Under a half moon and sparsely starred sky, about 20,000 power pop fans got a last taste of summer - 5 Seconds of Summer, that is. 

 

Introduced to the world by YouTube and familiarized further through the global "Take Me Home" tour of One Dimension, the four young Australian artists drew mainly the teen and tween demographic, but there were plenty of 20-somethings. Then there were those of us who were, well, older. 

 

We had two excited teen girls with us. They had sung 5SOS songs in the backseat all the way to Burgettstown - just outside of the burgh. After arriving at the amphitheater, we spread out our blanket on the virtual 50-yard line and our teens were warming up for the main event by enjoying the intro band, the California girl foursome known as Hey Violet. 

 

We figured that was our cue to slip off for ice cream - a whopping amount of mint chocolate chip piled on a sugar cone that was good until the last drop. In fact, we were in the restroom  washing off the stickiness when the featured band - lead vocalist, guitarist Luke Hemmings, vocalist, guitarist Michael Clifford, bass player, vocalist Calum Hood and vocalist, drummer Ashton Irwin - made their appearance.The crowd's initial squeals of delight were muffled by the sound of the hand dryers. 

 

But as we wound our way back to the lawn, the enthusiasm became contagious. The energetic entertainers were all over that stage and their young power pop fans were jumping, swaying and singing to the tops of their lungs. And by the time we maneuvered our way back to our blanket, we were too. Well, we were short on words as the band played tunes like "Amnesia," "Good Girls" "English Love Affair" and, of course, "She Looks So Perfect" - but we got kind of excited when Hemmings announced that they were going to play an "old" cover and went into a little bit of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." 

 

Psyche. They didn't play it, but rather switched gears to Green Day's "American Idiot." 

 

After announcing their last song, 5SOS obliged in performing a two-song encore which concluded with a remake of "That's What I Like About You" - an old tune by The Romantics that fans of all ages could sing along. 

 

Perhaps I was under a rock somewhere, but before Friday night, I had never heard of 5 Seconds of Summer. But the group's Rock Out with Your Socks Out tour stop was an "Unpredictable" - and fun - way to wrap up the season. 

 

Julie Perine can be reached at 304-848-7200, julie@connect-bridgeport.com or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter.