On October 16th, the Alternative Press Tour (The AP Tour) stopped in Sayreville, NJ at Starland Ballroom. This tour featured four bands As It Is, This Wild Life, Real Friends, and Mayday Parade.
Doors opened for this concert at 5:30 PM and tickets were available to buy online and at the door, tickets online cost $25 and at the door cost $30. Bands started playing at 6:30 PM and ended around 10:30 PM.
As It Is performs their song “Cheap Shots and Setbacks.”
As It Is started off the night with songs off of their new album Never Happy, Ever After which they have been touring for all year long. They also played some old songs like “Can’t Save Myself” and “Horoscopes.” From the second they started playing the crowd was excited and started crowd surfing and creating mosh pits. At times the lead singer, Patty Walters, would get in the crowd and interact with the fans near the front.
This Wild Life played next performing their acoustic songs which were different than the other bands usual upbeat songs. Despite the slow songs the crowd was still excited and singing along.
When Real Friends came on the crowd began to jump around again. Being near the front of the crowd is something to prepare for. The crowd became so packed that there was nowhere to move, but when the band started playing it was worth it. Real Friends played a lot of upbeat songs but at some points they played slower songs. They made sure fans had a good time by encouraging circle pits and crowd surfing.
This Wild Life’s singer Kevin Jordan and guitar player Anthony Del Grosso performs some of their songs.
The final band to take the stage was Mayday Parade who have been a band for ten years now and started in Tallahassee, Florida. Mayday Parade recently released their new album Black Lines, which features 12 songs, and are currently promoting. The band was also featured on a recent AP Magazine cover. Black Lines can be found on iTunes, in Target, FYE, and more to purchase. On youtube you can listen to the album stream and watch their music video for their song, “One Of Them Will Destroy The Other” featuring Real Friends’ lead singer Dan Lambton which they opened their set at the concert with. Besides playing songs off of their new album they played old songs like “Terrible Things” and “Jersey.” Mayday Parade made sure to include their fans all throughout the set and especially at the end of the song “Miserable at Best” when they stopped singing and playing their instruments to allow the crowd to sing the lyrics.
At the end of the concert some band members stopped by their merchandise tables to say hello to fans and take pictures.
