When someone asks “Hey, do you want to go to an All American Rejects show?” the answer is “Absolutely.”. But when someone asks “Hey, do you want to go to a FREE All American Rejects show?” the answer is going to be “…. WHO’S DRIVING?!” Thanks to Spectrum and Pandora, The All American Rejects and Lovely The Band came to you live at The Beacham for a one night performance, free of charge.
Walking into the venue, the line was literally down the street and wrapped around the corner almost two blocks, one might think the Beatles were in town. Shortly after Lovely The Band finished their set, the light darkened on stage and keyboardist Scott Chesak slips on stage without being noticed. But as soon as he holds down that single note the room erupts. One by one the other members start to take their places on stage and then Tyson Ritter stands on an amp between the riser and the crowd erupts at the site.
As that single note continues to ring out from the keyboard, guitarist Nick Wheeler plays that very familiar riff, which is the intro to “Swing, Swing”. It immediately takes me back to my senior year of high school and first seeing that song on MTV and grabbing my guitar to try and learn that riff. Ritter’s voice sounds just as it did almost 20 years ago with the stage presence and charisma to match. The energy in the building was through the roof as the crowd jumped up and down, singing along and giving it their all.
Throughout the show, Tyson reminisces about how certain songs came to be or different memories about touring over the years. One story in particular was during the video shoot for “Swing, Swing”, rhythm guitar player Mike Kennerty at the time actually had staples in his head that had to be colored black with a sharpie to blend them in on camera. It was intimate moments like this the fans loved. Everyone has the music or seen the videos and live shows, but the stories behind these moments are something that they can add to their memories.
Towards the end of the set, the band slows it down a bit with softer hits like “Mona Lisa” and “It Ends”. During the song “Cheese On Keys”, Tyson midway through the song wanted to take the chance to get close to the fans upfront and serenade the rest of the crowd from the floor. As he gets more emotional, the higher he climbs up on the barricade. Before long, he is carried half way into the crowd and makes a triumphant stand with his hand to the sky, before falling backwards as the fans glide him back to the stage.
After playing classics that spanned their career, the hit “Move Along” was the song that they would leave the stage with. The show had everything you could possibly want. High energy, great setlist, crowd surfing and oh ya, ONE MORE SONG! With the stage lights still off, the keyboard intro let’s all the fans know, the last song of the night is going to be “Gives You Hell”. Every time the chorus comes up, it’s Tyson’s voice against the sold out crowd, creating a thunderous wall of sound. And what goes better with a great encore, but two fans exploding with white and blue confetti filling the floor and the stage. After the song end, the bands walks to the edge of the edge of the stage to waive and give their thanks to the crowd.
Even after playing a full 13-song set, Tyson went into the crowd after he gave everything he had the whole night, all while wearing a leather jacket by the way, somehow sill had enough energy to scale a support structure to get to the VIP area on the second floor! This show was a total success from start to finish and with the band releasing their EP Send Her To Heaven and the chance to create and release music with their new label Epitaph Records, the future is looking very bright for the All American Rejects.
Music Madness had the opportunity to sit down with the band’s rhythm guitarist Mike Kennerty and drummer Chris Gaylor, which can be seen below.
Music Madness: There was very little publication about tonight’s concert. Could you guys shed a little light on how it all came to fruition?
Mike: Oh, yeah. Someone from Spectrum or Pandora wanted to do a little promotion, asked us to do it, we were happy to play in Orlando.
Music Madness: That’s awesome. How long ago did they approach you about the show?
Mike: It was like, couple months?
Music Madness: Oh, wow. So, that was actually out before the EP came out.
Mike: Yeah, it was like around that time.
Music Madness: Very cool. Last year, you guys decided to leave Interscope, which I’m sure was a big deal, and put out your own music. How is that going?
Mike: Yeah. We actually partnered with Epitaph Records to do this EP and they’ve been great. We were on a major label for so long and it was interesting to go back and see how an indie label works, and it’s different stuff, and it’s such a different landscape now. The last time we put out an album, which was 2012 … But yeah, it’s been great.
Chris: It’s just been great to kind of feel like Epitaph is very … whatever we wanted to do, they’re like, “Cool, run with it.” No second guessing, no pressure or anything.
Music Madness: That type of freedom is huge…to basically do whatever you want and put out the music you want as opposed to them saying, “We want something like this.” Well, we don’t want to play that.
Chris: Exactly.
