5 Seconds of Summer star Michael Clifford and his band-mates close out the U.S. leg of their “Rock Out With Your Socks Out” world tour in West Palm Beach, Florida, tonight. Clifford and his pals have been on the road since February and, as reported in the Inquisitr , are looking forward to heading home to Australia for a well-earned break. Clifford’s bandmate, Ashton Irwin, made a video appeal to fans, asking for reassurance on their performances on the tour, but Michael has used his free time between shows to show his support for another band.
Enstars reports that Michael has taken to Twitter to declare that he will be spending the next week listening to British rock band Bring Me The Horizon’s new release. Michael even included a link to iTunes in his message when he suggested that his 5.5 million followers check out That’s The Spirit, which made its debut on Friday.
so the new @bmthofficial record just dropped. this will be all I listen to for the next week, sorry. check it out http://t.co/qEbrYp3SQA
— michael clifford (@Michael5SOS) September 11, 2015
Bring Me The Horizon has been around since 2003, when Michael was just 8-years-old, and this is their fifth studio album. NME report that the new album marks something of a reinvention for the band. They claim that Bring Me The Horizon have moved away from their “Metalcore” roots and into the sort of mainstream pop-rock occupied by Michael and his band-mates. Clifford will no doubt be dreaming that 5 Seconds of Summer will one day have sufficient rock credentials to allow them to play, or even headline, the main stage at Reading and Leeds festivals. Bring Me The Horizon won multiple plaudits for their performances at those twin festivals last month.
Clifford and his pals have won rave reviews for many of their performances on their current tour, the latest coming just last night. The Tampa Bay Times says that Clifford and his mates “drove their fans wild” last night. Clifford and the other members of 5 Seconds of Summer have repeatedly stated their desperation to lose the boy-band label that was applied to them as a result of their supporting One Direction on tour.
Arguably the biggest obstacle Clifford and his band face is that their fan base is largely the same as One Direction’s, in that they are mainly young girls.
Clifford and his mates do draw their influences from some of the biggest pop-punk bands in history. Michael is known to be a fan of Green Day and Blink-182, and 5 Seconds of Summer have played covers of songs by those bands in the past.
[Photo by Mike Coppola / Getty Images]
