Issue #4
In October of 2025, the world changed forever.
Okay- not actually. But the world’s best boyband announced their first tour since 2023. The boyband in question? None other than the infamous 5 Seconds of Summer celebrating their 6th album, EVERYONE’S A STAR!
Bite The (Big) Apple, Baby!
We spent two nights with 5 Seconds of Summer in New York City. Here's how it went:
The way the ‘EVERYONE’S A STAR! 2026 World Tour’ was announced was nothing short of unique. With a fake press conference followed by what fans thought would be the music video for their single ‘Boyband’, 5 Seconds of Summer's long-anticipated tour announcement brought thorough excitement throughout the fanbase, including us!
What we thought were three shows (Hershey, New York night one, and Camden) we had set up to attend, soon turned to four with Baltimore, Maryland, and five with perhaps two of the most exciting shows of tour by far: two nights at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, aka, what we’re covering in this very article. As if one night at what is considered the world’s most famous arena wasn’t enough, due to high demand, a second night was announced on October 30th, making the shows on June 13th and 14th; two of the most special nights of tour of which we attended so far.
Beginning with Saturday’s show on the 13th, it was by far our busiest day of the two. With New York already in shambles due to the NBA Finals, the World Cup, and added chaos of the show certainly piled on to the already high volume the city obtains on a daily basis. On the day before the show as well, UMusic Shop located in the city announced a pop-up shop for 5SOS fans. The announcement was spread across social media, noting, “Everyone’s a star at our @5SOS pop-up this weekend!”(via @umusicshopny).
Of course we went, why wouldn’t we?
What we thought would just be exclusive merch from the EVERYONE’S A STAR! era
turned into much more than that. From their debut album, to merch from their 2023
tour ‘The 5 Seconds of Summer Show’, this pop-up shop exceeded our expectations.
We made sure to pick up some shirts that caught our eye as well as exclusive vinyls
of EVERYONE’S A STAR! that are absolutely gorgeous, clear pink variants we can’t
get enough of. Earlier on in the day, the band themselves stopped by the
shop at UMusic and took pictures with fans in line, too (Luke Hemmings shopping for
his own merch? More likely than you think) that followed an Instagram livestream
from Ashton Irwin beforehand, which included him being mistaken for a dog sticking
its head out the window of their pink limousine. A likely scenario.
With the pop-up shop out of the way, night one was nothing short of special. Energy was high with the New York Knicks being in the NBA finals already, and the statement “Knicks in 5 Seconds of Summer!” was used by both the band and fans alike. If you’re familiar with the ‘EVERYONE’S A STAR! Tour’, then you know just how well-done the production has been done on this tour. From a brilliant catwalk where you can get close with 5SOS no matter where you are, to hilarious cut scenes that separate the set into six different acts, this tour has been the opposite of your typical concert with fan inclusion consisting of a presenter for the Boyband of the Year award as well as a presenter for the secret song of the night that is typically fan-voted.
Night one had a change to that rule, however.
Typically, the secret song is voted via barcode before the show begins. Attendees have four options to choose from which is then presented by a fan who opens a briefcase that reveals the highest-voted song out of those four options. But for the first night in New York, the options consisted of four boxes with question marks in each which caused panic and confusion throughout the crowd. This could mean anything.
Before the song was presented, Michael Clifford prefaced by mentioning that the song to be played that night was both a song that they got to choose, and one that hadn’t been played in years. The song in question? A throwback to their 2011 cover of ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ by Wheatus, a true surprise to fans who have been around since the beginning.
Another unique feature that is experienced throughout the show includes their PowerPoint on how to become a local in each city. One of the steps in the presentation is for the band to “drop some lore” from their over ten years of being together. Nights one and two certainly had some of the most memorable and widely-known events surrounding Michael and his infamous stage accidents. Night one displayed Michael falling off stage that is all too familiar to the fandom. Night two’s lore followed the event of Michael’s hair catching fire, to which Michael responded “I’ve never had more sympathy for me than that day…I’m still milking it!”
Moving on to Sunday’s show on the 14th, we’ve told you the lore, the powerpoints,
and the fan voting. But night two kept the energy up just as much as the evening prior
with a new 2026 NBA Championship win for the Knicks keeping the city in high spirits.
Fan voting was back to normal with ‘Try Hard’ being the pick of the night (and our third
time hearing it on tour both as an acoustic and full band!). Leading their crowd walk for
the encore was none other than Spider-Man wearing a New York Knicks hat as well.
Additionally, this was also our first show personally not seeing Calum in a skirt/kilt
(very important). And to end off the night, the 5SOS crew were kind enough to give us
guitar picks!
How both nights in New York went goes without words. We’ve been fortunate enough
to attend this tour four times so far with one more scheduled for us August 8th in
Camden, New Jersey (hometown show for us!) and we couldn’t be more excited to
experience our first pavilion show of our scheduled dates. The 'EVERYONE'S A STAR!
2026 World Tour’ is a show meant to be experienced in every way possible.
You can catch 5 Seconds of Summer at their remaining dates of tour, which also include dates in Asia, Australia, and more!
