I Love You But I Chose The Maine Tour w/ The Maine, Grayscale, Nightly, and Broadside at Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY

The Maine

The Maine is one of those bands that feels like the purest source of nostalgia. Thanks to their bright sounding chord progressions and ever-grounded lyrics, you don’t have to know a word of their music to hear how they complement the scenes of long car rides and nights with your friends. The group would be the first to tell you this, as they had a tour called “The Modern Nostalgia Tour,” where they played through two of their most rose-tinted albums to date, American Candy and Lovely Little Lonely. When I think of The Maine, I think of Warped Tour 2018, escapism in my senior year of high school, and some of the many friends I’ve made with a shared music taste, and I’m far from the only one with these types of connections. As I made my way through the Brooklyn Paramount on a cool yet sunny day in April, I caught glimpses of friendships and memories being made in real time with a great, pop-rock soundtrack.

The Phoenix-based quintet has remained steadfast in the pursuit of friendship, both in the band and in their songwriting, ever since the release of their first album Can’t Stop Won’t Stop almost 20 years ago. Earlier this month, the band released their latest record Joy Next Door, a record that takes on more acoustic and sometimes psychedelic elements into their sound than records past. To celebrate the release, the group embarked on their largest headlining tour yet, kicking off their tour at the 2500-cap Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas and playing a special album release show at Chicago’s 3000-cap Salt Shed. The Brooklyn Paramount is another installment in the large rooms on the tour, with the venue’s illustrious decor and royal blue color scheme welcoming 3000 fans in the sold out room.

Donning a backlit stage revealing their coordinated green outfits, a staple of their live show, The Maine went into an atmospheric intro to crowd favorite “Another Night On Mars,” with fans hugging each other and chanting at the top of their lungs during the anthemic chorus. Right afterwards, they went into a personal favorite from their self-titled record, “i think about you all the time” and quickly journeyed into their first single off the new record, “Die To Fall.” From the second the music began to pick up, the crowdsurfing began, with security hopping onto the barricade every few seconds to make sure nobody got hurt.

The “I Love You But I Chose The Maine” tour was packed with a special, rotating setlist, aiming to satisfy fans no matter when they got into the group. Considering the majority of the audience have such a deep connection with the group, every song from the hits to the deep cuts were met with similar levels of enthusiasm. The group played at least one song from almost all of their albums (with dyed, their 2025 record, being the rare exception), including “Kennedy Curse” from Forever Halloween, “Slip The Noose” from You Are OK, and longtime favorite “Like We Did (Windows Down)” from Pioneer. “Into Your Arms,” a Can’t Stop Won’t Stop acoustic cut, was the tour debut of the night, but with the way the audience sang the words, you would’ve thought it was a setlist staple. The group also went into standalone singles, such as “Loved You A Little” and 2024’s “Touch,” both of which received just as much excitement as the hits.

Any show from The Maine involves a healthy amount of connection that goes beyond what is typically seen in a live setting of this scale. There were multiple instances of attempted song requests, such as XOXO’s single “April 7th” and American Candy’s “English Girls,” which O’Callaghan attempted to sing in a country accent. During “We All Roll Along,” the namesake track for the 8123 community with the lyric “8123 means everything to me,” singer John O’Callaghan made his way into the audience and gave the mic over to a fan named Calvin who sang the ending of the song. Later in the night, the group invited all of the bands onto the stage and played “Take Me Dancing,” an especially rare B-side to their record Pioneer. It was a beautiful display of the camaraderie that came embedded in the lineup’s DNA, and witnessing it outside of the confines of a screen was even more special.

The Maine is proof that a great relationship with your fans and the friends surrounding you can carry an artistic project further than ever believed, and it’s been such a joy to watch the 8123 community grow with each year. You can listen to The Maine’s Joy Next Door here.

THE MAINE

In the rotating spot for direct support was Philadelphia rock group Grayscale, a familiar tourmate of The Maine’s. Their latest record, The Hart, leans away from nostalgia and focuses on ideas of growth, and their show demonstrated how their sound and live presence have changed over the years. Right from the beginning, lead singer Colin Walsh began to shred on the guitar while basking in the blue light on the anthemic “Through The Landslide.” The group mainly focused on tracks from The Hart during their set, with high intensity tracks like “Some Kind Of Magic” and “Not Afraid To Die” fitting in well with the rock-n-roll energy of the bill. The group also brought out a few favorites from previous albums such as “Dirty Bombs” from Umbra, “Painkiller Weather” from Nella Vita, and their early hit “Fever Dream” from Adornment. The group’s hard work over the past few years has clearly been paying off, with a large number of audience members jumping, singing, and getting involved with the music.

Grayscale has been firing on all cylinders, and their success over this past year has been fantastic to watch. You can listen to their excellent record The Hart, as well as remixes on The Hart Deluxe here.

GRAYSCALE

Second on the bill was pop-rock group Nightly, a trio who have been steadily finding success since their breakout track “Twenty Something.” The group has made waves with their latest few records, nonstop tours, and appearances at festivals like Lollapalooza. Their 80s-nostalgia sound was a perfect fit for the dreamier aspects of the tour as they took the stage surrounded by fog and a bright neon logo behind the group and went into “tv shows.” Lead singer Jonathan Capeci felt as calm and collected as ever, emphasizing their ethos as an independent band and gratitude for the bands and the fans for keeping their dreams alive. The group played tracks across most of their discography, including “MESS” and “where do we go from here” from Songs To Drive To, “are you downtown tonight?” and “1989” from THE VOID, the latter of which was a song written about a certain megastar with an album named 1989, and “movies” from their eponymous breakout record night, love you. The whimsical sounds of bright guitars and synth drums were a beautiful compliment to the pop-punk attuned action before and after Nightly, and the pink light felt reminiscent of a time long forgotten in the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.

Nightly is a perfect band to get lost in, and their way of moving throughout the music landscape as an independent group is incredibly admirable and worthy of support. You can check out their fantastic discography here.

NIGHTLY

Kicking off the night were longtime alternative music scene champs Broadside. The Virginia-based pop-punk group has been active since 2010, and their tour dates on the “I Love You But I Chose The Maine” tour coincided with the release of their latest record, Nowhere At Last. The group played a bunch of tracks from the record including opener “Cherry Red Ego Death” and “Warning Signs” as well as longtime favorites “Foolish Believer” and their breakout hit “Coffee Talk.” The Brooklyn Paramount show served as the final stop on their leg of the tour, with the group expressing their gratitude and how it took years for them to come together on a tour like this. For those like me who were around during the 2010s era of Warped Tour, it was incredibly satisfying to see these kinds of bands finally get the chance to travel together in rooms they’ve deserved to play in since the day they started.

Broadside proves that pop-punk can evolve with the times without sacrificing the edge and excitement that made it worthy of the map in the first place. You can check out their latest record Nowhere At Last here

BROADSIDE