“Ladies and gentlemen,” roars Sum 41’s bleach-blond ringleader Deryck Whibley for the first of approximately one million times tonight, “let me see those hands in the air!” Occupying a specific niche – somewhere between an overzealous dodgem operator and a transatlantic celebrity starring for the first time in a British pantomime – the frontman’s presence is showy, silly, and touchingly earnest. “Holy sh*t! Goddammit!” he exclaims a few songs later, shortly before playing live rarity Summer. “Turn the lights up so I can see the whole family!”
Mid-encore, right before obligatory closer Fat Lip, Whibley reveals that Alexandra Palace marks something of a homecoming; the Canadian vocalist’s family comes from “just down the f*cking street from here” in nearby Wood Green, and he recently gained UK citizenship.
