MAYDAY PARADE W/
DIVDIDED BY FRIDAY, DECADE, MAN OVERBOARD
KOKO, LONDON 07.02.14
Visits to the UK are lodged inside Mayday Parade’s
memory. When asked about their past shows including Slam Dunk 2012 and their
co-headline tour with The Maine back in 2010, the band from Florida speak
fondly acknowledging the fact they’re not a stadium selling type, but that’s
okay. That’s more than okay, because the fans that join them tonight aren’t
going anywhere. Some want to win, they want the trophy and their name in
lights. Others are happy just to be taking part. Vocalist Derek Sanders and his
band buddies; guitarists Alex Garcia and Brooks Betts, bassist Jeremy Lenzo and
drummer Jake Bundrick are the latter.
The evening is kickstarted with a generous dose of pop
from openers Divided By Friday. Their Panic! At The Disco melodies in tracks
Relapse and You Fooled Me are satisfying anyone with a sweet tooth. Though it’s
their first time in the UK, the trip from North Carolina seems more than
worthwhile as they breeze through. Decade have been corrupting the music scene recently
with their blazing guitars in British Weather and Callous. There’s nothing
sugar coated with this lot, their between songs banter is endearing alone but
the hooks in Brainfreeze see’s Decade tonight playing up to their strengths on
a bigger than usual scale. Man Overboard look and sound like anti- everything
and they’re not about to keep to any rules. The New Jersey bunch may have been
dragged around kicking and screaming with their juvenile attitude but Dead End
Dreams makes their set one hell of an accomplished one.
Give Mayday Parade their instruments and place them in a
room in a town of any language and they will excel by all means. Their sound is
universal and it’s one that has grown from pop punk roots in Jamie All Over to
tonight’s opening anthem Ghosts. The genre they surfaced from can be hit or
miss in live performances for those with a vocalist that lacks the emotion and
capability, but for Mayday Parade this is their forte. Derek Sanders is a
storyteller. With lyrics ‘Hey, the walls
keep coming down but I’ll stand brave’ in 12 Through 15 and tender vocals,
they build momentum up to the soaring riffs without fault. Perfectly adjacent
is Girls, off current album Monsters In The Closet, that comes rocketing with
the testosterone and adrenaline Mayday Parade originally hone their song
writing tactics to. Their true colours show in Miserable At Best and Stay,
where with a piano in their company they prove there is very much more to being
pop punk. Mayday Parade are not afraid to disturb those principles and come up
with a sound very much their own, but even Derek and co are only a moment away
from the nostalgic lyrics and contagious sing-alongs that boast in Kids In Love
and Jersey. As they round things up with The Last Something That Meant
Anything, they can be sure that as the good guys, the lineup is the only thing
they will finish last in.
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