LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: The Maine in Boston, MA (04.18.26)
A House of Blues show on a night where the Red Sox are playing across the street is always a tough sell, but for Arizona’s The Maine, with a packed bill in tow, it’s something Boston fans flocked to. The band played to a sold-out Boston room that had easily been amp’ed up by their support bands, with Nightly, Broadside, and Grayscale, and it was easily one of the finest performances I’ve seen from the band.
Fresh off their latest album, Joy Next Door, the veteran band played an incredibly balanced set. Playing to all of each other’s strengths, including solo vocal performances from Kennedy Brock, and not just leaving all vocal responsibility to frontman John O’Callaghan, it was a night for the books. While legendary moments may have been left out, like “Girls Do What They Want,” which has been a mainstay in the bands’ sets since practically day one, it was not something fans left the show being sad about. Moments from their newest, like “Palms,” electrified the crowd just as much as classics like “My Heroine” and “Black Butterflies and Deja Vu.”
While most nights on the tour, the band has introduced a special local based guest for the night, that was a hole that was placated by bringing out the rest of the tour package for the fan favorite, “Take Me Dancing,” which included tender moments like Pat Kirch being relieved of drum duties and the frontmen of Grayscale and Broadside, Collin Walsh and Ollie Baxter respectively, taking the mic together for the number.
The Maine has become famous and revered for also centering fans in their sets. O’Callaghan was constantly interacting with and checking on the crowd, which included at least two appearances in the pit. There’s a reason why The Maine is still an original unit after twenty years. It’s something that both Broadside and Grayscale chatted to me about that evening. There is something incredibly special about a Maine performance. They never isolate an era of their career, they play to the fan favorites (as Kirch jokes about with the “set-list divas” on social media), and they pulled out fan moments like “Taxi,” “We All Roll Along,” and much more throughout the set.
The band will find themselves back in our area come November, when they’ll be pulling seemingly a second leg to this tour, in Worcester at The Palladium. Something they’ve definitely done before, curating a night with The Maine. This will include an acoustic set as well as a full-band set. The band will also be taking on Europe with familiar faces in Grayscale from this run, come September.
Photos – The Maine at House of Blues in Boston, MA on April 18th: (all photos by John Hutchings)
