Saturday 16 October 2010

Mayday Parade, Islington O2 Academy

8th October & 11th October
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Yep, Mayday Parade were double-headlining alongside The Maine. I decided to write them up separately. For me, these were dream gigs. Two of my top 5 bands playing on the same night.

I love both the Mayday Parade albums, they are two of the favourite albums that I own, love every song from both of them. The last time I saw them in April, the sound in the Forum was terrible. I wasn't sure what to expect this time.

Almost as soon as The Maine had left the stage, the pushing forward started. It was the same in April, I don't know what makes these fans go nuts for Mayday, but the queues round the block and the crazy fan moshing are unlike anything I've ever seen for any other band. It's like they spray some magic potion into the air. The thing is, Mayday are good live, if you know the songs, but they are not the most brilliant band ever - at some points they sound like just a lot of noise. They are a bit wild, a bit wacky, they jump around a lot and play their guitars over their heads.

Yes, I love the songs, I really get into it and sing along, and jump a lot, but whereas The Maine improved on their songs by singing them live, this wasn't the case for Mayday - which was disappointing for me - the recorded stuff sounds much better. A couple of times, the band stopped mid song to speak to the audience, which felt a bit gimmicky and I don't think went down particularly well.

However, they did pull together an impressive setlist from their songbook, and it made the set seem longer than just over the hour that it actually was. Everyone got to sing along to the hugely popular 'Miserable at Best', which was pretty sweet, and with both Black Cat and Jamie All Over in there as well, it made it a good gig for me. Given that the tickets for both The Maine and Mayday Parade were only £12, I'm giving it 7.5/10.

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