The American Candy Tour

The Maine
Photo by Adam Elmakias

Four bands - The Technicolors, Knuckle Puck, Real Friends and The Maine - kicked off the start of their tour in Tempe, Arizona on April 3. The Maine are headlining the tour in celebration of the release of their fifth studio album, American Candy. It's quite an interesting mix up of bands that took the stage. The Technicolors and The Maine are both Arizona local bands signed to 8123. The Maine toured with Real Friends all last summer on Warped Tour, and they had just me the guys from Knuckle Puck the same day they started touring. The crowd was a pretty fair split between Real Friends fans and The Maine fans. I'm not sure how these bands got to touring together since their music really isn't that similar, but it made for a fun show.

The Technicolors

The first to take the stage are The Technicolors. As I mentioned before, they are an Arizona local band and I've had the pleasure of seeing them twice before - once at the Super Bowl party in Phoenix and once at a short acoustic set at Tempe Marketplace. Like The Maine, they are also celebrating the release of new music. Their new EP, Ultraviolet Disguise, is set to release on April 7, but they were selling the EP early at their merch stand. Listening to their only album, Listener, from 2012, and hearing them live makes you think you are hearing two completely different bands. Listener is more meant for something to be listened to while you chill at home, so it doesn't translate as well when performed live. However, that doesn't mean they didn't do a great job on stage. One of their new songs, "Tonight You Are Mine," and some of my favorite songs like "Hollywood" from Listener helped liven things up.

Unfortunately, I was forced to ditch my great spot close to the stage. After waiting hours before the show, I managed to get a spot very close to the barricade. What I hadn't realized were that Knuckle Puck and Real Friends are much louder bands than I had expected. I'm not too familiar with either band, other than briefly hearing Real Friends during Warped Tour. Anyways, my spot in front of stage left turned out to be where everyone chose to crowd surf and mosh. I'm okay with some of that in moderation, but after quite a few times of getting kicked in the head, I decided to do the walk of shame and leave my spot. I'm not too bummed about it after seeing the tornado of people later crash through where I was standing, plus I had a nice view of the entire stage from my new spot.

Knuckle Puck performed second and, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was impressed. Their songs carried tons of energy and the band looked like they were having a great time. They didn't do too much talking or interacting with the audience, but their performance didn't lack any enthusiasm. Based on the dozens of crowd surfers and the wave of people jumping up and down, it looked like the crowd was having a pretty good time as well.

Real Friends got on stage next with an enormous cheer from the audience. My favorite moments were when there was a back and forth between the vocalist singing and the crowd singing. The crowd was just as pumped and rowdy as before, if not more energetic. Once they finished their set, just about half the crowd left to join the back of the venue. I think I had underestimated the size of Real Friends' fan base.

The Maine

After hours and hours of waiting, The Maine finally took the stage with a song from their new album called "Miles Away." They performed that first song with the biggest smiles on their faces and a hop in all of their steps. It was obvious how much they have longed to be on stage and perform again. They played half of the songs from their new album, plus hits from their four previous albums and one amazing cover for a total of 14 songs. To be honest, I thought they should have played for longer than the hour they got. Those 60 minutes flew by in a blink of an eye.

The guitarists, Kennedy Brock and Jared Monaco, stayed put on their sides of the stage throughout the night, but the smiles never left their faces. Pat Kirch could be seen singing along to the songs and having a great time from his place behind the drums. Garrett Nickelsen, the bassist, moves around the most without a doubt which makes him such a fun performer to watch on stage. I can't remember a time where he actually stood still, unless it was to quickly sing some background vocals. Like Nickelsen, the vocalist, John O'Callaghan, also moved around quite a bit. One of the best things to watch on stage was the chemistry between the band. Whether it was O'Callaghan resting his head on Monaco's shoulder (and giving him a peck on the cheek!) or Nickelsen going over and teasing Brock, they were constantly interacting with each other and the crowd. It was easy to see that The Maine are a group of five best friends.

The band summoned some songs from one of their oldest albums, Black & White, including "Growing Up," "Inside of You" and "Right Girl." "Growing Up" is possibly my favorite song of theirs to see live. It's performed faster than the studio version, and the chorus is catchy and relateable to anyone listening.  The way O'Callaghan shouts Growing up won't bring us down! easily puts the biggest smile on my face and has me singing along.

The Maine

"My Hair," the anthem song to the long locks O'Callaghan sported during Warped Tour up until the finish of recording American Candy, was a huge crowd favorite. It's a song that will definitely be on everyone's summer playlist. The other songs from American Candy played that night included "Same Suit, Different Tie," "English Girls" and "American Candy." I've already been obsessing over the album since the second it came out, but to hear them performed live is indescribably better. One of my favorite parts about the new album are how the the backing vocals are recorded, and I was looking forward to seeing how that would be portrayed on stage. I definitely was not disappointed. I'm not sure if it is a detail that is overlooked or not, but the backing vocals provided mostly by Brock, but also by Nickelsen and Monaco, helped shape that unique sound that surrounds the album, both in the studio and on stage.

Towards the end of the show, O'Callaghan took the stage by himself and performed the band's first hit, "Into Your Arms," acoustically. What made that song special was how loud and strong all the voices from the crowd were. The chorus was mostly sung by the crowd, which put the biggest and cheesiest grin on O'Callaghan's face. I'm sure the rest of the band were listening and smiling as well. The acoustic energy shifted dramatically as Monaco, Brock, Kirch and Nickelsen joined the stage to do an impressive cover of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction." I knew they were going to do a cover, but I would have never guessed this. It was a fantastic choice for the tour, and everyone had a great time singing along.

The night ended with a performance of "Right Girl" and a stream of blue and white confetti. The Maine put every last ounce of energy into that last song, and they didn't even look or sound tired. This was another song that had the crowd singing every word at the top of their lungs.

Garrett and I   :)

I waited almost an hour after the show behind the venue to hopefully congratulate the guys on an amazing first show. Between the waiting and actually talking to the band, I got to meet my favorite music photographer, Adam Elmakias! After that, they finally came outside one by one and grabbed their own part of the crowd leaning against the barricade to talk to. As soon as Garrett came outside, I yelled his name and he walked right over to my section. After giving him a quick hug, he mentioned that he remembered me from the whole "24 hour thing" (the album release party and acoustic set at Tempe Marketplace which I blogged about in my last post as well as a review of their album). That easily made my night a thousand times better. He hung out for about half an hour and talked about a bunch of random stuff. He was later joined by The Technicolor members, Brennan Smiley and Joseph Schwegler. I also got to talk to Jared that night! We talked about the new songs being played live and about the new album. I don't think that night could have gotten any better. If you're going to one of their shows this tour, I strongly suggest waiting after and trying to meet them.

If you haven't checked out the new album... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? American Candy is available on iTunes, Spotify and the band's YouTube channel. It contains ten amazing songs that you will end up playing on repeat.


Until next time,
Nikole