Celebrating Twenty Years, Mayday Parade Brings Their “Three Cheers For Twenty Years” Tour to Cincinnati

By sabrina bollinger | May 21, 2025

When we find ourselves in the uncontrollable dark of the world. We often find our solace in music. The rhythms and verses offer the soul a catharsis to soothe what ails you.

Mayday Parade is no exception to that rule for me. Discovering some of their most popular hits, “Miserable at Best” and “Terrible Things” during one of my darkest eras, I found solace in the words and the story. Over the years, so have many others.

Mayday Parade is a rock band hailing from Tallahassee, Florida. They combined two local groups into one and have been writing and creating ever since. The band dropped their latest EP, Sweet, in April this year and have been fueling the energy for this tour off of that. Along with Mayday Parade, Microwave, Grayscale, and Like Roses joined the bill for a show full of surprises, heavy action, and unique stage props. Together, the artists culminated a night of new beginnings for the opening acts and celebrated the many years Mayday Parade has been together.

Starting the night strong, Like Roses kicked off the evening with not a bang, but a lot of jumping. Their unique rock sound had their guitarist jumping and running around. It’s hard to say I’ve ever seen a guitarist have more fun than this man did. Their set was short but succinct. It left me and the girl in the front row wanting more, and I’m excited to see where they go after this tour.

Next up on the bill for the evening was Grayscale. Ironically, most of my photos of the band looked best in the greyscale colors and I’m beginning to wonder if that’s where they got their name from. They had a heavy indie rock vibe that perfectly complemented what we had heard earlier from Like Roses and got the crowd amped up for the next band, Microwave.

Microwave had giant light up mushrooms as stage props and that was all I needed to know before falling in love with their sound. I loved the movement and the color from every member and their performance was a fun one to watch both up close and from afar. I predict they’ll be headlining their own tour very soon. But for now, I think they were the perfect piece to slide into place before the crowd wnet wild for Mayday Parade.

As both a fan and a journalist, I find it imperative that I write honest and open reviews. So I mean this when I say, they were amazing. Between the backstory video that played to introduce the band on stage, to the beautiful lighting (shoutout lighting director), the band had a put-together look that was fun and entertaining, even for the songs I didn’t know. Going beyond the performance, I always love it when a band truly appreciates their fans, and I can say for certain that they appreciate anyone who’s ever listened to a song they made. There’s enough proof in the massive pile of bracelets and wristbands on lead singer Derek Sanders’s arm.

The band is more than they look, though; their music means a lot to people, and Cinciantti showed up for them. It was absolutely beautiful getting to see and be a part of a giant congregation of people singing Terrible Things to the support of Derek’s piano.

I truly believe that music is the invisible string that ties people together. Whether that be times of crisis or times of joy, a good song will always be there to carry you through it. And for twenty years, that’s all Mayday Parade has been trying to do. Connect with people from all walks of life and give people a place to find themselves. I left this show feeling like I wasn’t alone in anything, and that is truly the power of live music. Mayday Parade has several more shows on this stop of your so catch them in your city if you can, because there’s truly nothing like finding solace at a Mayday Parade concert.