The Maine and the 8123 Rocked Out at First Ave

Opening up this awesome night was Friday Pilots Club!

I hadn’t heard of them before, but the croony voice the vocalist had and the way the crowd interacted with them, i’m looking forward to seeing them on a bigger stage and with more room to really rock around, they were a little confined to basically a straight line unfortunately.

Very good opener however, and they definitely got the energy moving, but what was really nice was that the crowd was almost completely full right at the start of the show here!

Next was Nightly- a good little three piece, who ended up showing that they can have some fun on stage together. During the first three in the pit, they were definitely a little nervous (seemingly), and only after we pulled out did we really start to see them open up and start having some more fun with the crowd.

Crowd seemed to really like them a lot though! I saw a lot of people jamming out to them, and they had just some solid, clean music.

Right before our main(e) act was Grayscale!

This band was so so so fun, but holy COW was there no lighting on them for most of the show! That’s my only main gripe as a photographer, but for the show itself, it was really fun. Kind of reminded me of Movements a little bit, and they had a good set showcasing a wide range of their music too, some rock, indie, punk styled stuff that was a great setup for The Maine.

Admittedly, the crowd was starting to get absolutely packed here, and so I took the opportunity to head upstairs to grab a drink, and then step outside for some air, but throughout the whole set i can honestly say the whole time I was boppin’ along!

Finally, the 8123 took the stage to some awesome darker lighting, and then WHAM, it was bright lights all over (see photo #2!).

I had a lot of fun finally seeing The Maine, after hearing about their live performances for years, and man, they did not disappoint.

Frontman John O'Callaghan really knows how to work the microphone, really showcasing raw emotion and passion when singing. It was also a lot of fun seeing how engaged the guitarists were, with hair flips, dancing on stage, and a LOT of good crowd interaction.

They played a lot of songs from various albums, but we did get 3 new songs from their newest album “Joy Next Door”, which was a real treat, and has also since been released!

Closing the night with Black Butterflies and Deja Vu, the crowd was absolutely packed, jumping for joy, and singing along to absolutely every lyric. I’ve heard about the 8123 collective, but seeing it in full force was such an awesome time, and i cant wait to go see them again!