AP Fall Ball in Hollywood.

Let's have this be sort of a non-traditional review, hmmkay? Since there 5 of us Buzzneters who are also avid Twitterers at the show last night, it can be summed up quite splendidly.

The first one to get there was Jolene, because she was meet&greet status. Yeah, she got this picture:

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

I met up with Emisforily, Swingthefocus11 and Simplekindoflovely, but of course there were photopass issues. Luckily, Mendoza was able to help us out right quick! We missed You Me at Six and came in at the tail end of The Secret Handshake. Mendoza (yes, I'm referring to everyone by their buzznet user names in case you want to add them as a friend) then told us the set times, which is when we found out TAI wasn't the headliner that night.

So me and Emisforily grumbled about that until about the third song into Mayday Parade's set. Except when she was distracted by a certain person in VIP.

I like Set Your Goals, but I only listen to them when I'm working out, so it was weird listening to them with like, a normal heart rate and no closed captioned rugby matches on a tv in front of me. But you should know that they were the best dressed of all the bands.

Actual tweet proof, although I have no photos of them. There was a mass exodus from the pit after SYG, which sort of points to having different fans than the other bands on the tour.

The Academy Is... played a good fan favorites set that kept us singing along and jumping around the whole time:

We chatted a bit about all the band members having COMPLETELY different hairdo's since the last time any of us saw them. And we sorta came to a concensus that Chizzy needed a good shampoo. Sorry, dude, but you looked like you were entering the RPattz zone.

Then came Mayday.

Emisforily's first comment was, "Well, this band has a lot of...hair." But by the third song we were like, okay, THEY'RE REALLY GOOD. We can't tell you which song we both really liked because of it's associations, but yeah.

Their harmonies are so badass, they're ALL crazy energetic and even if you don't know the songs, you still can't take your eyes off of them. They can do both the punky-jumpy songs and the ballad-y contemplative songs really well. They had some synchronized guitar-whips and some simultaneous head-banging, but never to the point where it was cheesy. And despite having a clearly-defined lead singer, they ALL really shared the stage.

So, in short, I'm a fan now.

Post show was all strict-curfew because the Avalon turns into a nightclub, but Kayla bought a CD, we looked at some really cool prints at the Mayday merch table and then we lurked magical Barbie princess while waiting to talk to the singer of Mayday. No, I don't have a picture of magical barbie princess, but Emisforily does, so go pressure her to upload it--and the rest of the fashion don'ts she caught that night!

If you want to waltz your way into the AP Fall Ball when it gets to your town, check out the remaining dates and venues here.