Live Review: Mayday Parade, This Wild Life

The lines curved all the way around the block on one of the few nights a year former emo and pop punk lovers could dust off their mid-2000s merch and revisit the glory days of 2007.

These nostalgia-led anniversary tours have been far more frequent in the last two years, mind you, with many of the era's crucial albums having just turned or about to turn the big ten - The Used, New Found Glory and Yellowcard have all recently played anniversary sets, with Never Shout Never and We The Kings incoming.

This Wild Life took the stage to an ear-burstingly loud Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. Though the band came into popularity in more recent years, the duo's acoustic sound harks back to the lilting guitars of Secondhand Serenade or The Scene Aesthetic circa 2006. Singer Kevin Jordan's voice was warm and welcoming, while the band's bassist Ramsey Badawi lurked in the corner and added some depth with a floor tom and keys and guitarist Anthony Del Grosso snapped between the full drum kit and lead guitar. Occasionally we were treated to an explosion of duel-drumming - very cool. They also dished up an acoustic rendition of blink-182's First Date - which took strange creative liberties with the lyrics - but overall This Wild Life delivered a dynamic, solid support set.

Mayday Parade burst straight into A Lesson In Romantics opener Jamie All Over and as soon as the opening note struck, the theatre was in full singing mode. You could hardly see the band! It was all bright neon swirling lights and a shit-tonne of smoke. Singer Derek Sanders looked as he always does, flicking back his curtain of hair every now and then, and the rest of the band were as they've been since 2007 - sans Jason Lancaster, a critical writer of A Lesson In Romantics, though he left right after the album's release (drummer Jake Bundrick has been filling in on his vocals since then.)

As expected, the band tore through the album in tracklist order and we knew the opening notes of each song before the band even started. Jersey was another huge hit with the crowd, but then, there wasn't a single song from the album that we didn't sing word for word. Sanders faltered a little with his vocals during some songs, occasionally falling half a beat behind, but the band were tight backing him, and the crowd had him covered on vocals anyway. He was back on the ball for ballad Miserable At Best, though - it was just him and us on this one, singing as sweetly as we could - and it was one of the loudest and most note-perfect singalongs we've heard all year. The lighting engineer did a stellar job of keeping the visuals interesting, but the band's faces were shrouded in shadow the whole time so any major fans hoping to catch their facial expressions were shit out of luck. Final song You Be The Anchor That Keeps My Feet On The Ground, I'll Be The Wings That Keep Your Head In The Clouds was another beloved ballad and it is rarely, if ever, played live - Sanders prefaced this with a heartfelt message to those struggling with depression, and the song's amazing crescendo and our resounding voices fitted the sentiment well.

After the album's end, we got acoustic versions of Punk Rock Princess, Terrible Things, Kids In Love, a couple of new ones and a throwback even further back than A Lesson In Romantics in Three Cheers For Five Years - plus there was a legit encore after we stomped our feet for two more songs. Thanks for journeying us back to 2007, Mayday.