Photo by: Jean Goh

With a queue stretching the entire length of the youth-based centre all the way to the entrance, it was overrun by adolescent rock chicks in band T-shirts and groovy hipsters, as well as headbangers with their headbands and cutoffs, before the doors were open to what was one of the most sought-after rock gigs this year. Signs were put up outside the auditorium proclaiming that anyone feeling unwell shouldn’t enter the mosh pit. DIY shirts declaring their love for either bands, could be spotted on many metalhead lasses.

Local band The Summer State starts off the show.

With local band The Summer State initiating the start of a wild mosh-worthy night, the 500-strong crowd was already hyped up by the time the 2 sisters Alexia and Anissa Rodriguez, nominated for the Revolver Magazine’s Hottest Chick(s) in Metal last year, stepped on stage.

American alternative metal band ESTK, made up of the 2 sisters, as well as Caleb Clifton and Cisko Miranda might have seen many changes in their members since their formation in 2003, but it didn’t make a dent on their artistry when they dove into their opening song/title-track ‘Broken Frames’ with a stage presence showcasing chemistry that suggests they’ve been playing all their lives together.

As they launched into another of their hit songs ‘Heights’, the crowd grew feverish as they crooned lyrics in sync with Alexia who was decked out in her signature DIY Where The Wild Things Are crop top.

Vocalist and lead guitarist, Alexia Rodriguez

“There’s something running through my blood, takes hold of me
It’s taking me to heights you’ll never see.” – Heights

Adding a personal touch to the gig was ‘All You Ever Knew’, which was written about Alexia’s past relationships as her emotions shone through the words she sang. ‘Ticking Bombs’, ‘Where I Want To Be’ and ‘Liar In The Glass’ were among the other songs in their setlist for the night.

The band ‘s debut in Singapore was also shrewd enough to keep the energy in the crowd going for the 80-min set, tiring out the audience with their well-trained screamo and stage presence by playing familiar hits after hits that brought the house’s spirit up.

Bassist Anissa Rodriguez

Ending off with ‘Darling’ with a slightly longer drum introduction and with Cisko belting his heart out, the crowd went delirious as they chorused the song they all knew too well. Left sweaty and sticky, the fans took a break during the interval after the quartet bid their goodbyes and thanked them for their enthusiasm.

Coming back from the near 1-hour interval, flashes were already going around as rock band Mayday Parade begun their set abruptly with all-time favourite ‘Jamie All Over’. The transition from heavy metal to alternative rock was surprisingly smooth as both bands seemingly shared a fan base.

Mayday Parade rocking out the crowd at *SCAPE Warehouse

Famous for their long and ironic song titles, the band seems to have progressed very far from the time ex-lyricist Jason Lancaster had left. Despite lacking a lyricist and one of the vocalists for 4 years, the band still pulled off a well put-together show that night.

Attention was lavished on Derek Sanders, lead vocalist in the rock band, as he twirled and spun his microphone around effortlessly throughout the entire set. Clad in a sleeveless T-shirt with the words “Much Too Young” and wristbands that complemented his almost full-sleeve tattoo, Derek’s lanky frame was the centre of attention as his ringing voice reverberated across the auditorium.

Lead vocalist Derek Sanders.

The crowd had mixed feelings as the band started on hit song ‘Kids In Love’ from their latest album Anywhere But Here which had disappointed many fans, nonetheless, they remained rowdy and clamored for the members. Older tunes such as ‘When I Get Home, You’re So Dead’, ‘I’d Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ from A Lesson In Romantics followed.

The first song ever written by the band, ‘Three Cheers For Five Years’, which was also the track that garnered the most fans for them, was the start of the most memorable minutes of the night as Derek belted out the bridge “You know the words, so sing along for me baby” while signaling the crowd to join in the mass karaoke.

The enthusiastic performance of the song later led to Derek declaring his love for Singapore, and a short break by going into an acoustic rendition of ‘Terrible Things’. From their most recent EP Valdosta, it was one of the crowd’s favourite of the night as the ambience became soothing and emotional.

Derek does a soothing acoustic rendition of 'Terrible Things'

Afterwards, the band got their gear and started on ‘Anywhere But Here’, and continued with the classics that everyone loved, such as ‘Black Cat’ and a slower ballad of ‘You Be The Anchor That Keeps My Feet On The Ground, I’ll Be The Wings That Keep Your Heart In The Clouds’.

‘Get Up’ signaled the end of the set for the night, which didn’t satisfy the house as they chanted for an encore as classics such as ‘Miserable At Best’ that had garnered more than 1.5 million views on Youtube hadn’t been played. And after what seemed like a long time, the band from Tallahassee, Florida, stepped up on stage once again for a zealous performance of ‘Jersey’.

Sign me up the next time they cross paths.

Check out Urbanwire’s exclusive interview with Eyes Set To Kill and Derek from Mayday Parade!

 Photo courtesy of Upsurge Productions 

FRANCESCA TAY catches up with lead vocalist Derek Sanders before he prepares for his band’s debut in Singapore alongside with Eyes Set To Kill in The Sweet Collision on Jul 6.

Lead vocalist Derek Sanders, clad in a full right sleeve tattoo.

Q: How do you find Singapore so far?

