LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: DON BROCO AT OVO ARENA WEMBLEY, LONDON 05/12/25
Don Broco are back, and in more ways than one. It's been almost 7 years since they last graced the stage of Wembley Arena. It's also been two years since they announced during their ‘Birthday Party’ tour that they were off to write an album. At the time they admitted they tend to take a bloody age to do that and fans have been waiting patiently since. With only a couple of outings for the band in the interim, this run of shows is where Broco burst back onto a scene that has been missing them all too acutely.
It wasn't just Don Broco that fans were hyped for. A trio of exciting supports were given the task of waking up the arena for the Bedford quartet.
Magnolia Park was first up and invited the earlycomers in the room to 'Join the Vampires'. They wasted no time in ramping up the energy with a guitarist getting straight in the mosh pit for a boogie before crowd surfing an impressive distance back to the stage.
"Let's do a Queen pit" singer Joshua Roberts announced, instructing the crowd to form a female only pit to 'Shallow'. The Orlando band lean heavily on spooky Halloween themes with big, heavy pop-punk sounds. 'Chasing Shadows' was a torch lights up moment and 'I2I'- a cover of a track from Disney film 'A Goofy Movie' could've gone down better, the London crowd resonating more with the substantial tracks. Magnolia Park varies a lot on the heaviness scale, some tracks proper headbangers and others very pop coded. Feeling cohesive overall, this range provided an interesting journey through the set but also felt like mild whiplash.
To an introduction of rainbow lights and copious smoke, it was YONAKA's turn to impress. In the world of fusion rock, YONAKA (Japanese for Midnight) are doing something truly interesting. Industrial-metal styled 'PREDATOR' is a perfect example of this. Lyrically it reads quite hip-hop while the breakdowns and instrumentation ground it in electronic rock.
'Punch Bag' turned out to be a great track for vocalist Theresa Jarvis to stretch her legs and 'Clique' was packed with attitude and went off well with the crowd - a song originally recorded with Fever 333 - this is the song most likely to be familiar with the crowd.
'‘Do you think it's okay to say this is the show I've been looking forward to the most?" Jarvis teased. It's not beyond the realms of possibility this is an honest assertion. The Brighton band are definitely on an upward trajectory, but Wembley is surely still a notable milestone on their journey.
New album Until You're Satisfied is due to be released on the 13th of March next year, hailing the new era of YONAKA. Keep your eyes peeled on this one, with heaps of attitude and a ton of tracks still to be released, this album could just be the highlight of 2026.
State Champs were then the only thing standing between the ticket holders and Don Broco, so there was a degree of pressure on the New York band to hold the attention of the swelling crowd, especially with their first time at the legendary Wembley Arena.
'‘We are State Champs, welcome to the rock show!’’ singer Derek DiScanio embraced the arena as the band launched into 'Silver Cloud'. Don Broco curated a really interesting variety of openers for themselves. State Champs could not be further genre-wise from their predecessors on the bill but somehow it just worked. Where Magnolia Park are spooky, YONAKA are dark, State Champs are bubble-gum and bouncing.
Between the crowd surfers, fans screaming lyrics towards the stage and general chaos in the room, it's clear there couldn't have been a better choice for main support than State Champs. The trip from New York state was definitely worth it for both band and fans.
Slam Dunk festival has been a big part of State Champs UK journey. First appearing on the bill in 2018 the band were keen to remind the crowd that they are to return in 2026 joining contemporaries such as Knocked Loose and Boston Manor.
State Champs are highly skilled at curating a setlist that builds to a crescendo, ending with the dual combination of 'Everybody but You' and 'Secrets'. The crowd surfing and bouncing intensified as DiSacanio encouraged anyone who had enjoyed the set to catch them at Slam Dunk next summer. One thing is for sure, that set is going to be a highlight of the festival.
In a haze of green neon, Don Broco stormed onto the stage and began a new era with 'Cellophane'. With the lyric, '‘I just pulled a sickie, woke up in the Matrix'‘, singer Rob Damiani plays the part well, sporting a black trenchcoat and Agent Smith sunglasses. In this track we are collectively transported back to 1999.
With the new album yet to fully drop, and the cycle in its early days, inspirations and motivations for this new iteration of Don Broco is yet undefined but the vibe is clear: futuristic leaning rock tracking heavier than it has ever been before.
Broco wasted no time also in launching into the massive tracks that have earned them a legion of fans. 'Come out to LA', is the first song that saw drummer Matt Donnelly taking the lead in vocal duties. The duality between Damiani and Donnelly's tones is only a small part of why this Bedford band has grown from the dive bars and club shows to prestigious venues like Wembley over the years. The band, certainly one of the most hardworking and determined in the scene.
'Gumshield' then 'Everybody' continued a journey through epic Broco hits that start to make you realise that this is a band that struggles to write a flop. Down on the floor the crowd was a fluid wave, ripples of jumping and dancing was like nothing you've quite seen before, the energy cracking around the room.
'‘Thank you so much for joining us here tonight, we are Don Broco, we are so happy to be back here", Damiani gushed referring back to the 'Technology' cycle, where joined by a Cowboy mascot, the band reflected on '‘one of the best gigs ever'‘. It's kinda hard to keep up with all these epochs with songs like 'Endophins' from 2021's Amazing Things being bedfellows with new releases like ‘Euphoria’. Don Broco is a band that are good at keeping a consistency about their music while still evolving.
‘Manchester Super Reds’ was accompanied by a laser show, then taking it down a notch, ‘One True Prince’, once again showed off Donnelly's vocal power.
“I would like to say we've officially finished our album and it's gonna be coming out early next year”, Damiani proudly announced. After thanking producer Dan Lancaster, who was partying amongst the crowd, Broco featured a snippet of a new song,‘True Believers’, about how the world is in a really scary place right now.
Taking to the seats for a stripped back acoustic version of ‘You Wanna Know’, Damiani and guitarist Simon Delaney took a relaxed few minutes in the spotlight before another stripped back track, ‘Anaheim’, rang out from the stage as the band reformed for a beautiful version of ‘Further' featuring Theresa Jarvis from Yonaka.
The chilled middle of the set gave way to the chaos of ‘Bruce Willis', ‘Endorphins’ and ‘Fingernails’ before ‘Nerve’ got everyone's torch lights up in the air.
Finishing with an encore of ‘T-shirt Song' and ‘Hype Man’ the feeling in the room was relief and release. Don Broco are back. Watch out, it's about to go off, bigger, better and harder than ever before.
Words by Imogen Bird.
Photos by Florelle Servageon.