Review + Photos: A Day to Remember Shake Things Up at Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City

Casinos typically play host to crooners and classic rock acts, but ADTR came in and cranked up the volume

Typically, casinos are places you go to catch a old-school crooner or a classic rock act. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, however, does a pretty solid job of shaking things up. That’s exactly what they did last night, as current hard rock titans A Day to Remember invaded the Etess Arena along with special guests The Story So Far, Four Year Strong, and Militarie Gun for a high-octane gig that was much rowdier than what that venue is used to.

A Day to Remember took the stage and kicked things off with “Sticks and Bricks.” From their, they proceed to grind out a hefty 23-song set that featured a slew of hits and fan favorites. They pulled out “2nd Sucks” pretty early on, as well as their 2016 hit single “Paranoia.” They followed that up with back-to-back bangers “I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” and “Right Back at It Again,” a piece of pop-punk perfection from their seminal 2013 LP Common Courtesy.

To compliment the stellar setlist, the performance at all the trimmings of a big-time arena rock show from confetti to pyro – lots of pyro.

Other highlights from the set included “Have Faith in Me,” “You Be Tails, I’ll Be Sonic,” “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End,” and “All Signs Point to Lauderdale.” One track that sounded particularly good live was their latest single – the radio-ready “Feedback.” They a wrapped things up with the fan-favorite “If It Means a Lot to You.”

With the crowd needing just a little bit more, ADTR returned to the stage for a two-track encore, playing “It’s Complicated” and “The Downfall of Us All” before sending fans home satisfied and totally spent.

Last fall, A Day to Remember performed at When We Were Young 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band will be playing their watershed 2009 album Homesick all the way through. Other featured acts at this year’s installment include Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, The Used, Pierce the Veil, Jimmy Eat World, Chiodos, Anberlin, Sleeping with Sirens and more. In addition to ADTR doing Homesick, over 50 acts will be performing one of their classic albums in full. My Chemical Romance will be playing The Black Parade, August Burns Red are performing Constellations, plus many more. 

Back in May, A Day to Remember are slated to appear at Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida in May alongside Mötley Crüe, Foo Fighters, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Judas Priest, Falling In Reverse, Greta Van Fleet, Breaking Benjamin, Anthrax, In This Moment, Primus, Architects, and more, as well as the Hang Out Music Festival in Alabama, and Sonic Temple in Ohio. Tonight, the band is headlining the first day of the 10th annual Four Chord Music Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Story So Far and Four Year Strong are also on the bill that day.

A Day to Remember released their last album, You’re Welcome, back in 2021. The record performed well commercially, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 and also cracking the Top 5 on Billboard’s Top Rock, Top Hard Rock, and Top Alternative albums charts. In 2022, the band released a brand new single, “Miracle.“

Towards the end of A Day to Remember’s Re-Entry Tour with Asking Alexandria and Point North in late 2021, bassist Josh Woodard left the band. In 2020, Woodard denied allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct. At the time, he “decided to pause legal proceedings against the accuser once the post was removed,” but after these allegations recently resurfaced, he said he ​“must act accordingly” and ​“will be leaving tour to be with my family and continue to defend my innocence in these matters.”

The Story So Far released their fourth album Proper Dose way back in 2018 through Pure Noise Records. The album hit No. 19 on the Billboard 200. Recently, the band has been in the studio working on the long awaited follow-up, I Want to Disappear. Four Year Strong released their last album, Brain Pain, in 2020.