Abigail McNatt Photography: SPF 80's Tour

Mr. Smalls Funhouse, a small and intimate, yet unique venue located in Millvale, PA, which is only 4 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. Also happens to be one of my favorite venues, as of this year. The staff and everyone affiliated with it are so kind and helpful. It's also a pretty iconic venue, having hosted artists like, The Black Eyed Peas, Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy, and having recently hosted Canadian Rock band, Marianas Trench. On July 30th, 2016, Marianas Trench brought their crazy antics and powerful lyrics back to Pittsburgh for the second time this year. Having seen them at Mr. Smalls back in February, I was not missing an opportunity to see them again. Many Pittsburghers, as well as myself, were itching to catch another MT show, as I saw plenty of fans that I'd seen at the last tour. For this second show, the band brought along two fantastic opening acts, that the crowd appeared to absolutely adore. I'm going to give a little background and talk about their sets, before I dive into the Marianas Trench (pun sort of intended).

First up, we were introduced to Vertigo, a Pop/Rock/Funk local band from Greensburg, PA. They seemed to enjoy every second on the stage, and be humbled by all the love and support the audience was giving them throughout their set. I admit, I was fairly impressed. Not too many local bands that I've heard, have I been impressed by. Their merchandise outside the theatre part of the venue was also quite comical and, had I had more money on me, I probably would have grabbed up some of it. What was nice about them, was that they were fairly similar, as far as genre goes, to Marianas Trench. I actually read that Vertigo played during MT's after party for their last tour and that that's where they met them.
They worked the stage and interacted with fans and were just fairly impressive. Overall, I enjoyed their set and loved their humility.
If you're a fan of Maroon 5, The Cab, or The 1975, I think you'll enjoy them! You can check Vertigo out on Spotify, iTunes, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Next on the stage was the multi-talented and beautiful, Skylar Stecker of Middleton, WI. Okay, first of all, there's no way she's 14 years old. That's crazy. I watched her make her way across the stage to her keyboard located stage right, totally unprepared for what I was about to hear. I got my camera ready to shoot and then she began to sing. I was totally blown away. She practically sounded like Beyonce, she was that good. She sang a few originals, but also sang the ever so popular Cake By The Ocean by DNCE, which the whole audience sang along to. Her set was very simple, with just her on piano, occasionally just a microphone, and her guitarist at stage left. She ended her set with her recently released single, Let It Show. I was so not expecting what I saw during that set. She has an absolutely incredible voice, and I highly recommend everyone go check her out. Overall, I was, obviously, incredibly impressed by Stecker's set and would definitely see her again.
You can check Skylar Stecker out on Spotify, iTunes, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more!
(She also posted one of my photos from that night, on Instagram, so go check that out too!)

Finally, it was time for Marianas Trench. For them having not been to Pittsburgh before this year, it's impressive that they got here twice in a year. Both shows I'd attended had just about the same set list, only, as lead singer Josh Ramsay made clear, had changed it up and added a few different songs.

They had a long intro to get the crowd pumped up. Beginning with The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson blaring through the speakers, the crowd was certainly pumped up. The band began with the fairly long, but recognizable and unique song, Astoria, from their 2015 release of Astoria. The song is about seven minutes long, but every fan in the crowd seemed to enjoy every second. The crowd was rowdy and excited and it was so awesome.

Continuing with favorites from Astoria, MT went with Yesterday, a very danceable, party song, one of my favorites off of the newest album. The crowd was screaming along as Ramsay made his way along the stage interacting with the lucky fans in the front row.
Next up on the set list was Celebrity Status, from their 2010 release of Masterpiece Theatre. The crowd danced along to this one as well, as it's also a very danceable tune with a deeper meaning about the celebrity life. Marianas Trench are not your typical band. If you have ever seen them at award shows, they follow their own rules and do just about whatever they want to do. From crazy outfits (or lack thereof) to saying whatever the heck they want to, they are a very different kind of band.
Ramsay continues the set by reminding the audience that he kept his promise that they'd be back in Pittsburgh. Here is where he mentioned that they changed up the set a bit, by adding a few of the more underrated songs on their albums, such as the next one they played... Burning Up. Also another of my favorites off of Astoria. By this point, fans all across the room were head banging, singing their lungs out, and dancing/jumping their feet off. I found myself singing my lungs out too, being a fan of theirs for about three years now.

Bringing it back to Masterpiece Theatre, the next song, All To Myself, was a fan favorite. The guys looked like they were enjoying every second on that stage, Josh especially. With his extremely tight leather pants, bare torso, and dark eye makeup, the Vancouver native seemed to make that stage his home away from home.

