After a short hiatus from live music for the month of October while I wrapped up my 100k training block, it was finally time for me to get back into the swing of things. I’ll admit it was nice to have a break after a big race to just simply do nothing, but I was more than ready to be back in a crowd, living in the moment with music flowing from a stage. Luckily for me, I was able to once again find myself at The Armory, this time for the Maximum Fun Tour featuring a co-headlining bill of Yellowcard and A Day To Remember.

Unfortunately, the first openers on the bill, Dinosaur Pile Up, were unable to make it to Minneapolis for the show, which gave The Wonder Years the opening slot for the night. Pennsylvania rockers The Wonder Years went on stage right around 6:50pm to a crowd eager to get the night going. My first live exposure to this group dates back to my Boston days; I was late to the game on this band and didn’t see them live until somewhere between 2015-2016 when they headlined the House of Blues in Boston. While I’ve seen them once maybe twice of since then, it has been at least a few years and I was glad to be able to catch them again. With Dinosaur Pile Up facing visa issues and unable to join the tour, it did give The Wonder Years an opportunity to play a few extra songs, including a couple of deep cuts. Interestingly enough, the band mentioned that the last time they went out as support (not a headlining or co-headlining tour) was in 2012 for Yellowcard and in 2013 for A Day to Remember, which I thought happened to be very fitting for the night ahead. Even though the crowd wasn’t all in attendance for The Wonder Years, I loved that the band stuck true to themselves and didn’t change a thing about their live performance to try to win any fans over. Rather, The Wonder Years came out swinging and walked away with a home run of an opening set. This band is just plain fun to watch and truly left everything they had onstage.

The penultimate band of the night were alt rock legends Yellowcard. I had the pleasure of seeing Yellowcard on their first full length tour after their hiatus, when they headlined The Armory back in the summer of 2023 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their classic record “Ocean Avenue.” Yellowcard took to the stage starting their set with a cover of the Top Gun anthem before going right into one of their classics “Only One.” The biggest immediate difference between this set and the band’s prior set at The Armory was the very distinct level up of stage production. Maybe my memory of their last stop in the Twin Cities is foggy, but this time around, Yellowcard brought insane lighting, CO2, and way more pyro. Major kudos to their stage production for the Maximum Fun tour, I know I was left a little in awe of just how good the band looked on stage, not to mentioned how good the band sounded on stage. While Yellowcard did lean a little heavier into tracks from their record “Ocean Avenue,” they played a balanced set that showcased the band’s catalog very well. Even though Yellowcard was not heavily featured in my own rotation, I, with what felt like a lot of others on the crowd, couldn’t help feeling the ebb and flow of nostalgia throughout the duration of their set, especially when vocalist Ryan Key compared their time onstage in front of the Twin Cities crowd to the vibes of Warped Tour 2004.

Last but certainly not least for the night was the one and only A Day to Remember. While the Florida rockers may have fallen off of my personal rotation over the years, it was clear the band and the crowd had come to party. Once again, the last time that I saw this band was a few years ago when they also played The Armory, a venue the band is no stranger to, and I was excited to see how they leveled up their set. Right off the bat, A Day to Remember kicked things off with fan favorite “The Downfall of Us All,” the first of three nostalgic tracks before they jumped into “Bad Blood” off of their most recent release “Big Ole Album Vol. 1.” As if Yellowcard didn’t already kick up the energy a few notches, A Day to Remember cranked it up, truly making their set live up to the maximum fun that was promised. A Day to Remember also took the foundation of the stage production that Yellowcard had and elevated it: there seemed to be constant waves of CO2, pyro, and a few rounds of confetti. The energy from the crowd, especially in the front half, was insane. There seemed to be a never ending stream of crowd surfers, moshing, dancing, and screaming along to almost every song. Compared to the last time I caught A Day to Remember at this same venue, this show blew that performance completely out of the water. Every aspect of their show was elevated, the crowd was significantly more into their set, and it brought the vibes of the band’s House Party tour from the 2010’s. With a healthy mix of showcasing new material while playing the fan favorites, A Day to Remember played a solid set to a full house.