The last few years have found Mayday Parade revisiting their back catalog on a series of album anniversary tours. Last week, a jam packed crowd at The Van Buren celebrated the 11th trip around the sun for the band’s underrated self-titled record.
With a new singer and new music rolling out, Real Friends performed with vigor- the old and new songs alike getting fans hyped up. Their songs are short but their set was long and lead singer Cody Muraro encouraged more and more people to crowdsurf to the front before the band cleared out for the evening’s headliner.
Mayday Parade’s self-titled album is chock-full of classics that rarely saw the light of live performance before this tour. Setlist staples like “Oh Well, Oh Well” and “When You See My Friends” had the room singing, but so did lesser known tracks- “A Shot Across the Bow” garnered some of the biggest cheers of the night.
The band even set the mood, arranging the stage with dramatic candelabras, whirling lights and came dressed to impress in their finest green suits. Once the album portion of the set completed, everyone reappeared for part two and the band pulled out new music mixed in with the old. Singer Derek Sanders expressed the group’s pride in their most recent album- a callback to their signature sweeping sound. The party eventually ended, but not before Mayday got the room to scream the words to “Jersey” and “Jamie All Over”- the perfect ending to our trip down memory lane.
Check out all the photos from the show!
Story and photos by Olivia Khiel
