At the two-decade mark of being a band, most acts show some signs of wear and tear. It’s inevitable. However, on Thursday night, emo stalwarts Mayday Parade made a return to Milwaukee to celebrate 20 years of being a band, and certainly had plenty of gas left in the tank.

Thursday’s show at the Miller Lite Oasis was, remarkably, also the band’s Summerfest debut, despite being their 25th show in the city. That includes multiple stints on the Vans Warped Tour, which did play Henry Maier Festival Park, but never an appearance at the Big Gig. The festival definitely made a good first impression on the band, though, with a large crowd making their way to the Oasis for a trio of Warped-era bands, including openers The Maine and The Summer Set.

Over the course of roughly 75 minutes, Mayday Parade would bounce their way around all 20 years of music, led by new single “By The Way.” From there, though, they’d take things all the way back to their first EP with “Three Cheers for Five Years,” appeasing the day-one fans as well. That set the tone for the night; everything would mesh together in a way that felt like a tapestry of the band’s evolution, rather than a pure nostalgia trip. New and old came together because, frankly, Mayday Parade has been one of the genre’s most consistently active bands. 

The band’s real breakout, though, came in 2007’s “A Lesson In Romantics,” and songs from that record received some of the best crowd responses from the Oasis. It started with “Jersey,” three songs into the set, and later with a piano-driven crowd singalong of ballad “Miserable At Best.” Frontman Derek Sanders was very much the veteran in his role, knowing exactly how to get the crowd fired up for the songs that called for it, but just as gripping behind the piano or an acoustic guitar, both of which were reserved for songs that the majority of the crowd would sing along to with fondness. 

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Sanders may have actually been the least mobile of the band, though, with the exception of drummer Jake Bundrick for obvious reasons. The rest of the band would fly around stage from song to song, sharing mics and making the most of the space. “Miserable At Best” was immediately followed with a bang in the form of 2009 album cut “Anywhere But Here” and shortly after, crowd favorite “Oh Well, Oh Well,” immediately getting the show out of the reserved lull of their ballad hit. The first half of the show moved at a solid clip, with no letting up other than to tune instruments from time to time.

Of course, there were moments that felt like pure throwbacks, maybe making the crowd a little more aware of their age than normal. “We first played here at the Warped Tour in 2006” recalled Sanders, before telling a story of walking around the Summerfest grounds with CD players getting fans in line to hear their music. There would also be a mention or two of Myspace before the night was through. It was a little bit of a reality check, but again, a reminder that the band has been here consistently through the years.

Rather than saving all of their hits for the end of the night, the band would scatter them throughout their set, never losing the Oasis crowd in the process. If 20 years of touring has taught the band anything, it’s how to keep a crowd engaged, and they certainly were from start to finish on Thursday. The band would, of course, finish with emo classic “Jamie All Over,” but not without thanking Milwaukee immensely for 20 years of support through their many times playing the city. With a 10:15 start time, the band didn’t play games about an encore, either; just a loaded full set, giving as much as they could in that time. In a way, it felt most respectful of the crowd, but a veteran band like Mayday Parade knows exactly what they’re getting into at this point in their career.