Stepping into Marathon Music Works felt more like walking into a time machine on Saturday night as pop-punk band Mayday Parade sold out the Nashville show on their largest headlining tour to date.
The Three Cheers for Twenty Years Tour boasts over 30 dates across the United States in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the band’s inception.
Mayday Parade formed in 2005 when two bands in Tallahassee, Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment, merged. Like many groups in the scene, the Vans Warped Tour in 2006 gave the group a jump start, enabling them to perform for larger audiences and self-promote their debut EP, Tales Told by Dead Friends. Before they knew it, Mayday Parade was touring with the likes of Paramore, All Time Low, and The Maine, all of whom were giants of the pop-punk arena at the time.
Fast forward to 2025. The band’s eighth studio album, Sweet, is garnering attention from long-time fans, and creating newer ones along the way. This was evident, as the barricade in Nashville was filled with mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons. The teens of 2007 are all grown up and, yes, they are passing on the legacy.
The evening began with incredible opening sets from Like Roses, Grayscale, and Microwave. But, once 9:20 p.m. struck, the emo kids really came to life. The screen buzzed as an interview circa 2008 played, likely shot on a camcorder. A young Brooks Betts (guitarist) talked about how they hoped to still be playing music for a while but that, realistically, he didn’t expect to still be playing in that capacity at age 40. At the time of this show, Betts was 39 years old.
With the sentimental introduction ripening the crowd for the show, lead singer Derek Sanders took to the piano for “By the Way” from Sweet before jumping right into tracks from Tales Told by Dead Friends: “Just Say You’re Not Into It” and “Three Cheers for Five Years.” Alex Garcia, lead guitarist, and Betts jumped up on risers to get closer to the fans, and steamy pyro shot up into the rafters.
The set moved on to songs from A Lesson in Romantics, the band’s first full-length album, which includes their most popular track, “Miserable at Best.” From there, they moved on through Anywhere But Here, Valdosta EP, and Mayday Parade. Sanders took time between songs to speak from the heart and remind the crowd that everyone is welcome at a Mayday Parade show, no matter their sexual identity, orientation, political stance, or race.
They powered through Monsters in the Closet, Black Lines, Sunnyland, and What it Means to Fall Apart, before landing back on two more songs from Sweet with a guest appearance from Nathan Hardy of Microwave. Forgoing the traditional peek-a-boo of leaving the stage only to come back, the band closed out with “One Man Drinking Game” and “Jamie All Over.”
When all was played and done, one thing was at the forefront of my mind. Mayday Parade will definitely still be living their dreams at age 40.
Setlist:
- By the Way
- Just Say You’re Not Into It
- Three Cheers for Five Years
- Jersey
- I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About
- Miserable at Best
- Anywhere but Here
- Bruised and Scarred
- Terrible Things
- Oh Well, Oh Well
- Stay
- Ghost
- One of Them Will Destroy the Other
- Sunnyland
- Never Sure
- Piece of Your Heart
- Heaven
- One for the Rocks and One for the Scary
- Pretty Good to Feel Something
- Who’s Laughing Now
- One Man Drinking Game
- Jamie All Over
