Mayday Parade & Knuckle Puck
House of Blues in Boston, MA – 5.5.17
Words and photos by Rickelle Tavares

Last Friday Mayday Parade took over the Boston House of Blues for the East Coast leg of their 10-year A Lesson in Romantics tour. Most of the dates on the tour were selling out rapidly, which was the case for our Boston date. The venue seemed to be exceeding maximum capacity that night. Opening for Mayday was Knuckle Puck, from Chicago, IL. They have a massive following and have put out some solid music to back it. They were bursting with energy from start to finish, tons of jumping and instrument swinging; it really kept things hyped. Some of the songs they played that night were “But Why Do You Care,” “Evergreen,” and “Fences,” which the crowd really seemed to love.

Once Mayday hit the stage, there was a blaring roar screaming from fans of all ages. A Lesson in Romantics is one of the most iconic albums Mayday has put out and some of their most-popular songs came off it. They opened with “Jamie All Over.” I swear, if the power went out, you’d still hear every word. There wasn’t a single person in the room that wasn’t singing. One thing I did notice was Derek smiled the entire set. There wasn’t a second where he wasn’t looking out at the room and smiling cheek to cheek. Mayday Parade really took hold of your attention. I found myself singing and reminiscing back to when the album came out. At one point Derek took a moment to say something to us: “I mean this when I say, this is one of our favorite places in the whole world to play,” which was amazing to hear. The band then slowed things down by playing “Miserable at Best” on piano. There were so many people crying; it was very touching. They played “Oh Well, Oh Well” as an encore and thanked everyone for coming. It was such a great show from start to finish, and it proved Mayday Parade is still at the top of the game!

Knuckle Puck

Mayday Parade