Review: 5 Seconds of Summer at Kings Park

5 Seconds of Summer at Kings Park
w/ Cub Sport, Mariae Cassandra
Friday, November 6, 2026

With less than a month to go in the countdown to 5 Seconds of Summer’s 15th anniversary, the Aussie pop-rock band proved once and for all that they’ll remain a mainstay not just in their home country but across world stages.

The tour celebrates 2025’s Everyone’s A Star!, the group’s sixth studio album, featuring a markedly matured sound from 2018’s best-selling Youngblood and completely distinct from 2014’s self-titled debut album. A self-aware and slightly unhinged study in evolution, redefining labels and appreciating the fans that made you, the band put together a perfectly calculated set, outpacing their previous tours by leaps and bounds. Over 13 years after their first Perth performance, and with the passage of time staring down many of the fans in attendance, 5SOS managed to make it feel both like time hadn’t passed at all and that they were only just getting started.

Perth up-and-comer Mariae Cassandra kicked off the evening and at just 19 years old, commanded the stage with a comfortability most of her peers can’t access, even while being dwarfed by 5SOS’s inflatable pink limousine set piece. No one can deny she made the best of her opportunity, winning the chance to open the proceedings through Live Nation’s Next On artist development program. Her brand of indie and bedroom pop was well-suited to the crowd gathered on the deck, who bopped along attentively to her set. A formidable cover of Simple Plan’s Jet Lag went over well with the older crowd but seemed to go over the heads of a fair portion of the audience.

The buzz generated by Cassandra was somewhat subdued by Cub Sport’s arrival, opening their slot with a slow, synth-laden track. Their set was solid, largely made up of songs from their earlier albums and supported by an impressive vocal performance from lead singer Tim Nelson. The crowd largely gravitated towards their more upbeat entries like Hawaiian Party and Sometimes, clearly anticipating a night of fast tempos. Closing with Come On Mess Me Up, the swaying phone torchlights only added to the beautiful setting at Kings Park, lenses flaring in rainbows.

5 Seconds of Summer’s arrival on stage was preceded by a mockumentary-style video clip, which eventually structured the entire performance in a comedic meta-commentary style. In true Aussie fashion, taking this piss out of themselves has always been at the heart of the band’s approach to how they present themselves, and they had truly committed to the bit. Pre-taped clips charted the final performance of ‘the world’s biggest boyband,’ their fictional dramatic rise, even more dramatic fall, and the subsequent rebuilding from rock bottom: ‘learning how to be 5SOS again.’

Unhinged parodies of 60 Minutes, Nicole Kidman’s AMC commercial, television segments like The Daily Sauce and paparazzi’d breakdowns all featured. At their core, they reflected a very real experience for the band, charted across Everyone’s A Star! The pressures of fame and the exhaustion behind avoiding a label like ‘boy band,’ while at the same time being subject to its exploitation. The group’s discomfort with the term was in part a claim for legitimacy, marred by the misogyny of a music industry that discounts the achievements and artistic merit of bands with majority-female fans. A ‘boy band,’ isn’t taken seriously critically, or rather, not to the minds the industry values. Everyone’s A Star!, the album, and by extension the tour, reclaims this identity. They don’t reject ‘boy band,’ but embrace it while exposing its darker side: gruelling schedules, self-image issues and pandering to parasocialism. It was never about music, genre, or talent—and on stage, they didn’t waste any time proving it.

NOT OK fittingly got the party started, the high-energy lead single that announced their return to a rockier sound after pop-leaning albums CALM and 5SOS5. This part of the show was announced as Act I: The Peak, and the energy continued through with No. 1 Obsession and Teeth.

The band’s skills as musicians were on full display as gritty guitar breakdowns were used to transition between songs, and on the whole, the songs benefitted greatly from their live arrangements, not weighed down by production, and the band free to show off their musicianship.

This continued through to Act II: The Fall, each act broken up by the mockumentary segments. Easier bled into More through an extremely satisfying guitar solo from frontman Hemmings. While he was admittedly struggling with a lost voice, the audience could only barely tell through rare moments of raspiness.

“Welcome to the bush doof!” was the first greeting to the audience before we were launched into a slideshow that outlined How To Become A Star in Perth, appealing to the locals with references to pints of Swan Draught smashed at the pre-game to reaching out to Kevin Parker for help with their CLUBSOS remixes. The penultimate tip: giving the people what they want. In this case, it was She’s Kinda Hot.

The group continued to charge headfirst through the high-energy first half of Everyone’s A Star! Ashton Irwin-led Telephone Busy saw him impressively cover lead vocals and drumming, a skill he’s quietly excelled at since the band’s inception, while Evolve saw crowd engagement peak, a wave of jumping fans on the deck. Again, the arrangements saw these tracks’ live instrumentation shine with a more rock-leaning sound. Boyband was a highlight, the central conceit of the meta-commentary.

The mockumentary interlude began to outline the band’s fictional downfall, leading to Act III: The Yearning—which was exactly what it said on the tin. A string of breakup ballads from across their catalogue followed, closing with the atmospheric I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again.

Act IV: The Breakup allowed each member the chance to be the frontman, each performing a song from their solo projects centre stage and showing off their individual style. The security behind this move was refreshing to see and likely a core pillar in why the band has never undergone the breakup they poked fun at.

Act IV: The Rise saw their fictional counterparts finding their lost perspective and looking towards reforming, which occasioned throwback hit Amnesia. The four-piece moved up stage, performing acoustically—some would say in true boyband fashion. This wasn’t at all a choice they shied away from as they might have previously, but offered as a gift to the fans.

The gift-giving continued through a fan-voted surprise song and the Act VI: The Return segment, which packed five early-career songs back-to-back. The energy here was absolutely infectious, and the blending of each song into another only allowed the excitement to build exponentially. At the peak of this section was breakout hit She Looks So Perfect, teased all night and performed not with the inflection of a band tired of their biggest hit, but earnestly.

The momentum was perfectly supplied for an encore, the crowd stomping along. Number one single Youngblood closed the proceedings, the latter largely led by bassist Calum Hood as Hemmings declared to the crowd, “You have to sing ‘cause I can’t.”

A Friday night at Kings Park could have certainly slipped into a low-key affair, but the thought of not going 100% never came into 5 Seconds of Summer’s mind. In celebrating an album dedicated to evolution, they were able to walk the line between growth and remaining quintessentially 5SOS—tongue-in-cheek, and as always, an impressive live act. In weaving in a clear narrative, solo features, upgraded live arrangements and a set structure that carefully curated the night’s energy, the Everyone’s A Star! tour proved their best yet.

ABBY GREER

Photos by Mikaela James