All American Rejects - Detroit, MI

The All American Rejects rocked out at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, Michigan on Sunday night. Fans who are eagerly awaiting the LP release of “When the World Comes Down,” available December 16, showed up to see the boys from Oklahoma perform favorites off the 2005 double-platinum “Move Along” as well as a premiere of some new songs. If your living under a rock and don’t know who the All American Rejects are, I’ll tell you (or ask your 13 year old.) The boys are Tyson Ritter (vocals, guitar), Mike Kennerty (guitar), Chris Gaylor (drums), and Nick Wheeler (guitar), four buddies who have achieved rock stardom after successive blockbuster hits from the Move Along release including the LP’s title track, “Dirty Little Secret” and “It Ends Tonight”. They are the reigning princes of the rock teen nation and touring in a city near you. 

Opening the show with the smash rock hit “Swing, Swing”  Ritter ignites the crowd by  stating on the previous night he suffered an injury to his ankle and has just received an injection in it-“Varsity Blues” style, so that he could come out and perform, we had better be ready to f***ing give it up! That was it. Pubescent firestorm started front and center. 

Early on, they played hits such as “Stab my Back,” “Top of the World” and “My Paper Heart.” Ritter has so much charisma for a front man interspersing his snarky attitude with witty one-liners that you can’t help but love him for it. Kennerty, Wheeler, and Gaylor say nothing, they are happy letting their instruments do the talking for them.

The crowd roared as Ritter states the motive for “Gives You Hell,” the only single released off the new LP, and then word for word belted out the high school pep rallied chorus with him.

A relatively quiet change of pace was “Mona Lisa” another new song, where Ritter eludes to the good change that just happened a few weeks ago and that this song is about finding someone you can stick with when it seems like the world is going down. It is a slower more controlled song than AAR fans are accustom to, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind that at all.

Ending the show in true “Rejects” fashion with their signature “The Last Song”, a guitar -splitting finale, (they may have even broken the microphone stand) Ritter scales the 8ft speakers and serenades some young female fans in the balcony, no sign of the aforementioned injury, although he might have been feeling it later on.

Past success does not guarantee the futures’. With a genuine connection to their young fans, AAR has remained grounded and stayed close to their Oklahoma roots. It certainly seems the Rejects are poised for another extended stay on the rock and roll throne. If “When the World Comes Down” does come down and rivals Move Along in quality, radio play and sales then theses princes are about to be crowned kings!
 
BTW- The City Lives is currently on tour with AAR. They are a young, new band with impressive lyrics and sound. They were a pleasant surprise, an excellent live band and I highly recommend checking them out.