Last month we had the honor, privilege, and time of our life (pun intended) at the pop punk/emo/alternative rock festival that has taken the world by storm over the last three years – When We Were Young. The fest’s über-current presence in today’s music scene mixed with the appreciation-based nostalgia for the soundtrack of many of our youths is something we thoroughly enjoyed reporting on and something we are very, very, very thankful for.
On Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20, The Maine took the stage at When We Were Young Festival and played their first album, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, in full. It was such a powerful experience because since that seminal debut, the band has dropped eight more records. They’ve toured the world, played arenas, and captured the hearts of millions. They’ve cemented their legacy in the emo world.
Taking it back to 2007 and their classic debut record felt like a true homecoming for the band, especially playing these songs in front of thousands of people. While fans can occasionally hear tracks like “In Your Arms” on a set at a concert of theirs even today, experiencing tracks like “Kiss and Sell” and “Count ’em One, Two, Three” are extremely rare in 2024. It was performed with confidence and an unmatched energy on this festival weekend, making it one of the sets that fans of The Maine – including us – will never forget.
We were able to catch up with The Maine’s bassist, Garrett Nickelsen, drummer, Patrick Kirch, and guitarist, Kennedy Brock, at the festival and discuss everything from their new single, 8123 Fest, and some of our favorite songs and moments with the band. (It’s also important to note that no matter how outstanding they are as rock musicians, they are even better people.)
We’re all here at When We Were Young Festival and you’re playing Can’t Stop Won’t Stop in full. What do you think about all of this?
Pat Kirch: This is a cool idea! I think having a whole festival of people playing albums is really unique. We’re just happy we got asked.
Kennedy Brock: Yeah, we’re just excited to be a part of it.
Garrett Nickelsen: I’m excited to watch Underoath!
You guys played the inaugural When We Were Young in 2022. What is it like to be back two years later.
KB: I think it’s going to be interesting playing more of a record set than just doing a normal set for us. I’m really, really pumped. There are tons of people walking around. We were walking around before and I thought doors had opened because there were a lot of people here already.
This isn’t the only time you’re playing a record in full. 8123 Festival this January will have you playing American Candy and self-titled. Tell me a bit about doing these record-plays.
PK: I think 8123 Fest is our goal of doing a Comic Con, basically. Just everything The Maine, all in one weekend, having everybody come in. This year we expanded it to be a two-day festival. It just happens that it’s the 10 year anniversary of American Candy and the end of the album cycle for the self-titled record, so the first night we’ll do that and the second night we’ll just do a normal festival set. We’re pretty pumped. For us, it’s the best weekend of the year. It’s the first 200 people in the front row at all of our shows, from all throughout the country, all in one place.
GN: And the weather in January in Phoenix is pretty nice! There are not very many festivals you can do in the winter. The fact that we get to do that is pretty cool.
I love that you’re playing the new record, as well. Fans have loved it! I saw you guys at the Winter Jawn in Philadelphia, and when you played “I Think About You All The Time,” the whole room erupted.
GN: Yeah, it was crazy!
KB: The response to the new record has been really great. It’s been really fun to play. I’m excited to celebrate that in January.
When you’re doing the more throwback albums, like Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, what do you have to do? What is it like revisiting the deep cuts you don’t play live? Is that a tedious process? Is it fun?
KB: It is–
GB: –interesting!
KB: It’s both.
GN: Sometimes you forget. You don’t listen to your records, really. You’re like, “Oh, shit! That’s on the record?” Like “Kiss and Sell” on Can’t Stop we haven’t played in a really long time. “Oh, this song is actually awesome to play! Maybe we can throw it in an actual set at some point.” You learn things you maybe haven’t thought about in a while that would be interesting to put in a normal set.
Going off that point, have there been any deep cuts that you’re rehearsing where you’re like, “We have to add this! We’ve got to bring this back!”
PK It totally will! It hasn’t happened yet where we’ve added it in the set, but I have a feeling after 8123 fest we will. Performing all the albums kind of gives you the fact that now we can just toss things in at any time. Now we have an extra 15 songs that – at any point in time – we can be like, “Let’s add that back into the repertoire.”
