Hailing from Chicago, pop-punk band Action/Adventure brought their brand of "Heavy Pop-Punk" to Durham, North Carolina on December 17th as direct support for Tiny Moving Parts fall tour. Although A/A has been writing and playing music together since 2014, the band achieved viral notoriety in 2020 when the music video for their hit song "Barricades" was posted on TikTok. The video garnered over 60 thousand plays within 24 hours and within a few weeks had reached over a million plays!
Following this milestone, the group went on to release their third EP, Pulling Focus in 2021 and their first full-length album, Imposter Syndrome in 2023. As a band made up of BIPOC, Action/Adventure aims to prove stereotypes within the pop-punk and post-hardcore genres wrong. They strive to deliver the message of #PopPunkInColor in order to create a music scene where everyone is included. This can be heard, seen and felt in not only their music, but also their hard-hitting live performances.
Thanks to local opening act Frontside warming them up, the crowd was eager for Action/Adventure to take the stage. As the stage lights went dark, the anticipation grew as deafening cheers followed. While the band members took their respective positions on stage, the first notes began to ring out and they launched into their latest single, "Big Al Dente" to kick things off. It was clear from the start that Action/Adventure had come to party and wanted those in attendance to do the same.
As the band navigated through their setlist of hit after hit, the energy in the room continued to grow until there wasn't a single person not moving some part of their body to the music. At the front of the stage there were those singing every note of catchy choruses. In the middle of the room, the mosh pit began to open when musical buildups unleashed into heavy-hitting breakdowns. Even those in the back of the room hidden in the dark sipping their drinks (we're all guilty of that at some time or another) were tapping their feet or bobbing their heads.
The shining moment of the night was when frontman, Blake Evaristo, began his introduction to the TikTok famous 60-second song, "Barricades". He spoke on how it was intriguing to the band that when the song's music video went viral, many comments on the social media app were saying, "Welcome to the scene Action/Adventure" and "Wow, you guys are the new best thing!" He goes on to state that the reason this was humorous was because this all took place in 2020 and they had been a band since 2014. Before beginning the song, Evaristo reminded the audience that this was proof that, "success is not linear." Something this writer thinks we all need to be reminded of.
At the time of this writing, Action/Adventure's tour with Tiny Moving Parts is only a couple of days from coming to an end. However, this is no excuse not to go follow them on all the social media accounts you have so that you're the first to know when they are playing your city!
Action/Adventure Instagram
Action/Adventure TikTok
