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The Maine - 8123 Tour, Orlando, FL

Orlando FL, July 16^th 2013

Arizonian quintet pioneer new live experience

The 8123 tour kicked off on June 4^th 2013 with a free show in The Maine’s hometown of Tempe, Arizona. This coincided with the release of their newest album Forever Halloween which has since received very positive reviews from several established magazines, many applauding The Maine on their risk taking a step in a new direction.

Over a month later and the tour arrived at the Beacham Theatre in Orlando, Florida and was nearing its last few shows. Hours before doors opened, fans were queuing round the corner of the venue, despite the torrential rain plummeting from the sky. When the doors opened it appeared to take an age before the queue actually started moving forward, however it was discovered this is because the merch table is just in front of the front doors!

  Brighten, the first band on the bill, opened the night. Their sickly sweet acoustic style received a lukewarm welcome from a crowd clearly waiting for someone else. The set list was short, playing only 5 songs, two of which were from the most recent album, Peace and Quiet. This Century, also hailing from Arizona, were next and livened up the crowd a bit with faster paced songs such as ‘Hopeful Romantic’ and ‘Sound of Fire’, while still managing to incorporate slower songs, like ‘To Love and Back’,  into their short set list. They were clearly a crowd favourite and people were moving as soon as the first bar sounds. They ended their time on a high, with lead Joel Kanitz leaving the stage with the biggest smile imaginable and promising the crowd they’ll be back to Orlando shortly, they made way for the last of the opening acts A Rocket To The Moon.

Fans knew that this would be the last time that A Rocket To The Moon would perform in Orlando, as their decision to split had been announced just weeks before the 8123 tour began in June.  This only added to the already built up anticipation. In spite of that, the performance left much of the crowd dissatisfied as only the hits such as ‘Dakota’ received any form of enthusiasm. As their set drew to an end probably the most popular of the quartet’s discography, ‘Like We Used To’ finally evoked the reaction many had awaited, the crowd sang the choruses above frontman Nick Santino as he laughed clearly in amazement. Despite their energetic ending Rocket’s last visit to Orlando was thoroughly forgettable.

The room erupted with piercing screams when the lights finally went out again. Filing onto stage were headliners, The Maine. As soon as the first guitar riffs of opener Love and Drugs kicked in the crowd jolted into action. Lead vocalist, John O’Callaghan, duly called a hello to the raging crowd as even the beginning lyrics were yelled back at the band over the carefully rehearsed melodies. Dressed in a cut off t-shirt that read the statement ‘I met god, she’s black.’ and ripped jeans, he looked every inch the part. One thing that’s interesting about watching The Maine perform live is that they often try to integrate every musical part of their songs into the live set, and this is evident even in the first song as O’Callaghan spent most the interval parts of the song bent over a keyboard in concentration while somehow still managing to hold the crowd’s attention. The intensity of the performance given by The Maine exceeded the worth of the ticket price immensely. With their catchy riffs and easily memorable lyrics they produce a truly stunning live performance. 

The hour and a half set was varied and visited each era of their discography with enthusiasm, which many bands avoid these days, especially on an album cycle tour. However, The Maine once again proved that taking a risk pays off. What was even more astounding was the exhilaration that even the older songs were greeted with, by the crowd and they band. This demonstrated how dedicated their fans really are which is hard to find recently among the sea of one hit wonders in the charts. Previous singles such as ‘Inside of You’ and ‘Into Your Arms’ offered soaring sing-a-longs while new songs such as ‘Kennedy Curse’ displayed the edgier side of the quintet. A highlight of the night was the immense atmosphere created by the enormous crowd sing-a-long for ‘Some Days’ – lead single off their 2011 release ‘Pioneer’.

In the latter half of the set they made a controversial decision to play their adaption of Cyndi Lauper’s iconic ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ that originally featured on ‘Punk Goes Pop Vol. 5’. This received by far the most mixed reaction from the crowd throughout the night. To bring morale back up after they played old hit ‘Count ‘Em One, Two, Three’ from their debut LP ‘Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop’. Unexpectedly O’Callaghan waded into the crowd and gave a speech before the song started, claiming that ‘[Count ‘Em One, Two, Three] is the closest [he’s] ever been to being in a punk band’ and that [he] wants the crowd to go crazy for the next 4 minutes!’ Which indeed they did.  So much so that by the time O’Callaghan was wrestled out from the crowd’s tight grips, his sleeveless shirt had been ripped to shreds.  

Just two songs remained after that and the closing song, ‘We’ll All Be…’, brought an emotional end to the night with lyrics referencing how the band started and all their friends (which is particularly apt seeing as members of the support acts and The Maine have known each other since high school and were involved in the forming of the band). Just to tug on the heart strings of the devoted fans a little more they brought out members of the support acts to sing the final gang vocals of ‘We all have been degraded, we all will be the greatest.’ A quote that appears to touch O’Callaghan so much, he had it tattooed on his chest.  The front man of each band that had played sang a line while the other members hung out on the stage and joined in on the last line. Never one for encores, the night ended sweetly and expressively for everyone involved, especially The Maine, who have used this tour as a landmark in their career. The Maine and their music have certainly matured to a place they have stated is ‘where [they’re] finally happy with the sound [they’re] producing.’