SUM 41 (support: The Lunar Year)
Venue: Opatija / Ljetna pozornica / Croatia
Date: 11. 6. 2023
SUM 41 again, just one day after the concert in Jesolo, Italy (review available here), this time at the Ljetna pozornica in Opatija. Covering the same band on back-to-back nights might seem like overkill, but the Rockline crew had a score to settle with the undrinkable beer from the previous evening — so really, the decision was a no-brainer.
As already mentioned in yesterday’s review, SUM 41 are definitively one of those bands that defined a generation. Together with Blink 182, Green Day, The Offspring, and a handful of others, they launched punk-rock into the mainstream in the early 2000s. There’s probably not a single millennial who hasn’t dubbed at least one of the above onto a cassette while yelling at a family member to keep it down — ahhh… how many of my classmates had Fat Lip playing with their mum’s voice in the background going “what the hell are you doing in there”.
Opatija also drew a massive crowd of Slovenian SUM 41 fans, who got to see them — for just the second time (the first being a show ten years ago in Zagreb) — barely an hour and a half from our capital. Slovenians were out in force, and at times you’d honestly have thought we outnumbered the Croatians — worth noting: the stage crew was Slovenian too. The band clearly has no shortage of fans in our little corner of the world, because merch was basically impossible to get hold of during the show — most of it had sold out before the doors even opened.
The evening kicked off with The Lunar Year. The band bills itself as a British rock act, but the question of why the support act is British rather than Croatian answers itself pretty quickly when frontman Connor Ball introduces the drummer — that’s Saša Maček (Cheat Codes) from Croatia.
An energetic and charismatic set from the trio, warming up the crowd, which nonetheless saved the bulk of its energy for the headliners. Frontman Connor Ball is no stranger to big stages, having previously been part of the guitar-driven ‘boyband’ attraction The Vamps. He owned the stage and the room, and with his presence and chops won over — above all — the female contingent of the crowd.
At exactly 9 PM it was finally our turn — every specimen over thirty, loaded up on ibuprofen and beer! Time for action! But jokes aside. The crowd was a mix of young and old, with an age range that kicked off somewhere around four years old and topped out just north of eighty. The opening riff of Motivation did its thing and we were instantly in full-on euphoria.
The crowd reacted no differently when the band rolled into The Hell Song — fans rank it as the fourth most recognizable SUM 41 track. It was actually written spontaneously to ‘help’ a friend who had just found out he was HIV positive. Deryck has said he didn’t want to write about it at first, but the song basically wrote itself. The album name ties into the story too — “Does It Look Infected” takes on its full meaning once you know the backstory. The veterans in the crowd got their old-school fix with Over My Head, Underclass Hero, and Walking Disaster, each one pulling a roaring response out of the audience, right up until… In Too Deep. And there we were. Security was praying again, and the beer vendors fell into a depression, because the entire crowd surged toward the stage and formed one gigantic circle pit. At its peak, the Croatian meteorological service issued a warning about an approaching destructive tornado. In between, the band served up We’re All to Blame — a cut from Chuck that fans on release criticized as ‘too serious’ and too ‘metal’-heavy. The complaints shook Dave “Brownsound” Baksh as well, who — alongside the frontman — had publicly expressed his desire to play heavier riffs. When the band then decided their next record would mirror the spirit of their debut, Brownsound wasn’t on board and left for nine years before rejoining in 2015. Despite the punk-rock purists’ objections, the album climbed to number two on the American Billboard chart — and despite the runaway success of All Killer No Filler, Chuck remained the band’s best-selling record until Underclass Hero overtook it in 2007. The name Chuck also has a pretty interesting backstory. It’s named after UN peacekeeper Chuck Pelletier, who in 2004 (specifically on 27 May) was working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Chuck saved SUM 41’s lives while they were filming a documentary for the non-profit War Child Canada in Congo, where a years-long war was raging at the time — out of nowhere, shots started coming from all directions: https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/121-62990) (the photo below is the only one in existence, at a resolution of 200x250px)
The show hit its peak with Still Waiting, the closer of the main set. The ENT specialists in the vicinity were presumably already ordering yachts, knowing they’d just picked up at least 2,000 new patients in one go. SUM 41 didn’t rush back to the stage — they were clearly soaking up the glory — while the crowd kept up a wall-to-wall chant of “SUM 41” that echoed well beyond the walls of the Ljetna pozornica. For a moment the crowd feared Fat Lip wasn’t coming, then the guys sprinted back on and launched into the lesser-known Machine Gun. And then, of course, the highlight of the night and the band’s most-streamed track — Fat Lip. We trust the euphoria needs no further elaboration. The cannons flanking the stage were going full blast. More fire and fog than a Marvel film. All wrapped up in a stunning finale, and for many this was the last SUM 41 show they’ll ever see. Post-concert depression, judging by the look on people’s faces, hit immediately. The crowd in ecstasy! The euphoria refuses to fade! But in the hearts of the faithful, there’s no escaping SUM 41’s grim announcement that this was in all likelihood their final show in Croatia. Looking for something to soften that morbid reality, the fans resorted to scrounging for picks before slowly beginning to filter out of the venue.
Author: Helena Medved & Denis Paradiž
Photos: Denis Paradiž
SETLIST:
1. Motivation (+88 outro)
2. The Hell Song
3. Over My Head (Better Off Dead)
4. We’re All to Blame
5. Out for Blood
6. War
7. Summer
8. Sleep Now in the Fire (Rage Against the Machine cover)
9. Underclass Hero
10. Walking Disaster
11. With Me
12. In Too Deep
13. Makes No Difference
14. Pieces
15. No Reason
16. We Will Rock You (orig. Queen)
17. Still Waiting
—encore—
18. Machine Gun
19. Fat Lip
The open-air SUM 41 show by the sea delivered a completely different atmosphere compared to the evening before. Despite the identical setlist and the same stage routine, this show felt like something truly unique. SUM 41 are wrapping up 29 years of making music and saying goodbye to the stage. 2025 will bring their final show in their home country of Canada, and this November their last ever in Europe. Their Paris farewell concert sold out in under a day, shifting 80,000 tickets. Rockline.si will be there for the final show! So far, no additional European dates beyond festival slots have been announced. Deryck has hinted that his musical career isn’t over and that he’ll be looking for new adventures in heavier, more metal waters.
