All Time Low, Mayday Parade @ Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide 3/11/2023
The lights drop, the backing track is Wilson Phillips classic Hold On, the air visibly glistens, shadowy figures descend on the stage as the music stops and electricity courses through the room. The deafening noise of excitement grows louder and louder, music starts and the audience chant Lost In Stereo. All Time Low are on stage and the party has truly begun.
Before the headliners turned the venue into jelly though, Mayday Parade shook the foundations too. The quiet opening of Oh Well, Oh Well building the nervous tension before vocalist Derek Sanders leads the audience into a sixty minute cardio workout of song and dance.
Everyone knows the words to new song More Like A Crash and when Anywhere But Here is performed it’s almost like a religious experience such is the tangible feeling in the atmosphere.
The band are tearing this up without guitarist Brooks, who is away on paternity duty, and while his presence is noted, Alex Garcia is crunching through the songs, taking the extra responsibility on like a warrior.
Miracle and Miserable At Best are the bands November Rain moments as Sanders tickles the ivories of a keyboard backed only by drummer Jake Bundrick and a couple of thousand South Australian fans vocals in a touching moment.
Finishing with Jersey and yes, Jamie All Over, Mayday Parade can depart as victorious champions and have placed the gauntlet firmly at All Time Low’s feet and said ‘follow that!’
But this is All Time Low’s party. People are sitting on shoulders, everyone is singing and dancing. The room moves so much you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re in a bouncy castle as the aforementioned Lost In Stereo meets the band and crowd like two superheroes in battle for vocal supremacy.
All Time Low waste no time harnessing this energy as they tear through incendiary track after track without a break. Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), Six Feet Under The Stars, Tell Me I’m Alive and more zoomed through before you can breathe. Every one sending shock waves throughout an audience that fires back in song.
The band are just as frantic on stage as Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat dance and jump around the stage while also engaging the audience in quiet moments. These include Barakat completing the Australian tradition of a shoey, Rian Dawson making sure a fan got a drumstick and was there potentially talk of being on Good Things next year? We will see.
PMA has special guest Lauren Hibberd join on vocals, while Somethings Gotta Give has Gaskarth incite everyone to climb onto someone’s shoulders in what becomes a visually stunning moment.
It’s a storming set list that frantic energy that closes with Sleepwalking, Maria and I’m informed a snippet of the classic Aussie TV show Round The Twist which leaves me thinking ‘this is the band I want playing at my party’ as I head off into the night looking for the only aspect this party didn’t have. Jelly and ice cream.
Live Review By Iain McCallum