By Cassie Osvatics
Back in October 2009, at the age of 14, without my parents permission, I attended my first real concert: All Time Low at the 9:30 club with Mayday Parade, Every Avenue and The Maine. I was grounded for a month.
Nearly eight years later, no longer getting grounded for going to concerts, not much has changed about my love of live music. But much like myself, The Maine’s music is less angsty these days, growing along with their fans, and their performances more thrilling.
The Maine is currently on their Lonely, Little, Lovely tour promoting their sixth studio album by the same name, with support from The Mowgli’s and Beach Weather.
Up first, Beach Weather played for about a half hour with an exciting opening set. Not much of the crowd seemed to be familiar with the band, but still seemed to have a great time. What interested me most about Beach Weather was the way each band member seemed to have different personalities on stage, which still seemed to mesh together for a great performance.
The Mowgli’s as per usual approached their set with excitement and love, beginning with “Bad Dream” from their third album Kids In Love. This was followed by “Spacing Out” from their fourth album Where’d Your Weekend Go? and their newest single 4am.
Their upbeat music and positivity could be felt throughout the crowd, whether or not concert goers had heard of them. Toward the end of their set, singer and percussionist Katie Earl, with her typical upbeat stage presence said to the crowd, “We the Mowgli’s believe that a little love can go a long way” before closing with their two biggest hits “I’m Good” and “San Francisco,” ending their set on a high note.
As the stage was readied for The Maine to come on, a grass like carpet was unrolled and roses on the front of the raised stage for the drums and the stands for the amps were uncovered. The contrast of the green with red and pink was captivating, even more so when the stage lights momentarily went out and fake trees and clouds lit up lightly illuminating the venue as the band began to play, opening with their newest single, “Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu” from Lonely, Little, Lovely.
After the song ended, lead singer John O’Callaghan began interacting with the crowd, waving and telling the audience he wouldn’t tell them what to do or how to have fun.
O’Callaghan quickly contradicted himself saying, “This is all that I ask: I want those pits juicy by the end of the set.” He then told an audience member near the stage that he wanted her to loosen up, wave her arms around and enjoy herself, addressing her a few songs later to make sure she was indeed having fun.
“They interacted with the audience more than I’ve ever seen a band interact” said Ella Cady, a government and politics and philosophy major at this university.
One of the times the band addressed the crowd, O’Callaghan alluded to the location of the venue, saying, “Let’s talk politics,” then laughed very loudly and continued with, “This is a gosh darn rock concert, we’re not going to talk politics.”
The general feeling of togetherness and acceptance The Mowgli’s emanated was echoed by O’Callaghan. “All the cool people are dead. No one’s cool. Let’s have some fun,” the singer said before they performed “We All Roll Along,” the first of three songs they played from their first full length album Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.
I can’t remember the last time I danced at a concert as much as I did at this one. It was nearly four hours of nonstop fun that I’m sure will live on in the rest of their world tour.
Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Maine’s Facebook page.
Cassie Osvatics is a senior English major and can be reached at cosvatics@gmail.com.
