LIVE REVIEW: As It Is - Sheffield
WORDS: Lou Viner-Flood
The current As It Is tour marks a clear reset for the band. After time away and a period of internal change, they’ve returned with a self‑titled record that defines their new direction and a live show built around reconnecting with the people who’ve stayed with them throughout the years, giving space for both the new material and the early songs that shaped their identity. This tour establishes where As It Is stand now: focused, steady, and intent on rebuilding their foundation in real time.
Opening for them at Corporation in Sheffield was Greywind, the Killarney‑based emo duo formed by siblings Steph O’Sullivan and Paul O’Sullivan, joined live by a drummer and an additional guitarist to bring extra weight to their arrangements. Even before they began, there were clear pockets of fans in the crowd, reacting instantly as the set opened with “Swing and Sway” and “I.K.A.M.F.”, two songs that set the tone for their sharp, melodic intensity, taken from their January 2026 release Severed Heart City. “Here’s Your Deathwish”, “Glimmer”, “Moon”, and “Make Believe (L.O.V.E. ME)” followed in quick succession, each delivered with the confidence of a headliner. “Swerve” pushed the energy up again before “In Autumn”, from 2017’s Afterthoughts, where phones lifted across the crowd in one of the night’s most unified moments. Steph performed in a nurse outfit throughout, later adding a matching hat for “Antidote”, a gift to the crowd that immediately drew attention. They closed with “Waterfall”, ending on a track that showed how firmly their audience is growing.
In the time between Greywind exiting the stage and As It Is making their appearance, the crowd was treated to a heady house‑music mix of 90s and early 00s alt‑rock and pop anthems, including “Semi‑Charmed Life”, “You Get What You Give”, and “Game of Love”, before “Angels” started and finished with As It Is walking onstage.
On their first headline tour (excluding the recent mini run of instores) since 2022, and a return many fans thought they would never see, As It Is treated the room to a huge 21‑song setlist, including a selection of different wildcard songs each night. For Sheffield, the crowd was reliably informed by lead vocalist Patty Walters that bassist and backing vocalist Ali Testo, being in his hometown, had taken on the task of choosing the wildcards for the evening.
The band jumped straight into it with a run of new tracks “I’m So Alive!” and “Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles” from their recent self‑titled release, before throwing back to 2015’s Never Happy, Ever After with “Sorry” and “Cheap Shots & Setbacks”, and 2017’s Okay with “Okay”. They dipped in and out of their entire discography, including a true nostalgic pull with the first wildcard of the night, “Relive the Story”, from 2014’s This Mind of Mine.
The thread of nostalgia continued with “The Two Tongues (Screaming Salvation)”, “The Wounded World”, and another wildcard, “The Reaper”, from The Great Depression, the album that saw the band take a bold shift from shiny pop‑punk into a darker, heavier emo style. Fan favourites “Hey Rachel”, “Concrete”, and “Drowning Deep in Doubt” made appearances, with the latter being the final wildcard track of the night. Surrounding these deep cuts was a perfected run of tracks from As It Is’ recent self‑titled album, with “Marilyn”, “Last at the Party”, “Turn to Dust”, “If I Ever Lost You”, “Lose Your Way & Find Yourself”, “Ruin My Life”, and “Do You Remember?” pulling the room firmly back into 2026.
Partway through the set, Patty and guitarist Ben Biss took a vote from the crowd on whether they wanted a fake‑out encore or for the band to continue straight through. An encore won, and while the band briefly escaped the stage (with mild panic over whether drummer Patrick Foley would make it back from the bathroom in time for the opening beats of “The Stigma (Boys Don’t Cry)”), the crowd gathered their last remaining energy for the track As It Is are probably best known and loved for: “Dial Tones”, closing the night on a ridiculously high note.
The return to the stage for a full headline tour is something special for both As It Is and fans alike. Despite their new album not qualifying for the rock chart because it apparently wasn’t heavy enough, the band show no signs of slowing down in any way, physically or musically.
