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On August 13th, 2021, Luke Hemmings released his debut solo album, When Facing the Things We Turn Away From. It would be another 663 days before anyone would ever hear it performed live.

If the name Luke Hemmings sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because he’s the lead singer of 5 Seconds of Summer, arguably one of the biggest bands to come out of Australia in the past 15 years. They first rose in popularity after the boys from One Direction watched a YouTube cover posted by a young Hemmings. 5SOS was subsequently invited to join the group on their “Take Me Home” tour, but quickly made a name for themselves with singles like, “She Looks So Perfect,” “Jet Black Heart,” “Want You Back”, and their still number one streamed song, “Youngblood.” The release of their 2018 album by the same name effectively catapulted the group to mainstream success. The band spent the next few years creating their fifth studio album, Calm, which was released in March 2020. Yeah, that March.

After their album was released and the tour that they had already been gearing up for was canceled, all of a sudden the boys that had been on tour since they were preteens were forced to stop. And Luke Hemmings took full advantage of that.

Fast forward now to June 8th, 2023. Los Angeles, California. There are two lines wrapped around The Fonda Theatre, a historic building from the 1920s on Hollywood Blvd. One line is for people like myself that had seen this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and purchased early entry passes, and another is for the general admission line. I actually witnessed someone pay $400 to the two girls behind me in line so that they could gain entry into the show before the general admission line.

“We’ve been here since 5 am yesterday. I’ll give you two hundred dollars each for your early entry passes so our friends can get in with us too.”

Inside the Venue

Doors were set to open at 8 o’clock, but they opened a few minutes early due to the growing lines. It was a mad dash. Half of the girls waiting outside booked it to the front of the barricade; the other half went straight to merchandise. We took the former route, heading to the very front of the venue to fill in a gap on the left-hand side. And then… we waited.

The show was set to start at 9 p.m, but it was almost 9:30 before the house music faded and the first chord rang out from the stage. A synth cut through the silence in the room and “A Beautiful Dream” began. I had spent some time speculating on what song would start the night (my money was on “Baby Blue,” a friend of mine thought “Diamonds”) and while I would never have thought that would be the song, I also couldn’t imagine it any other way. The record is just over three minutes long, and more than half of it is instrumental. Forty seconds into that first song and on walks Luke Hemmings. Three of the fans around me are reduced to puddles.

During the Show

Now we’re dancing. “Motion,” the second single from the album, is up-tempo and Luke and his band clearly enjoy playing it. Now the people that had begun weeping at the beginning of the show are weeping and jumping up and down at the same time. Hemmings is clearly in his element– he’s no stranger to being on stage in front of screaming fans by now. And yet, this was different, which he admitted himself. Playing songs that were so deep and personal, songs that he wasn’t sure he would ever get the chance to play live at all, he was excited and terrified. His energy was contagious and continued on throughout the evening. At one point in the night, he quipped:

“Are you having a good time? Or, are you happy to be here but sad because the songs are sad? Well, that’s right where I want ya.”

My favorite part about seeing a 5SOS show is hearing how they reimagine their songs live, and I was thrilled to enjoy that at Luke’s show as well. “Slip Away,” perhaps one of the saddest songs on the entire record, was given new life in the live show. The studio version of the ballad features Hemmings’ doubled vocals adorned by mostly acoustic guitar and a piano the entire four minutes. The live version was a slightly more upbeat version with a full band behind it, filling out the sound and making an already amazing song just that much more impactful.

He played all of the twelve-song record (the crowd demanded he just start over when he admitted the show was almost over) and a cover of “Friday I’m in Love” by the Cure. The entire show lasted about an hour, but it didn’t feel short or underwhelming. He brought an absolutely contagious energy onto the stage in a way that not every front man is able to do.

The set ended with the first single from the album and Luke’s first song as a solo artist, “Starting Line.” The weeping that had subsided started up again, as we all knew that this was the end to a very special night.

After the Show

I think that this album meant so much to people because it was hyper-personal. It is so specific to Hemmings and things that he has gone through (not sure how many of us have been on trips to Saigon with our fiancée and mothers but I feel like it’s safe to say it has not been a lot) and yet that’s what makes it so relatable. No, I have no idea what it feels like to be on tour in one of the biggest bands in the world for ten years, but I do understand what it feels like to sign up for something without fully understanding what you’re in for. I know what it’s like to realize the impact that someone has had on my life and that they will have “a place in me” regardless of how it ends.

Hemmings admitted that he didn’t think he was ever going to play those songs live, and that’s how most of the crowd felt too. No one expected that they would get to experience that moment. I think that’s what made this concert one of the most unique I’ve ever been to. It has never happened before, and will never happen again. Except of course, on the second night of the “One Night Only” show, but you know what I mean.