KB: You could get surprised, too. Songs like, “You Left Me” – that is one of the songs we would never really think about playing. We played it in the Philippines a couple of weekends ago and it was like. “Oh, people like this one!” There’s always that weird gap between stuff. Maybe this one song picked up steam a little bit and you didn’t even know.
It’s so funny, with a band that has had as lengthy of career as you, you have so many albums. Sometimes a fan in the front row will be like, “Play ‘We All Roll Along,'” and if you don’t know it…
KB: Exactly! It’s been so long since we last played it, so I’m not trying to relearn it on stage in front of you.
GN: Which we have done before!
KB: We have tried [Laughs]. We’ll attempt, but it’s definitely exciting to see some of these ones get new light.
I know when I interviewed Pat a year ago, we chatted a bit about Sad Summer Festival. It has been five years of that fest! It’s the default emo touring festival right now.
PK: It’s been cool! It begins with an idea, and you don’t know what it’s going to become. It’s cool to see the years [when] we’re not on it. It’s cool to see it become its own thing outside of us. The fact that people go there and buy a Sad Summer shirt shows the entity itself has an audience. It’s cool that something that came out of nowhere actually has a group of people who are fans of the concept to it.
Looking at bands like Hot Mulligan, when they played Sad Summer the first time they had a smaller crowd, then they grew into one of the bigger headliner bands.
KB: For all of us, doing a lot of these summer touring festivals is where we’ve been able to pull a person here or there and add them. It’s important.
I know the Sad Summer color pallet is pink. With the new single “Touch” also being pink, is that a coincidence?
KB: Pat thought about it! You know he did!
PK: It was just the perfect timing to make it all feel cohesive.
How has “Touch” been going live?
PK: One of our favorite songs to play live instantly.
KB: Good vibes right off the bat.
PK: It feels like a song that will be in the setlist for a long time. It’s one of those songs that’s great for our audience. It’s great to play to a random crowd of people that don’t know who we are.
KB: Yeah, that’s the part that stuck for me.
PK: It’s probably one of the most instantaneous, “This feels great and people are into it,” out of any song. There’s only a couple of other times I remember it being that instant. When we started playing “Numb Without You” for the first time, that was the same way. This is another one. I think we just feel lucky anytime that happens. There are a lot of songs, even our most popular songs, like “Loved You A Little,” that took a year to feel like people even liked it… and now we close shows with it. It’s cool that this one happened so fast.
Of course we do need to talk about it – the last time we spoke, your “Thnks fr th mmrs” cover had dropped. Now you guys have toured with Fall Out Boy for a whole summer, and you’re playing with them today. Tell me about that relationship.
KB: That was really, really cool for us. I mean, I definitely listened to them a bunch growing up. That was really awesome. They were so cool to us, so accommodating on that tour. It shows you can be really successful and really awesome people, too.
GN: Yeah, the tour was nuts. I think we found out super late that we were getting it. We’re like, “What the fuck? This is crazy awesome!” The actual tour… we weren’t sure how they were going to be. Arenas are a scary venue to do. You don’t know how people are going to react or if anyone is going to be there. I remember the first night being like, “This is full!” It was pretty incredible. We did 10 shows and every single one blew us all away. The guys were super nice. It was all around a joy.
When you were playing those shows, preforming to the arena and amphitheater crowds, what was that like? For a lot of bands, it’s an intimidating beast to tackle.
PK: It honestly didn’t feel like it was an arena. It felt big but people were there to have fun right away.
KB: It didn’t feel like we’re fighting the room. I do recall we would do a song where we would have people hold their phones up. That was the moment where I would realize how big the room actually was. You would see these lights super far in the distance. “Oh my God, there’s people there, too? This is so cool!”
GN: I remember having a feeling beforehand, “Do our songs work in a venue like this? At festivals and stuff it seems like it, but we have never really done this. I wonder how it’s going to feel up there.” Then I remember being like, “Oh, this totally works! How do we do this all the time?”
PK: I don’t know why it works so well; I think their audience was just so excited to be at a concert. I’m sure if we opened for a different band in that same venue, it might be a different scenario. Their fans were just so great to us.
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