5 Seconds of Summer turns TD Garden into a fanfest

At TD Garden on June 5, 2026, 5 Seconds of Summer made its “Everyone Is A Star!” World Tour stop in Boston feel less like a performance and more like a shared event—complete with six-act theatrics, a fan-voted surprise song, and a crowd that sang through nearl

By the time Luke Hemmings stepped into the light at TD Garden on Friday night. it was clear this wasn’t going to be a show built solely for the stage. The Australian pop-rock quartet—Luke Hemmings. Michael Clifford. Calum Hood. and Ashton Irwin—entered dramatically. stepping onto the stage from a white limousine.

More than 12. 000 fans filled the arena. and the energy had the familiar feel of a band that grew up with its audience. 5 Seconds of Summer has spent nearly 15 years forming and evolving alongside them—starting in Sydney. Australia in 2011—moving from teenage opening act to one of the most successful pop-rock groups of its generation. with multiple chart-topping albums and billions of streams worldwide.

Hemmings didn’t pretend the years haven’t changed things. “We’re much better than we used to be. We’ve been doing this a while,” he told the crowd. “This time we’ve got a bigger budget. We’ve got wider pants. We are more prepared. We are more professional.”

Before 5 Seconds of Summer even took over. Nashville-based alternative-rock group The Band CAMINO warmed up the crowd with a set that had fans singing along. setting the tone for what came next. But once the quartet arrived. the night tightened its focus on one relationship above all: the one between the band and the people singing back.

The tour’s structure is built for that kind of connection. “Everyone Is A Star!” unfolds across six acts—The Peak. The Fall. The Yearning. The Breakup. The Rise. and The Beginning—each introduced with video segments that mix humor. self-awareness. and story. Throughout the show. the band leaned hard into comedy. and it landed because it invited the audience in rather than asking them to endure it.

At one point. the group revived a years-old meme tied to its infamous pronunciation of Massachusetts. jokingly welcoming the crowd to “Boston. Mashed Potatoes.” Later. a mock PowerPoint presentation walked through the band’s Boston adventures—practicing local slang. revisiting seafood spots. and apologizing to “close personal friend” Chris Evans after supposedly stealing Captain America’s shield.

The setlist paired new chapters with the songs fans came to hear. “NOT OK” and “Everyone’s a Star!” sat alongside longtime favorites including “She’s Kinda Hot. ” “Amnesia. ” and “She Looks so Perfect.” Fans sang along to nearly every song. often loudly enough to rival the band itself. During slower numbers, phone flashlights lit up the arena as thousands of voices carried the choruses.

Just as important, the band frequently stepped away from their microphones and trusted the crowd to fill the space—an approach the audience matched instinctively. The result wasn’t just loudness. It was momentum.

Musically, the chemistry among the four members stayed front and center. Hemmings’ vocals sounded confident throughout the night, while Clifford, Hood, and Irwin’s harmonies lifted several of the biggest moments. The layered vocals during “Ghost of You” stood out as a reminder that this isn’t the band performing around the audience anymore—it’s the band performing with it.

Even the stage design supported the closeness. A limo positioned at the center of an extended runway became the visual centerpiece. letting the group move closer to fans across the arena. While the setup helped sightlines. it also occasionally left the production feeling constrained by the lack of a secondary stage elsewhere in the venue.

When the show could have slowed down, it didn’t. Strong light design, frequent bursts of confetti, and enough movement kept things visually engaging without leaning on dancers or excessive theatrics.

Then came one of the night’s biggest invitations to participate: the fan-voted surprise song. Before the concert, audience members scanned a QR code and voted among four options. The final pick. “Red Dessert. ” was revealed through a playful “Deal or No Deal”-inspired segment that included a fan from the audience. The reaction was immediate and overwhelming, turning the surprise into a shared moment rather than a band-only secret.

Act IV, “The Breakup,” kept that energy going. A humorous video depicted the band dramatically splitting apart before Hemmings returned alone to perform his solo song “Starting Line.” Gradually. the rest of the band’s instrumentation joined him. blending the boundaries between solo material and the group’s collective identity.

Later in the night. the humor widened again with a mock award presentation celebrating the band’s status as a boyband before launching into “Boyband.” Bringing a fan onstage to present the award only heightened the comedy. Each member delivered an acceptance speech. and Hood earned one of the night’s biggest laughs by thanking “the creator of Boston cream donuts.”.

By the time the band exited before its encore, few fans looked ready to go. Thousands stayed standing, waiting for one final return.

The encore delivered exactly the kind of payoff the crowd had been driving all night. “Everyone’s a Star!” served as an uplifting reminder of the tour’s central message before “Youngblood” transformed TD Garden into one last massive singalong.

What separated the concert from many other arena shows wasn’t the budget or the staging alone. It was 5 Seconds of Summer’s commitment to involving the audience in the performance—through fan voting, inside jokes, crowd sing-alongs, and direct interactions.

“We’ve been around for 15 years. There’s been six albums … and still we turn up to Boston,” Hood said. “If it isn’t clear already, let me clear the air: Five Seconds of Summer f—king loves you guys. Thank you for being here.”

It wasn’t just a line for the moment. By the end of the night, that appreciation felt earned.

Setlist for 5 Seconds of Summer at TD Garden, June 5, 2026
Act I: The Peak
NOT OK
No. 1 Obsession
Teeth
Act II: The Fall
Easier
More
istillfeelthesame
No Shame
She’s Kinda Hot
Boyband
Telephone Busy
Evolve
Act III: The Yearning
Bad Omens
Ghost of You
I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again
Act IV: The Breakup
Starting Line
Have U Found What Ur Looking For?. Don’t Forget You Love Me
enough
Act V: The Rise
Act VI: The Beginning
English Love Affair
Voodoo Doll
Waste the Night
Jet Black Heart
She Looks so Perfect
Encore:
Youngblood
Everyone’s a Star!.

5 Seconds of Summer TD Garden Boston Everyone Is A Star! World Tour Luke Hemmings Michael Clifford Calum Hood Ashton Irwin fan-voted surprise song Red Dessert