Tyson Ritter Blog and Journals

Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Hey Monday Show February 23 

Part Three: The All-American Rejects

So "Gives You Hell" just came on the TV (love that music vid!) which reminded me that it is about time that I started writing this review of the All-American Rejects when they played here in NZ. It’s been almost two months and with my failing memory...don't expect this to be a masterpiece.

If opening band, Hey Monday's goal was to get the crowd pumping, they were certainly successful. Everyone was exceptionally restless as we waited for act two: the All-American Rejects to come on stage. A few people behind me were chanting “Fall Out Boy, Fall Out Boy”, apparently uninterested in seeing AAR which kind of pissed me off because I was really keen to see the 'Rejects! I was mega obsessed with them a few years back when Move Along came out but I kind of forgot about them for a while until When The World Comes Down came into a my life early this year and completely rocked my world. I can see this one being one of my top albums of 2009.

Anyway, after about ten minutes, the All-American Rejects appeared on stage, much to my delight. They launched straight into their opening song, “Swing, Swing”: one of my favourite songs! They directly followed with their hit, “Dirty Little Secret” before frontman Tyson Ritter directly addressed the frenzied crowd. Tyson has an amazing stage presence. A lot of people commented that he had to be either drunk or stoned but I would like to think he was high on music, yessss? Hehe. He was truly captivating to watch and a lot of the time, I was convinced he was completely insane but for some reason, I could not take my eyes off him. He did strange things with a paper cup. He used “the F word” a lot (it was beautiful). He was very chatty in between songs; he has a great sense of humour and wit and completely won the crowd over with comments like “We love you New Zealand...they don’t sing like you do in Australia”. To top it off, he was wearing a truly amazing pair of sparkly pink Converse. How could you not love him?

The set list was made up of mostly their singles from their past albums but also a few gems from their latest album, When The World Comes Down. A highlight for me was of one of my favourite songs “Mona Lisa”, which was a very intimate acoustic performance with just Tyson and guitarist, Nick onstage. I did not think it was possible but this song is truly a lot more beautiful live. However, this quiet period did not last long: they soon had us moshing and singing along at the top of our lungs again with their hit single, "Move Along". I was psyched when I heard them play "My Paper Heart" and "I Wanna" too as these are two more of my all-time favourites from the ‘Rejects' discography. They dashed offstage after an extremely energetic performance of Move Along, before returning for the encore: their massive hit “Give You Hell”. I highly doubt there was a person in the room that wasn’t singing along. It was impossible not to.

The All-American Rejects provided fans with an extremely high-energy performance that sounded exactly the same as, if not better than, their albums. I have to say that it is frontman Tyson that really made the performance, his infectious personality and flawless delivery of the band’s hits is what made the All-American Rejects’ set one that I will never forget. I now have an intense craving to see these guys live again soon. Here’s hoping that they grace our shores again in the very near future!

Oh, I managed to score myself a guitar pick which guitarist Nick used during their performance toooo.

As the All-American Rejects left the stage for the final time, I was buzzing. And my ecstasy only increased as I realised that I would be seeing Fall Out Boy for the second time in my life, in just a few minutes.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part 4: Fall Out Boy. Coming soon. A lot sooner than it took for this one to come, I promise.