The Maine with The Wrecks and The Technicolors at The Rio
A few hundred young fans piled into the Rio Theater Sunday night for an all-ages show featuring Arizona pop-rockers, The Maine with supporting acts, The Wrecks and The Technicolors. The most eager fans filled up the empty floor space in the front while the rest took to the seats. The lights went down at 7:30 and the theater was filled with the music of a Spanish trumpet as The Technicolors, out of Phoenix, walked onto the stage. They started the night off with the guitar-studded “Neon Roses” from their 2017 release, Metaphysical before jumping into the lead single, “Lilies for Lily.”
The band had an old-fashioned rock sound and a mature style that might not have resonated with the young crowd as much as the poppy rock bands to follow. One thing of notice was the drummer’s wonderful use of traditional grip during the set. It’s rare to see a rock drummer perform in that style and he pulled it off seamlessly, showing off his experience behind the kit.
“This is our second time…playing this movie theater, so that’s nice,” singer and guitarist Brennan Smiley said as he broke the ice with the crowd. After an audience member’s shout of “Save the Rio!” (a hashtag that has been trending among Rio supporters since talk of it being sold to developers and torn down) he didn’t have much condolence to offer save for his socks. “I’m wearing two pairs of socks right now, so you can have one of mine if you want but I can’t guarantee that they’ll smell very good,” he replied before introducing their brand new single “Sha La La”.
“We have some merchandise available, we are an entirely independent band so anything you purchase from us goes directly to uh…I don’t know, either like our gas fund or microwave bean burritos from the gas station,” Smiley said as they headed into their last song of the set, “Tonight You Are Mine”. Their most viewed song on YouTube, it showed off a darker alternative pop sound than their other tracks and delivered an instantly infectious chorus.
The young five-piece band out of L.A. known as The Wrecks hit the stage at 8:23. Singer Nick Anderson rolled up the sleeves on his black shirt and gave a nice and loud “YEEEAAAHHH” into the mic as they broke into their first track of the set, “Wasted Youth”. The band filled up their nine-song set with nearly every song they’ve released to date, each one another banger after the other. The young musicians performed like they’d jammed these songs every day, and they probably have. The drums were pounding in every song and the drummer looked like he could easily do it with his eyes closed.
They rocked out a flawless cover of the 2003 hit “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet that a young newcomer to the band probably would have mistaken as one of their own. Before their final song of the night, they invited fans to come say hi after the show. “We’d love to meet you guys after the show…we’d love to come back and maybe headline Vancouver.” They finished the set with their biggest hit, “Favourite Liar”, that shook the walls of the old theater and finished with one final explosion of guitar and drums before heading off stage.
At 9:30, the band all the young teenage fans were there to see, The Maine, walked confidently on to the stage all dressed up in sharp attire. They opened with the crowd-pleasing “Diet Soda Society” off their 2015 release and transitioned right into the feel-good sing-a-long “Growing Up” from their 2010 release. Their third song of the night, “American Candy” shook me to the core to see played live, as it was one of my favourite songs of 2015. Singer John O’Callaghan didn’t attempt to reach the notes hit in the studio version but the deeply effective song on drug addiction still made it’s mark in the live setting.
After yet another track off their 2015 album, “Am I Pretty?”, O’Callaghan removed his suit jacket to reveal a white collared shirt with suspenders that I’m sure had all the girls swooning. The vocalist was full of energy and did not hesitate to encourage the crowd to loosen up. “This is not church, let’s fucking goof around tonight!” O’Callaghan has been known to say that he doesn’t like fans of his band and I could almost feel an annoyed tone coming through in his words as he bantered with the crowd early on. He’s got the type of confidence where he doesn’t give a shit what people think, and he seems to find it hard to relate with young fans who have a harder time breaking out of their shell.
He seemed to warm up a bit as the set wore on however, having some one-on-ones with members of the crowd and wishing a female fan a happy 25th birthday. “Fucking hell ya, it’s her birthday! Who else here has had a birthday before?!” as the band started moving into an old fan-favourite, “Everything I Ask For”. The transition from his banter into the hit was one of the stand out moments of the night as he opened his water bottle and threw the water over the crowd.
O’Callaghan had some great banter during the set. Having just come out of the States, he had this to say:
If there’s one glaring difference between people from the United States and from Canada is that uh..you guys are all so fucking polite here, so thank you for being so nice.
It was nice to see the band select songs for the 18-song set from throughout their 11-year catalog of albums. They played at least one song from each of their six full-lengths. They even played a tidbit of the Third Eye Blind hit “Jumper” in the middle of their single “Right Girl”. Led by the antics of O’Callaghan, The Maine proved that they know how to entertain a crowd. Nearing the end of the set, O’Callaghan had one final thing to say:
Can I be sincere for a second? We just wanna say uh.. if it’s your first time or your hundred and first time, thank you sincerely for letting our band play music for eleven years now. Thank you very much. Music is fun, music is cool, and so are you.
