The Maine, Mayday Parade rock out at Union Transfer | The Triangle

The Maine, Mayday Parade rock out at Union Transfer

Arizona natives The Maine co-headlined Union Transfer Oct. 24 alongside pop-rock legends Mayday Parade from Tallahassee, Fla. The two bands and The Postelles had fans lining up for blocks outside the venue hours before the show, which came close to selling out.

Derek Sanders, the lead singer of alternative rock band Mayday Parade performed Wednesday, Oct. 24 at Union Transfer, along with The Maine. Mayday Parade played hits such as “Jaime All Over” and “When You See My Friends.”
“The first time we came through [Philadelphia] we were trying to play a show at The Troc. It ended up not happening because we only sold like two tickets,” Jared Monaco, guitarist of The Maine, said with a chuckle in his voice, “We sat in the parking lot and played our acoustic guitars for like 15 people.”

Since that day, The Maine has self-produced and released its most recent album, “Pioneer.” The band’s sound has progressed, and their fans can expect to continue to hear changes in the future (although bassist Garrett Nickelsen and Monaco say they will never make a dubstep record).

“We have our boundaries, but we also like to go to the borderline of what we’re capable of doing,” Nickelsen said.

Earlier this year, The Maine had the privilege of sharing the Bamboozle 2012 main stage with bands including the Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, The All-American Rejects and Jimmy Eat World. Also from Arizona, Jimmy Eat World was one of The Maine’s hometown heroes and a pretty big deal in all of the band members’ lives. So what are the plans for The Maine’s near future?

“Our band will collectively go away for a little bit to record another album,” lead singer John O’Callaghan said.

“We haven’t actually sat down and wrote anything yet, but there are some demos going around,” Nickelsen said.

New York indie rock band The Postelles opened the night with a peppy set and were successful in getting the crowd hyped for the rest of the night.

The Maine took the stage around 8:30 p.m., and the crowd gave them a warm welcome as they waited to find out what the set list for the night would be. For this tour, the set list structure is a little different than it has usually been. With three full lengths, and what they feel is a large number of songs in their discography, the band made sure to practice all of their songs before heading out on the road.

“No two shows have the same set list,” Monaco added. After each show, the band posts a picture of its set list on Instagram for fans to see (they can be viewed on Instagram at @THEMAINESETLIST).

In Philly, The Maine opened with “Like We Did (Windows Down),” a song off their most recent full-length, “Pioneer,” followed by a handful of songs also on that record, a few songs from “Black and White,” some throwbacks including “Kiss and Sell” and “Whoever She Is” off their debut album, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” and “Count ’Em One, Two, Three,” a song off their EP “Stay Up, Get Down.” They ended the set with a reprise of the song they opened with, “Like We Did (Windows Down),” and exited the stage after an hourlong set.

Mayday Parade took the stage around 10 p.m., and although The Maine put on an amazing set and set the bar, the band had no trouble firing up the crowd. The crowd reacted with an enormous amount of support and knew every lyric to every song. Circle pits opened up during “Jamie All Over,” “When You See My Friends” and “Jersey,” while crowd surfers sprawled out on top of the mob. The crowd transitioned easily into a slower song and listened intently to Derek Sanders as he took out the acoustic guitar and played “Terrible Things.”

Throughout the night, the band was occasionally inaudible because of the overwhelming support from the fans. They ended their set with “Black Cat” and left the stage. They returned for an encore performance of “Three Cheers For Five Years.

As fans began to chant for an encore for one more song, the band came back on, and Sanders said, “I promise we’ll be back as soon as we can. We’d love to see you all again in the future. For this one, I need you guys to show us everything you’ve got out there. This song happens to be the first song we ever wrote, and I hear a lot of you guys are chanting it right now.”

“Thinking back to that day at The Troc being our first relationship with the city of Philly, it’s awesome to see that we’ve been able to come back so many times since then,” Monaco said. “We look forward to coming to Philly because the shows are always awesome. Normally we’re at the [Theatre of Living Arts], and we’ve never played at the [Union Transfer] before.”