D: “We went up on the Flyer, and it was awesome. It was nice to see the view of everything from the top. At sunset, we went to the rooftop of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which was unbelievable. I don’t eat meat so there’s a lot of food that I can’t try, but I got some tofu and noodles yesterday, we had lunch at Chinatown and there were all kinds of cool stuff.”

Q: What do you think of the fanbase in Asia?

D: “It’s been unreal! I’m excited to play tonight and it’s a sold-out show here so it’s going to be so cool. We just did Japan for 2 weeks and that was wonderful. They really appreciate the music and they are very respectful, they are very energetic, fun and super kind. It’s cool to see that because we tour the States over and over again in the 5 and a half years that we’ve been a band. Not to say anything bad about them (obviously we love our fans in the States), but maybe they don’t appreciate it as much because they are able to see these bands all the time. But when you go somewhere else that you’ve never been to, or hardly get to go there, they really appreciate you coming over.”

Mayday Parade at the Singapore Flyer

Q: Are there any embarrassing or extreme moments with your fans? (Like groping, stalking etc.?)

D: “That kind of stuff has happened before but nothing too extreme, hopefully it’s nothing too crazy or bums us out. You have to appreciate all the diehard fans, so you can’t let it bother you.”

Q: With regards to Anywhere But Here, how different was it to work on an album without lyricist Jason (Lancaster)?

D: “Obviously, Jason was a big part of the band, he helped out with the songwriting and was the other vocalist, but I guess the biggest thing that was different wasn’t necessarily just that he wasn’t there, but that we signed to Atlantic before we did that CD, so it was our first time doing a CD with a major label and we didn’t really know what to expect or how it worked. We ended up doing a lot of co-writing for the album and going on to do a CD with David Bendeth, who is a big time producer, and he had a much heavier hand on everything and kind of wanted to change things to go his way. I think in the end we definitely loved that CD but the process wasn’t exactly what we wanted and it wasn’t what I think works best for this band, it was a big learning process. With the newest CD we recorded a few months back, which will come out this October, we went back to the original style of what Mayday Parade started out as, which was to make music that we loved and cared about. It’s nice to be back like that and it sucks that we have that transitional period to figure that out, but that’s definitely who we are.”

Q: Is that the reason why you once said in an interview that you didn’t care, or love, the songs in Anywhere But Here as much?

D: “Yeah, we didn’t even get to pick the songs that made it onto the album, and there were a lot of songs that didn’t make it into the album that we wrote that we love and wanted to be on the album, but Atlantic didn’t want us to or wouldn’t let us. Whenever you do that to a band… I think the most important thing for a band is to care about the music they are making, people can tell if you don’t. We learnt a lot from doing that record and now it’s back to the original roots and that’s the bottom-line. Hopefully, people will like it as well, but the most important thing is that we make a CD that we love, and we did with the last album.”

Q: Are there any impressionable songs in this album for the band members?

D: “It’s different depending on who you ask. For me, it’s probably an acoustic track called ‘I Swear, This Time I Mean It’, that’s probably the most personal or meaningful song for me in this album.”

Q: In A Lesson in Romantics, the band had song titles that were longer than the norm and a tad ironic such as ‘I’d Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ and “If You Wanted A Song Written About You, All You Had To Do Was Ask”, however in Anywhere but here, you guys had shorter titles that were more “common”, why is that so?

D: “I don’t know, but there are a couple in Anywhere But Here, ‘If You Can’t Live Without Me Why Aren’t You Dead Yet’, and we still have a couple of those. In the newest album there’s a handful that are longer like that. We always talk about it when it comes to titling songs, we just figure out what we want to call them and just go for it.”

Q: You guys are named the ‘Hardest Working Band’ in 2010 by Songkick, having written around 50 songs in a year, have you guys not rested since then?

D: “We get breaks every now and then, especially around December every year and it’s nice, but we like to stay on the road as much as we can and just stay an active part. When we started this band it was a goal to drop everything else in our lives and just dedicate a hundred percent to the band, and we knew that it wasn’t going to happen any other way, we have to go out there and make it happen. We’ve always tried to stay busy and I’m pretty sure it will continue to be the case for a while.”

Q: Are there any bands that you guys look up to personally?

D: “There’s dozens of bands that we look up to, but I think collectively as a band there’s a lot in this same genre that have influenced us to play the type of music that we play and that would be Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, Brand New, and The Starting Line. “

Q: For tonight’s show, have you guys worked with ESTK before?

D: “Only on Warped Tour, we both front the same stage in 2010, we got to hang with them a little bit but not as much as if we did a club tour together. It’d be cool to watch them play tonight and hang out.”

Q: Are there going to be any surprises for the crowd tonight?

D: “We’re doing a song that we don’t normally do, off our acoustic EP Valdosta, we’re playing a song called ‘Terrible Things’. Other than that we’re just going to have fun and play music. We’re not doing any new songs yet because we feel that it’s too early and the CD doesn’t come out until October. As soon as you play some new songs, kids film it, put it up on Youtube (not that it’s bad), but we just want to wait a little longer before we start playing the new stuff; But we’re itching and ready to do them because we’ve been practicing new songs and soundchecks just to do them live and I can’t wait. As far as our setlist goes, we’ve been picking the songs that we think everyone would want to hear and not leave out any, and it’s hard because people often ask for certain songs and I feel bad if we are not playing them, but we can’t play them all, so we’ll do our best.”

Photo courtesy of Jean Goh and Upsurge Productions.