Live review: Sum 41, London OVO Arena Wembley

It’s a day many thought would never come. After 30 years of fat lips, walking disasters, and things that look infected, Sum 41 are calling it a day. Having been something of a permanent fixture of our world for so long, it was assumed the Canadian punks would stick around ’til the bitter end, but rather than becoming part of the furniture they’ve decided to blow up the house entirely and go out in a blaze of glory with one more UK tour, including London’s iconic OVO Arena Wembley.

Surprisingly, in the past three decades Sum 41 have only played here once before, in 2003, but after a summer festival run that saw them pull one of the biggest crowds of the weekend at Download, it’s no surprise they’re back in one of the largest venues these isles have to offer. And for good reason – it is packed in here tonight.

With a curtain hanging over the stage, the swarming crowd are well and truly up for it, belting out Last Resort and American Idiot along with the PA, surging ever-forward (we even spy Eurovision star Sam Ryder pushing his way down front). And as the lights go down and the unmistakable sounds of AC/DC’s TNT blast out across the north London hall, Deryck Whibley rushes the stage with his merry men, launching straight into Motivation at such cacophonous volume it would do ’DC proud.

Armed with a supercharged version of their summer setlist, Sum 41 are packing all the bells and whistles for their final outing, with fire, confetti, CO2, streamers and, at one point, a giant skeleton that flips everyone off. The energy in here could replace jet fuel, as the pits grow larger and wilder with each passing second – so much so that the show is stopped for five minutes during second track Hell Song due to crowd injury.

Once the medical team have worked their magic – to applause from the 10,000-strong crowd – Sum 41 waste no time getting back into the thick of it, blistering through Over My Head, Screaming Bloody Murder and Underclass Hero (complete with massive balloons). It’s a reminder that, perhaps, for many years we took Sum 41 for granted, and they’ve long been one of alternative music’s most fun and reliable live bands. And ultimately tonight is about showing that appreciation to a band who most here grew up with and turned to in times of need.

But it’s not a sad affair, as Deryck himself notes, tonight is “a goddamn celebration”, but that “the world has had enough of Sum 41”. Cue thousands of people booing. “It’s heartwarming to hear your boos,” he smiles, before introducing two cuts from their latest (and final) album Heaven :x: Hell, Landmines and Dopamine, that swell and expand inside the vast room tonight, bursting with monumental whoas and choruses.

Sum 41 have always been something of an outlier in the pop-punk stakes. Not only are they dab hands at the angsty skater anthems and infectious arena-ready bangers, they’ve got a metallic flair running through them that most bands in their peer group lack. Dedicating the chestbeating We’re All To Blame to the metalheads in the audience, they even find time to jam the intro to Slayer’s Raining Blood and the solo to Metallica’s Master Of Puppets, as a reminder they were indeed raised on heavy metal and mullets.

The speed isn’t at one setting for the full two hours, though, bringing out the piano for Best Of Me and leading the choir gathered here for a powerful With Me – the song Deryck told us is still his favourite to perform live, some 16 years down the line.

But for all the sombre, arm-in-arm moments, when Fat Lip rolls round with such explosive pyro the stench of sulphur is quite overwhelming, all bets are off. Still as monstrous and cathartic as ever, nobody is standing still, joyously screaming, ‘Bortion! Bortion! Bortion!’ And when set-closer In Too Deep kicks in, the smoke in the air is replaced by a thick wave of feverish elation, as band and crowd give each other everything they can muster one final time.

It’s strange to think that we might never see Sum 41 onstage again. These songs that have been so engrained in the minds of multiple generations of rock fans are no longer living, breathing things, but now solely confined to your Spotify and the playlist of pretty much any dive bar you care to visit. As Deryck says tonight, the band have had their ups and downs, but they’ve had “the Sum 41 family to get us through those moments”, and the millions around the world who’re part of that family can be happy that the Ontario legends are going out on their terms on the biggest stages possible. All hail the underclass heroes.

Sum 41 setlist

Motivation
The Hell Song
Over My Head (Better Off Dead)
Screaming Bloody Murder
Underclass Hero
War
Welcome To Hell
Landmines
Dopamine
We're All To Blame
Some Say
No Reason
Walking Disaster
With Me
Makes No Difference
My Direction / No Brains / All Messed Up
Best Of Me
Preparasi a salire
Rise Up
Pieces
What We're All About
Fat Lip
Still Waiting

Encore:
Summer
Waiting On A Twist Of Fate
In Too Deep
Encore 2:
Noots

Get your hands on the Kerrang! x Sum 41 capsule collection.

Read this next:

• Sum 41: “If there’s one record that defines who we are, it’s this one”
• 7 things you didn’t know about Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley
• The rise of Sum 41, as told through their most important gigs