With stellar support from As It Is and Real Friends
In a true emo celebration, Mayday Parade alongside As It Is and Real Friends brought together the elder and new alternative generation.
Kicking things off for the evening were Brighton punk rockers As It Is, playing tracks off their brand new record To Hell And Back, including nostalgic single I MISS 2003 (don’t we all, Patty, don’t we all!). But not before smashing their brand new track IN THREES, which features Set It Off’s Cody Carson and Jordy Purp. Taking joy in a more diverse and open scene, as well as being more widely accepted (remember when the papers tried to tell our parents emo was a cult – yeah that) and a more accepting scene, Patty intros the song saying “when I was younger and started listening to Mayday Parade you weren’t allowed to listen to anything other than emo, things are different now.” And he’s right, the elitist attitudes are a thing of the past, genres are shaken up more than James Bond’s cocktails and we are very much here for it.
Up next were Illinois pop-punk quintet Real Friends who really got the crowd riled up. “I wanna see you jump, I wanna see you mosh, I wanna see you crowd surf, I wanna see you have a good time” Cody Moraro echoes through the East London venue, and he doesn’t have to tell the fans at the front twice. Ripping through five of their arguably best records including 2018’s Composure and 2014’s Maybe This Place Is The Same And We’re Just Changing, Real Friends really proved once again why they are one of the best bands out there.
And whilst we were definitely spiritually and physically ready for Mayday Parade, most of us definitely weren’t ready to get emotionally annihilated – though, it is a Mayday Parade show, what did we expect? Their 2011 self-titled album, which the band had dedicated this tour and most of the set list to, was released at the height of emo and it shows.
There is something unexpectedly calming and exciting about a band playing through an entire album exactly the way the track list takes you. You know exactly what song comes next and the feel of the album is never taken out of context.
Much like As It Is and Real Friends, Mayday Parade opened up about their struggle with mental health during the pandemic, when everything that means everything to artists was suddenly taken away with no sign of returning any time soon. Anytime we see alternative bands talk openly about their struggles with depression and anxiety it makes us wish more artists would speak out, especially mainstream male acts to let their fans know it’s okay to not always feel happy, to let them know it’s okay not to be okay. But for now, we appreciate this scene being so open about it all.
With the encore being a solid mix of Mayday Parade’s biggest hits including Jersey and Jamie All Over, there is nothing that prepares you for the emotional wall you hit when the first chords of the Miserable At Best piano echoes and we’re all reduced to a mass of sobbing messes, no matter how many times you’ve seen it live.
With our feelings well and truly on the floor, Mayday Parade leave us reminiscing of the good times at London’s Troxy, and certainly looking forward to the next emotional rollercoaster.
High Fives & Stage Dives 