“We haven’t been a headliner in over two years,” John O’Callaghan, singer for The Maine, told a sold-out crowd at DC’s 9:30 Club Sunday night. If there was a theme to their I Love You But I Chose The Maine tour, he continued, it would be “just gratitude, man.” For a band that has been going strong for nearly 20 years, including founding and curating the 8123 Fest roughly every other year, the Tempe, Arizona band doesn’t seem to be slowing down. In fact, their newly released 10th album, Joy Next Door, may be one of their best yet.

The last couple of DC area stops for the five-piece were festivals like Warped Tour and Sad Summer Fest, so a proper return to the Nation’s Capital was certainly in order, and the fans rewarded the return in spades. This time, though, The Maine brought friends starting with Richmond’s Broadside who started things off with a bang as in the relatively short set they managed to kick things into overdrive as the wave of crowd surfers started early and didn’t stop.

Grayscale from Philly took the stage next with an incredible energy that just magnified as their set went on. In addition to a spirited version of “Twist and Shout,” singer Collin Walsh seemed to relish the crowd’s enthusiasm, reaching across the pit between the stage and barricade to welcome that stream of crowd surfers. And if that wasn’t enough, the trio of Nightly hit the stage in a flood of purplish light to rock an impressive set all before 9 PM.

The Maine’s set started off relatively unassumingly with the band taking the tiered stage with O’Callaghan, dressed in a blazer, started the acoustic strum of “Green,” the new album’s opener. But whatever calm facade there was was quickly abandoned as the band went full-tilt within the matter of seconds.

As O’Callaghan strummed, the rest of the band – bassist Garrett Nickelsen, drummer, Patrick Kirch, and guitarists Jared Monaco and Kennedy Brock – couldn’t seem to contain themselves as the stage seemed to move with energy of the performance.

The road to where The Maine find themselves now has been a long one, but along the way they have amassed a huge following. This show in particular sold out quickly, and for good reason. The Maine’s live shows are a spectacle. As the band hit “Die to Fall” from the new record, you could feel the electricity as O’Callaghan sang “I feel alive” as he stretched across the gap from the stage to the barricade as he welcomed that stream of continuous crowd surfers.

This type of energy is often chaotic, but this was a masterfully controlled energy. Those harmonies shone clear as day on “Like We Did (Windows Down)” as the whole place seemed to be bouncing.

Taking things down just a smidge, O’Callaghan encouraged everyone to pull out their lighters (or cell phone lights) as the band went into “Taxi.” The scene was incredible as the 9:30 Club became a sea of twinkling, bobbing dots.

“There’s a feral energy in this room,” O’Callaghan mused. “In the bet way possible,” he added in a rare breather before The Maine continued with some of their biggest songs like “Right Girl,” one of their older tunes that had everyone in the place singing along.

“I wanna be a part of this,” O’Callahan told the moshers in the middle of the floor before he took his voice (and the rest of him) out to the crowd as he and those lucky fans in the audience sang the rest of “We All Roll Along.” “It’s kind of like a fraternity, we all have to do it,” he said handing the microphone to someone in the audience.

Making his way back to the stage, O’Callaghan and the rest of The Maine drove that Mack truck of a show right through bangers like “My Heroine” and “Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu” before wrapping up with the apt closer “Another Night on Mars” with the lines “This one goes out to my closest friends / The ones who makes me feel less alien / I do not think I would be here if not for them…”

Sunday night brought with it one of the best shows I’ve seen this year (and I’ve been lucky to see quite a few at this point). The Maine put on the kind of show that any concert goer hopes for when they head out to their local club.

The Maine continue their I Love You But I Chose The Maine Tour and it’s one not to miss.

The setlist included:

Green
I Think About You All the Time
Die To Fall
Sticky
Like We Did (Windows Down)
Taxi
Touch
Dose No.2
Ice Cave (Tour Debut)
Right Girl
Loved You a Little
Palms
We All Roll Along
Bad Behavior
Slip the Noose
My Heroine
Quiet Part Loud
Blame
How to Exit a Room
Dirty, Pretty, Beautiful
Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu
Another Night on Mars

Check out more photos of The Maine rocking a sold-out 9:30 Club on April 19, 2026. All photos are copyright David LaMason:

Check out photos of NIGHTLY at the 9:30 Club:

Check out photos of Grayscale at the 9:30 Club:

Check out photos of Broadside opening the evening at the 9:30 Club: