2017 marks the 10 year celebration of Mayday Parade’s release of their debut album A Lesson In Romantics. Younger and older audiences from across Perth rejoiced at Metro City to relive some the most heartfelt music from their teenage years and experience the full 12 songs of the influential pop-punk masterpiece. This was Mayday Parade’s final show of their “A Lesson in Romantics 10th Anniversary Tour” and they were backed up by acoustic rock duo: This Wild Life.
Following a hilarious crowd-pleasing intro of Disney’s “Under The Sea”, This Wild Life, took the stage and went straight into “Concrete” from their 2nd LP Clouded from 2014. Immediately, this band exemplified their skill, with both incredible vocals from Kevin Jordan, and fantastic guitar work from Kevin and Anthony Del Grosso. They were also accompanied onstage by some multi-instrumentalism – which shifted between keys, bass, electronic samples and occasionally drums – all adding to the depth of an already perfect mix. The band progressed through their set with beautiful harmonies that resonated through the venue, and had the audience singing along and swaying to the band’s sound. The band’s touching lyrics from songs such as “No More Bad Days”, where Kevin explained the song was written about his mother going through chemotherapy, melted through the venue and had the audience glued to this band’s heartfelt performance. A change of pace ensued after Kevin said he was going to play a song “about true love – it’s about a man and his dog”, and the band wholeheartedly went into the song “Puppy Love”, an early single from 2012. To complete the set, Kevin rhetorically asked the audience “who wants to hear a cover?” – everyone erupted in curious joy, and the duo began a beautiful rendition of Bring Me The Horizon’s “Sleepwalking”, a somewhat unexpected turn for the band, but was gladly welcomed by audience-members swaying and singing along to every word. This Wild Life was a perfect warmup performance. The heartfelt lyricism and beautiful melodies were true complements to Mayday Parade’s style.
Continuing the warm and connected atmosphere created by This Wild Life, a pitch-black stage was met by a deep soundscape, as Mayday Parade took the stage to a flurry of joyous screaming by the audience. The band wasted no time and jumped straight into the first track off their anniversary album: “Jamie All Over”. The fantastic Metro City lights kicked into action as frontman Derek Sanders jumped with incredible energy across the stage. Audience members jumped just in response, with excellent stage presence from every member – provoking as much thrilling energy as possible. The band played through the entirety of A Lesson In Romantics, and for many of the older audiences who have experienced this album during their teenage years, this was a touching revisit to the heartfelt lyricism of love and heartache – which would be significantly more relatable now compared to their younger years. And for newer audiences, this was a show of how Mayday Parade began, as this album followed the departure of lead vocalist Jason Lancaster in April of 2007, who left due to a lack of writing credit. The band played popular tracks from the album such as “Jersey”, which had audience members swaying their hands from side-to-side, and saddening ballad: “Miserable At Best”, where Derek jumped on piano accompanied only by Jake Bundrick on drums and co-vocals, to perform the gut-wrenching track that had audience swaying and singing along to the heartsick poetry. The other band members crept through the darkness of the stage to then blast into the chorus of the track, a great change of pace for the song that didn’t leave audience members feeling too wrapped up in the song’s emotional lyricism. To conclude the play through of the album, Derek devoted the final track “You be The Anchor”, to anyone who was “going through something,” commenting that “everyone goes through stuff” and this track is for those moments. The crowd responded with cheers of Derek’s appreciation for his audience, he continually commented about how he loved everyone in the venue, and showed a caring attitude towards performing his music.
Derek performed incredibly well, his voice after six consecutive shows on the tour still managed to hold up, and rarely did he make any noticeable vocal errors. The instrumentation and mixing were also on-point, and each musician demonstrated excellent musical proficiency. Mayday Parade also performed a couple of tracks from outside their debut LP, with song such as “Kids In Love” and one of their most popular hits: “Terrible Things”. The band left the stage for their encore, teasing the audience with a few samples that kept everyone on their feet. The band returned, Derek held his acoustic guitar in hand, and asked the audience if they could perform two more songs – resulting in elation. The band concluded their fantastic set with “Stay” and “Oh Well, Oh Well” from their self-titled 2011 LP. This was a fantastic conclusion to the band’s 10 year celebration of their debut LP, giving audiences a nostalgic reliving of their younger years. And like Derek said; we will hopefully be back in another 10 years to celebrate their next release!
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by André Avila at Redwood Visions
