Pop-punk fans definitely got their fill on Sunday night when All Time Low brought its Side Summer Tour to Marathon Music Works.
Philadelphia’s Grayscale got the night started with a quick 30-minute performance. A lot of the Nashville crowd didn’t seem to know the lyrics to any of the band’s songs, however, that didn’t stop fans from enjoying the set.
Early into the performance, lead singer Collin Walsh led the crowd as it jumped along to one of their tunes. The band closed out their set with a cover, mixing in The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” before waving goodbye to the Nashville venue.
Even before The Maine took the stage on Sunday night, the band seemingly held the crowd at Marathon Music Works in the palm of their hands. As the lights went down and the group walked on, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” blasted from the speakers. Lead singer John O’Callaghan took the microphone and led the crowd in a sing-along before heading into his band’s smash single, “Sticky.”The rest of The Maine’s set felt like one big dance-off. In fact, during the middle of “Am I Pretty?” O’Callaghan pointed out random crowd members, asking how they were doing, before trying to get those people to mimic his dance moves.
O’Callaghan’s charismatic personality shined throughout the night. With three tracks left in their nine-song performance, the singer joked that his band had 33 songs left, and they were all 11 minutes long. Of course, the Nashville crowd just cheered on at that idea. He continued and led Marathon Music Works in another sing-along, this time the introduction of My Chemical Romance’s “Black Parade.”
“Not a lot of people know that we wrote that song,” he said laughing with the Nashville crowd. “We love it here in Nashville.”
With O’Callaghan’s charming stage persona on full display and the band’s infectious upbeat indie-pop infused rock sound, it was no surprise that The Maine’s nearly 40-minute set flew by pretty quickly.
For the second time in as many months, All Time Low found themselves headlining a Nashville show. The pop-punk band from Baltimore, Maryland, previously headlined The Basement East on July 26.While the band is originally from Baltimore, drummer Rian Dawson has moved to Nashville. The band’s guitarist Jack Barakat couldn’t help but joke that it was the reason why the band had two Music City dates on its calendar. “Because Rian gets what Rian gets, he said we should play Nashville two times,” Barakat quipped.
After the band laughed a bit, singer Alex Gaskarth took over the microphone, stating that it felt great to be back up on stage in Music City. After the COVID-19 pandemic started, All Time Low released their newest album, “Wake Up, Sunshine.” With concerts and live music essentially shut down, the band was itching to perform their new tracks.
“I couldn’t figure out a better place to play twice, honestly,” Gaskarth said. “I have to say, it feels really weird and really good to be back out on the road now and playing these songs for you live. We eat, sleep and breathe being on tour and playing songs for all of your beautiful faces. To have that taken away, it was very strange especially with new music out. We just wanted that outlet.”
The band incorporated several of those newer tunes into their 16-song performance. However, All Time Low wasn’t overbearing with their most recent songs. Once playing some of those tracks, they would delve back into their older material, stuff that resonated with more of the band’s older fans.
After a 14-song set, the band came back on stage for an encore. Leading that performance was “Monsters,” a song from their latest album featuring blackbear. Gaskarth did a solid job of mimicking blackbear’s portion of the song since the rapper wasn’t present.
Closing the night out was fan-favorite and emo classic “Dear Maria, Count Me In.” As Gaskarth sang the opening lines of the song, he stepped back off the microphone and let the Nashville crowd take over. After the earlier sing-alongs earlier in the night, it felt like the perfect way to close out the night. Judging by the smiles of several fans on their way out of the venue, they certainly agreed.
The Side Summer Tour continues this month. The full list of dates can be seen here.ALL TIME LOW
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