Review: Sad Summer Festival brings an intergenerational collection of emo fans to downtown Clearwater

The streets outside of Clearwater’s Coachman Park last Saturday were a strange intermingling of smartly-dressed Scientologists and fishnet-clad rockers, but inside The BayCare Sound it was the latter who felt right at home.

Sad Summer Festival—a touring single-stage festival dedicated to emo music’s veteran acts and up-and-comers alike—brought fest founders The Maine and Mayday Parade, plus seven other back-to-back performances, for an eight-hour show that was blessed with somewhat cloudy skies and a brief drizzle.

From the beginning of the show—featuring three female-fronted bands, Diva Bleach, Daisy Grenade and Hot Milk—guests took advantage of open seating, coming up to the stage for their favorite bands and sitting back down when they were ready for a break from moshing and crowd surfing.

The crowd’s energy picked up even more as Knuckle Puck took the stage, followed by Illinois brethren and self-proclaimed “midwest trash” Real Friends. Though most agree that the emo genre started in New Jersey, the midwest has definitely picked up the torch.

The Sunshine State shone out, too when Florida native bands We The Kings and Mayday Parade—hailing from Bradenton and Tallahassee, respectively—took the stage for what was as close as they would get to a hometown show on this tour.

There were plenty of “elder emos” in attendance, as announced by many a T-shirt, but Real Friends took the opportunity to introduce newer fans to crowd surfing. Several of the acts also paid homage to other staples of the genre with covers of “King for a Day,” “Sweetness” and “Mr. Brightside.”

The Maine frontman John O’Callaghan—who noticed a sign announcing a fan’s19th time seeing the band live—brought the person onstage to sing “Girls Do What They Want.”

When emo found its mainstream explosion fans would defend their love of the genre, proclaiming that it’s not a phase and so on, but it turns out they were right. Turns out it is more than an aesthetic or fad, and fans of all ages were in attendance. Young parents now share their love of tattoos and black hair dye with their own kids, and older parents finally accept that, yeah, the tattoos are here to stay. Even security was doing a bit of head-bobbing.