An ongoing joke during the band's two trips to Pittsburgh is that there's a fan in the audience that Ramsay thinks looks like Dean Back from the Canadian band, Theory of a Deadman. Just like he did back in February, he pointed the fan out, stoked that he came back. He then jokingly dedicated the next song to "Dean". Next on the setlist was my top favorite off of Astoria, This Means War. Needless to say, not unlike the rest of the audience, I was entranced by the music and put my camera to the side. It's a super catchy tune that can definitely be an earworm if you listen to it enough times.

Throwing it back to their 2013 EP, Face The Music, they next performed their ever so popular song, Desperate Measures. Throughout the course of the night, fans knew just about every single word the band sang. Towards the end, Ramsay did a little riff competition with the audience, obviously winning by a long shot.

Next on the set was their hit single Pop 101, a song I think is totally genius. It has a ridiculous amount of musical references, such as Mumford & Sons and The Black Eyed Peas. It's impressive if you can listen to the song and get all of the different musical references. I still find myself finding new ones when I listen to it. There's a part where they refer to gang vocals, so on stage lead guitarist, Matt Webb and bassist, Mike Ayley, join Ramsay at the mic to do the 'gang vocals'. The song originally features Anami Vice, for the rap, but drummer, Ian Casselman, fills in for him.

Bringing it back to songs off of Astoria, the band plays Shut Up and Kiss Me, a really catchy tune that the whole audience seemed to enjoy hearing live. This was one of the few songs that they added to this set list that was not on the last one so I was stoked to hear it live. The band continued to do their thing on stage as fans went crazy.

Slowing it down for a bit, they played One Love, off of Astoria, and Fallout, off of their 2014 release of Ever After. During One Love, the audience put their "1's" in the air and powerfully sang right along with the heartbreaking ballad. "What if the one true love's the only one that you get?" a line from the song, probably referring to Ramsay's breakup with his fiancee last year. Fallout is definitely one of my favorites, being the first song of theirs I'd ever heard. My friends' band, Monday's Mona Lisa, covered it about three years or so ago and I decided to look up the original and I was hooked. So, needless to say, I was really looking forward to hearing it live.

Picking up the pace a little bit, they performed another off of Astoria, Who Do You Love. Not necessarily a ballad, but not as fast paced as some of their other songs. The song starts out with an a cappella harmony of Ramsay, Ayley, and Webb, whom you don't really realize how much they sing until you see the band in concert. I was surprised at how often I hear their voices and don't even realize it.

Next up was one of my all-time favorite faster paced ones off of Ever After... Stutter. Definitely picked up the pace a lot. Mid-song, Ramsay got off the stage and ran through the crowd, right past my boyfriend and I, who were totally not expecting it. He continued making his way through the crowd all the way to the bar in the back of the room and performed much of the rest of the song from on top of it. During the bridge of the song, he made his way off of it and back through the crowd, right past us again (as you can imagine he was super sweaty) all the way back on the stage. So that was a pretty cool experience to say the least.

The lights went red for the next song. Another slower, ballad of sorts entitled Wildfire. This is one that many of the listeners, like myself, in the audience could relate to because we've all been through heartbreak. That's one of the things I love about Marianas Trench's music is that Josh writes with so much emotion with lyrics so deeply personal to him. "From wedding bells to private hells", another line probably referring to his recent engagement breakup. You can know what it's about and just not even be able to imagine the pain, but somehow when you listen, you can feel the pain. One of the many reasons I love music.

Picking up the pace and getting a little less emotional, they perform Cross My Heart from Masterpiece Theatre. Another fast paced song that the audience knew every word to. By this point, the crowd still appeared crazy energized. Almost like they never wanted the night to end. To their dismay, there were only three songs left of the night. The band left the stage at the end of the song, sort of acting like an encore, until Ramsay came back on stage, alone.

Next up was another song that didn't make the set list on the last tour. Dearly Departed off of Astoria. This is another of my favorites from this album because I love the bridge where he sings lyrics that include a multitude of Marianas Trench song titles and it is just so cool. It also shows off Ramsay's voice very well. "Every masterpiece, I'd write again, you'll always be my porcelain. I crossed my heart but I stutter too so truth or dare, was I good to you?" Just one of the lines from the bridge that I love. Genius. Pure genius.

The rest of the band came back on stage to finish out the set with the last two songs of the night. Haven't Had Enough from Face The Music and End of an Era from Astoria. The fans were entranced in the last few minutes of the show. And the band never ceased to be crazy energetic for the entire duration of the set. At the end of the show, Ramsay promised, yet again, that they'd be back soon, but who knows how soon this time.

Overall, I was again impressed by their performance and stoked to have gotten to see them for the second time this year. I'm sure not unlike the rest of the Pittsburgh Trenchers, I am excited to have them come back to the Steel City for yet another killer performance.

I highly recommend checking out any of their remaining SPF 80's tour shows throughout the U.S before they cross the pond for their European leg of the tour.

You can check Marianas Trench out on Spotify, iTunes, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Check out a few of my favorite shots at the bottom of this post!

You can check out the rest of my shots from this show here!