Everyone’s A Star World Tour
w/ Haiden Henderson, The Band Camino, 5 Seconds of Summer
There's something about the Camden Waterfront on a warm August night that just works for a show like this — river breeze coming off the water, the Philly skyline lit up across the way, and thousands of people who've clearly been waiting all summer for this exact date to roll around. That's the scene 5 Seconds of Summer walked into on Friday, bringing their Everyone's A Star World Tour to Freedom Mortgage Pavilion with The Band CAMINO and Haiden Henderson in tow.
Henderson kicked the night off, and if you weren't already familiar with him, you probably left a fan. His set was quiet in the best way — just him, some sharp, personal songwriting, and a crowd that got noticeably hushed and attentive for an opening slot, which isn't nothing on a summer amphitheater bill. The Band CAMINO came on next and flipped the energy up several notches, all big hooks and easy stage banter. They're only a couple shows into this run as support, but they didn't look like it — the crowd was already singing along in places.
Then the lights dropped and Luke, Michael, Calum, and Ashton walked out to "NOT OK," and the whole place turned into one loud, unified voice for the next hour and a half. What struck me most watching the set unfold was how comfortably it moved between eras. You'd get "Boyband" and "Telephone Busy" — fresh off Everyone's A Star! — sitting right next to "Teeth" and "No Shame," songs that fans have been shouting back at them since the CALM days. It never felt like a victory lap for the old stuff or a hard sell for the new stuff. It just felt like a band playing their own songs, in whatever order made the room feel best. "Amnesia" was the moment — you could feel it coming a few bars in, that shift where everyone in the pavilion just stops being an audience and becomes part of the song. And then, tucked in as a secret song, they threw in a cover of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" that nobody in my section saw coming. It was silly and unpretentious and the crowd ate it up. By the time "Jet Black Heart" and "She Looks So Perfect" rolled around to close the main set, it had that full-circle feeling — the kind of run where you can tell some of the people around you have literally grown up on this band.
The encore — "Everyone's A Star!" into "Youngblood" — wrapped things up a bit earlier than the tour's been running most nights, and word going around after the show was that the band wasn't feeling well. If that's what was going on, it barely showed. The last few songs still landed with everything they needed to.
Fifteen-plus years in, 5SOS still knows exactly how to make an amphitheater feel small. Camden got a set that leaned on both eras without playing favorites, a surprise cover that'll be the thing people talk about tomorrow, and two support acts — Henderson and The Band CAMINO — who more than held their own on the bill. If this tour is still swinging through your city, it's worth the trip.
Photography by Wes Shepherd
