The Maine @ Union Transfer

Written By: Angel Young

The Maine, Dreamers, and Night Riots made their way to Philadelphia on November 9th, 2017 as part of The Modern Nostalgia Tour. The band Night Riots opened the show with an amazing stage presence, and despite the crowd’s low energy in the beginning, they were capable of getting everyone warmed up for the sets to come. They did so by getting the crowd to join them in singing “Free Falling” by Tom Petty. During their set, the five members had taken out light up drum sticks and played in complete darkness for an entire song. They also brought out a crew member in a skeleton costume with light up pumpkins just to wish everyone a happy belated Halloween. The band shared their first encounter with a concrete cowboy that they had earlier in the morning, and expressed how much they love Philadelphia.

As Dreamers took the stage, a 20s-inspired recording of a man talking about dreaming played in the background. This band, much like Night Riots, was very interactive with the crowd. At one point the lead singer stopped the show to say hi to a girl in the crowd solely because he felt bad that she had mistaken his wave prior in the set to be directed towards her. He later jumped onto the barricade to get closer to his fans. The band covered a portion of “Zombies” by The Cranberries causing the crowd to sing along to the tune. One thing I noticed after the band had left the stage was that the pop-punk music playing in between sets seemed to get the crowd even more excited for The Maine than at any other concert I’ve been to. To a certain extent every concert attendee seemed to be experiencing middle school nostalgia.

As the stage was being set for The Maine, it was clear that the band was going for a Beatles inspired appearance. Their name was printed on the drum set with the classic Beatles font, and they came out wearing matching all white suits. Their backdrop covered the back and side stages from being visible and had an abstract pattern. As for their set list, they played through their most recent album “Lovely Little Lonely.” When that was finished they exited the stage for a 10-minute break and came back in different suits to finish off the set list by playing through their album “American Candy.” The idea that they played through two of their albums completely is rather unique; however, it made it easy for their fans to know what song was coming next.

Overall, all three bands had amazing energy, and were very focused on getting the crowd to be a part of the concert. Even if an audience member wasn’t familiar with the song the artists made it easy for them to still enjoy the performance.

The Maine’s Set List:

1. Don’t Come Down
2. Bad Behavior
3. Lovely
4. Black Butterflies and Déjà vu
5. Taxi
6. Do You Remember?
7. Little
8. The Sound of Reverie
9. Lost in Nostalgia
10. I Only Want to Talk to You
11. Lonely
12. How Do You Feel?
13. Miles Away
14. Same Suit, Different Tie
15. My Hair
16. English Girls
17. 24 Floors
18. Diet Soda Society
19. Am I Pretty?
20. (Un)Lost
21. American Candy
22. Another Night On Mars