Mayday Parade Sell Out First Avenue and Celebrates 20 Years

I’ve been lucky to have friends who love music as much as I do. A huge influence on my music taste is my childhood best friend Katie. We grew up together, went through our emo phases together, and more. Getting to see shows with my childhood her has always been something I love.

So, when I got to see Mayday Parade with her, I thought it was fitting to share my platform and let her write the review:

A Mayday Parade ‘Era’s Tour by Katie Wallick

Mayday Parade. Photography by Dylan Novacek.

Mayday Parade came to First Avenue on May 15th for a stop on their Three Cheers for 20 Years Tour. They dazzled with a stellar setlist, amazing effects, and incredible harmonies.

Their tour name is a play on the song title “Three Cheers for Five Years,” which they played as their third song in the set. This, in my opinion, truly set the tone for the show, as they layered their voices and instruments in an incredible way.

Since Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” many bands have undertaken their own “Eras” style set, and Mayday followed suit, making their way through each album chronologically. They had amazing stage presence and cool technology.

Behind them was a screen that showed various moving scenes, both artistic representations of album art and funny videos. My favorite was a clip from an old Warped Tour interview, where one of the members claimed “I don’t think I will be doing this when I’m 40” – being 20 years ago, and 20 years old at the time – the math definitely checks out.

Another great element was their inclusion of singers from their opening acts on stage. Grayscale, Like Roses, and Microwave opened for the band, and the singers from each joined on three different songs in the set. I love how the band showed their appreciation and respect for each of their openers in this way.

I got to see Mayday Parade perform their iconic 2007 album, A Lesson In Romantics, in full at When We Were Young Festival this past fall. While that set was a great celebration of one of my favorite albums, this show really captured the full scope of Mayday Parade’s impact from past to present.

As an older Mayday fan, I am more familiar with their older songs, and I was particularly impressed with the performance of “Oh Well, Oh Well,” and the choral-like sing along of “Miserable at Best” – but I was also pleasantly surprised with newer songs I hadn’t heard, like the rendition of “Who’s Laughing Now” with Microwave.