Phil's Blog: The Maine & Friends Put on an Electrifying Show at Union Transfer

As part of the Modern Nostalgia Tour, Night Riots, Dreamers and The Maine made their way to Union Transfer last Thursday. First to the stage was the American alternative band from San Luis Obispo, California, Night Riots.

Lead singer of Night Riots, Travis Hawley, followed their first song with a cover of “Free Falling.” The audience immediately joined in song with the band. Through their seven song set, Hawley leaded over the barricade to sing with fans. The band utilized glow-in-the-dark drumsticks and jack-o-lanterns as entertainment through performances. As Night Riots set came to a close, Hawley performed Contagious, from their most recent album Love Bloom, while laying on the stage floor.

Directly following Night Riots was the second opener of the night, Dreamers. From Brooklyn, New York Dreamers bring a taste of pop-punk to the stage. Opening with their single Wolves the crowd began to jump and single along. Much like Travis Hawley of Night Riots, Dreamers lead vocalist Nick Wold engaged the audience throughout the performance. At one point, Wold stopped to say hello to a girl in the crowd, stating that he had seen her wave at him earlier in the night when she mistakenly thought he was looking at her. Wold noted that he’d be looking at her for the rest of the night, as squalls erupted from the crowd Dreamers moved into the next song. The set consisted of 10 songs, including a cover of The Cranberries Zombie. Bringing out a tambourine, the band slowed it down with an acoustic rendition of Sweet Disaster to close the set.

After a brief intermission filled with early 2000s pop-punk music playing over the speaker system, The Maine took the stage! The set-up had been completely transformed with Red, White and Blue striped backdrops, setting the scene for a Beatles-inspired show. Each of the six band members were decked in white leisure suits and freshly shined black dress shoes. The lead performance began with The Maine’s most recent album Lovely Little Lonely (2017). The stage presence of The Maine was upbeat and fast paced. The crowd screamed song lyrics as lead vocalist and songwriter John O’Callaghan jumped and swayed around the stage with other members of the band, leaving no stage floor untouched. After completing the album in it’s entirety O’Callaghan reassured the audience that the band would “be right back,” before taking a 10 minute intermission.

After exchanging their all-white apparel for dark pants and jackets the band returned to the stage to perform their 2015 album American Candy. Although the intensity was high, the decision to play through both albums made the performance predictable, leaving no room for any “throwbacks.” O’Callaghan reminisced about an encounter the last time The Maine performed at Union Transfer, opening for Mayday Parade. “You guys suck tonight,” he laughed into the microphone, quoting an audience goer from years past. O’Callaghan thanked the crowd for coming back to see The Maine perform once more before closing out the night with the last track of the American Candy album, Another Night On Mars.