Concert Reviews: Mayday Parade and State Champs in NYC

I wanted to dedicate a blog post to Paramore’s album After Laughter and a post for my concert reviews. Here are my concert reviews for Mayday Parade and State Champs.

I saw Mayday Parade perform in New York City on May 9 at Webster Hall for their “A Lesson In Romantics 10 year Anniversary Tour.” Knuckle Puck and Milestones were the opening bands.

Prior to the show, I met Mayday Parade and talked with them about their future plans since they are not going to be at Warped Tour. All of the guys said that they were going to begin writing for the upcoming album. There is no word yet what is expected on the album.

I’ve heard of Milestones and was excited to hear their set. This is my overview of their performance: the vocals were average sounding with tone and pitch, the instrumentals were pretty good. I think that Milestones could’ve engaged a bit more with the listeners, but I would definitely see them again after hearing their music outside of a concert setting.

Knuckle Puck was the other opening band. I’ve seen Knuckle Puck open for The Maine and State Champs. I saw Knuckle Puck’s setlist at Warped Tour and was ready to see them. Knuckle Puck know how to engage with the audience with creating circle pits, crowd surfers, and a room full of angst. Before “Gold Rush,” a person punched another person. Joe Taylor, lead singer of Knuckle Puck, stopped the song just to tell the person who punched the other person that it wasn’t okay to do that. He explained that people come to enjoy the music and not to fight.

After Knuckle Puck and moments of waiting, Mayday Parade took the stage. As per usual, the guys in Mayday Parade did not disappoint with their song choices and performance. Here is their setlist:

1. Jamie All Over
2. Black Cat
3. When I Get Home, You’re So Dead
4. Jersey
5. If You Wanted a Song Written About You, All You Had to Do Was Ask
6. Miserable At Best
7. Walk On Water or Drown
8. Ocean and Atlantic
9. I’d Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About
10. Take This to Heart
11. Champagne’s For Celebrating (I’ll Have A Martini)
12. You Be The Anchor That keeps My Feet On The Ground, I’ll Be The Wings That Keep Your Heart In The Clouds
13. Redemption Song (Bob Marley Cover)
14. Terrible Things
15. Three Cheers For Five Years
16. When You See My Friends
17. Lets Be Honest
18. Kids In Love
19. Oh Well, Oh Well

I saw Mayday Parade perform again on May 11 at The Paramount in Long Island, NY at The Paramount. The setlist were the same.

I saw State Champs perform for their spring tour. Accompanying the band was Against The Current, Don Broco, and With Confidence. I went to see State Champs on May 12 in Irving Plaza, NYC. I was unfortunately late and missed Don Broco and With Confidence. I got in to see Against the Current and State Champs. Against the Current had a vibe like Tonight Alive, PVRIS and Paramore all in one. Chrissy Constanzo has a similar stage presence to Jenna McDougall and Hayley Williams. Against the Current got the crowd engaged, which got met excited to see State Champs.

After waiting patiently, State Champs began their set. I saw State Champs a few times at Warped Tour and headlining the AP World Tour, and I was excited to see them again. Here is their setlist:

1. Remedy
2. Losing Myself
3. Shape Up
4. Eyes Closed
5. Simple Existence
6. Slow Burn
7. Deadly Conversation
8. All Or Nothing
9. Stick Around
10. Around The World And Back
11. All You Are Is History
12. Hard To Please
13. Perfect Score
14. Easy Enough
15. Mind Bottled
16. Breaking Ground
17. Tooth And Nail
18. Elevated
19. Critical *ENCORE*
20. Secrets *ENCORE*

I highly recommend seeing at least one of these bands live, especially State Champs and Mayday Parade. In other news, PVRIS announced a UK Tour (tickets and tour information can be found here,) Misterwives announced a tour across the United States (tickets and tour information can be found here,) Paramore announced a second tour across the United States (tickets and tour information can be found here.)  Linkin Park released One More Light today, Silverstein released a new song “Retrograde” off of their upcoming album Dead Reflection.  Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness released a music video for their song “So Close,” COIN released the music video for their song “I Don’t Wanna Dance,” and All Time Low released the single “Nice2KnoU.”

Rock on, stay humble, and be positive!

-ovictoria

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