MAYDAY PARADE AT STARLAND BALLROOM IN SAYREVILLE
Mayday Parade have decided to simultaneously play two different “tours” for this run of shows across the U.S. The “Forever Emo” tour features the band playing a cover set in certain cities that includes all your favorite emo hits. While this is happening, five shows on the run are being dedicated specifically to their 2009 album ‘Anywhere But Here’ to celebrate its ten year anniversary. Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ was lucky enough to be the second of these five anniversary shows. The band also announced at this sold out show that it was their tenth sold out show they’ve played at the venue, which is a really incredible feat.
Opening the night was the Philadelphia based band Grayscale. The band has been becoming more prominent in the scene recently, and it’s clear to see why. On stage they’ve got a great energy that had people moving right from the start. It didn’t take long for crowd surfers to get up there either. The crowd was definitely there for Grayscale as much as they were for Mayday Parade. After playing what I thought to be an incredibly tight set, the band were unfortunately boo-ed by a group of people from the back of the venue. Not only did I find this very rude, but I don’t believe it was deserved either. You could tell how hard the band works and how much effort was put into the performance on stage, and it was good to see that as that happened, the band stayed level headed and walked off with pride from playing such a fantastic set. A huge kudos goes out to them.
When Mayday Parade hit the stage and started off with the familiar “Kids in Love”, the venue erupted in energy. It was incredible to see how ten years later, this album still has such a huge impact on their fans as they played through the whole thing front to back. Many of the songs were only just played live at the Tallahassee show on the tour almost a week prior, including “Center of Attention”, “The End”, and “So Far Away”. For the first time since I started seeing Mayday Parade live, front man Derek Sanders was wearing shoes on stage! He explained that at a previous date on the tour he had fractured part of his foot and needed to wear shoes, and then apologized for not being able to move much on stage. This certainly didn’t stop him, however, and I was actually shocked at how much he moved and jumped around. It really showed the audience how much he gets into the music and enjoys his time performing. The rest of the band were also incredibly active, especially guitarist Brooke Betts, who ran back and forth the entire night.
After the band were finished with the play through of the album and the B-side tracks, they played a couple of their more well known hits like “Oh Well, Oh Well” and “Jamie All Over”. For the encore they performed their cover of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”, which was appropriate for being in New Jersey. Finally, they ended with “Jersey”, which the crowd had chanted for several times during their actual set. Mayday Parade have been around in the scene for quite a while and it’s always a pleasure to see them perform live. There are still dates left on this tour, so if they come through a city near you be sure to grab a ticket and go!
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!