Mayday Parade is a Florida-based pop punk/ emo band who co-headlined this years’ Sad Summer Festival, touring across the US this summer. They played last during their hometown stop of the tour in Clearwater, Florida at The BayCare Sound. The band has been consistently releasing music and touring the globe since 2006 and show no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Their visuals and set was designed to look like a trippy flower field, along with some 6-7 foot tall paper mache sunflowers. This matches the chill, emo vibe of their music. They began their set with their 2023 single, “More Like A Crash.” This track was an energetic start to their performance after a day-long wait for them. This was followed by a couple Mayday Parade pop punk, guitar-heavy classics: “Walk On Water Or Drown” off of their 2007 album, A Lesson In Romantics, and “Oh Well, Oh Well,” from their 2011 self-titled album. 

Mayday Parade paused their set to give a shoutout to their family members in attendance. Lead singer, Derek Sanders even brought out his toddler, Leo to say hello to the crowd. Later, Sanders prefaced piano track “The Last Something That Meant Anything” with a heartfelt speech about his fiancee and how she helped him out of a tough time in his life. They truly make the crowd feel like they are a part of their family.

Throughout their set, they played “Stay” and “Jersey.” Two songs Mayday Parade tend to play almost every live performance. They said “Let’s treat this show like it’s 2008 Warped Tour!,” which caused several circle pits to form and crowd surfers to emerge left and right. “Jersey” has become a party song over the years and that atmosphere was felt during this performance.

Mayday Parade also played their latest single, “Pretty Good To Feel Something,” released just two weeks ago. Like the seasoned professionals they are, they performed this song with the same amount of energy and passion as the rest of their setlist that they have been playing for almost twenty years.   

They closed the Clearwater Sad Summer Festival stop with their 2006 hit “Jamie All Over.” Over the years, this song has become not only an anthem for the emo community, but also one of their most mainstream songs. Because of this, just about every person in the crowd was jumping and singing along to every single word until the conclusion of the song and of the long day of music. 

Mayday Parade is co-headlining Sad Summer Festival, touring across the US until August 9. Although you might have missed their hometown show, they will still make you feel at home during their performance. 

Review & Photos by: Emily Tonnessen

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