Music Madness: How did the idea come about to record the EP with three separate producers for each song?
Mike: Previously, whenever we’d make a record, we’d hold up for months at a time in the studio with one producer, and it’s exhausting.
Chris: So, this time around, we were kind of sick of that process. So, for Send Her to Heaven, we were just like let’s give ourselves two days a song, different producer, different studio each time, and just see what happens.
Music Madness: That’s kind of like how Foo Fighters did their Sonic Highway album. They did every song in a different studio with a different producer.
Mike: Yeah, exactly.
Music Madness: Do you think that might be something you guys would be into doing for full-length, or maybe more EPs that way?
Chris: Yeah. We would have to write first.
Mike: Yeah, but I think we enjoyed it… Well, it was definitely a way less stressful process and the results … It wasn’t like it was some huge night and day difference. It was like, oh, maybe we’ve been torturing ourselves.
Chris: Yeah. We didn’t have to do that, hold up for three months to do a record. Just a couple weeks, take a break, a couple weeks, take a break.
Music Madness: Do you think it would be productive to do that to achieve a full-length, do a couple songs, relax and then bang out a couple more songs?
Mike: For sure, yeah. I think It would keep us fresh, for sure.
Chris: Yeah, it would stay nice and fresh and not get burned out. I think we’re all like fucking adults now.
Music Madness: Yeah. I’m sure that everyone’s got their own stuff going on also.
Mike: Exactly.
Music Madness: What was the inspiration behind “Demons” off the new EP?
Mike: Well, Tyson writes the lyrics, but I think I can kind of summarize. It’s funny. These songs weren’t necessarily written to be a group, but they kind of do have an arc to them. Whereas “Gen Why?” and “Send Her to Heaven” are both kind of songs about excess and living to the extreme. “Demons” is kind of the next morning, the hangover. I think that’s kind of what it’s describing, is that waking up from what you thought was a really good idea, and realizing it was a terrible idea.
Music Madness: I’m sure there could be a double album written just on that topic alone.
Chris: For sure.
Music Madness: How did River Rivers Cuomo get his hand in writing with that?
Mike: Oh, I think that was just Tyson going to work with him to write some Weezer songs.
Music Madness: Oh, really?
Mike: And he came with that song, and they worked on it a little bit together, and then Rivers was like, “I think this is more you guys than us.”
Chris: I can’t argue with that. It’s a really good song.
Music Madness: With the success of the new EP, is there any time-frame for a full-length in the future, or maybe another full tour?
Mike: Nothing planned at the moment. There’s nothing off the table, either. We’re just kind of taking it as it comes at this point. We worked so long for over a decade of nonstop, never going home, and now it’s kind of nice to just be like, we don’t have the pressure of a major label being like, “You need to do something.” So, yeah, we’re just taking it as it comes, see what happens.
Music Madness: So, on Interscope, did they have a time-frame they wanted you guys to put out x amount of albums per year or anything like that?
Chris: It wasn’t as much like that, but it was always a constant, “Well, what’s next?”, “Are you writing? You should be writing a song a day.”, “Are you signing a band a day? Well, come on.
Mike: Especially trying to write a new album and then go out there and try to recruit talent. Yeah. Like, give me a break, man.
Music Madness: That’s crazy.
Music Madness: What are your rigs looking like tonight? Is it what you guys had been using for the past couple tours, or do you have anything new in there?
Mike: As technology has progressed, we’ve gotten into having the Axe-FX and stuff. It’s great. So, you have your whole portable setup ready, you can take it anywhere, anytime.
Chris: Dude, it saves us so much money running the shipments.
Mike: The only people who give grief on it are musician friends and the old gear heads who don’t tour.
Chris: Exactly. And don’t make a living at it. It’s like, “Well, your opinion bears no weight.”
Music Madness: Yeah, the older gear heads are like, “Tubes are life. I won’t play anything without a tube in it.” If you put something like that in a room and had a Plexi in one side and then the Plexi mod on a Kemper or Axe-FX-
Mike: Yeah, if you gave them a blind challenge.
Chirs: Yeah, and they would not be able to tell the difference. Especially in a live setting.
Music Madness: So, yeah, so that’s made life so much easier, and it’s nice I’m sure. I’ll let you guys go relax before your set. Thank you so much for your time. It was really nice meeting you both and good luck tonight!
Mike: It was nice meeting you too.
Chris: Thank you man.
Review, photos and interview by Rob Cella