternative music, what I would give to go back to some of the tours that were happening at that time.
Finishing the night was of course, “Last Resort”, the song that started it all for Papa Roach. It still holds its own twenty five years later. Even though it was the obvious choice to close out the show, it feels like an added little nod that they opened with their latest single, and closed with their first.
This night was absolutely incredible, we are five weeks into 2025, and already I think gig of the year has been chosen for me. Sadly, they are now heading back over the pond, but I think this batch of shows in the UK might of swayed them to come back this way.
They are still some of the top dogs in the alternative scene, and I can not wait for the new album.
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