The All-American Rejects

Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, Phoenix, AZ

October 7, 2023

Review and Gallery By: Hannah Kelly

Emo nostalgia is back! And everyone is riding that wave right into OG fans’ hearts. Including The All-American Rejects, who brought their Wet Hot All-American Tour to Phoenix on Saturday night. The line up was complete with emo heavy hitters including The Get Up Kids, Motion City Soundtrack and New Found Glory.

The Get Up Kids started the evening class emo sound. As the sun set, they played hits such as “Holiday” and “Ten Minutes” for the audience members who made it out early to the show. Even though they had the first set of the night, they had quite the showing of fans in the audience.. People crowded the pit to sing their hearts out, with plenty of people not he barricade screaming every word.

Motion City Soundtrack was up next and the audience was so happy to see them take the stage. In the recent years lead singer Justin Pierre has had some pretty serious health issues, including back surgery which he is still recovering from. He came on stage, cane in hand, and rocked the place. Their set was full of emo favorites including songs “Everything Is Alright” and “The Future Freaks Me Out.”

New Found Glory was next, coming out hot with emo anthem “All Downhill From Here.” This band has been through a lot within the past few years, with guitarist Chad Gilbert being on and off of tour due to hime fighting a rare form of cancer. Lead singer Jordan Pundik made sure to have the crowd cheer for Chad, encouraging him as he battles in the hospital once again. Joining them in his absence the band welcomed Dan O’Connor from Four Year Strong and Dave Knox from Real Friends. New Found Glory played through their set, making sure to play all their hits as well as a few covers including one of “Let It Go” and their popular cover of “Kiss Me.” They closed out their set with arguably their most famous song “My Friends Over You” and suddenly it was time for The All-American Rejects to take the stage!

The All-American Rejects finally took the stage to a crowd shaking with anticipation. They opened with one of their most popular songs “Swing, Swing” which got the crowd dancing immediately. Lead singer Tyson Ritter commanded the stage with familiar vocals and slightly unhinged energy. He headband and danced all over the stage, encouraging the crowd to the same. They continued through their set playing fan favorites such as “Dirty Little Secret,” “I Wanna,” and “Sweat.” Before playing the song “I’m Waiting” guitarists Mike Kennerty and Nick Wheeler had a fun dueling guitars moment that had the crowd screaming. Before we knew it the band was finishing song “It Ends Tonight” and leaving the stage before their encore.

The band retook the stage for their encore after constant cheering from the crowd. Drummer Chris Gaylor teased the iconic drum intro to “Move Along” a few times with Tyson pushing the crowd to ask nicely for them to play the song. After he felt the crowd had begged enough the dove into the 2005 hit. The band finished up their set with their hit “Gives You Hell.” Before leaving the stage Tyson left the audience with these words “Thank You Phoenix, burn bright into the night.” And with that he was gone and the show was over.

Like I said emo nostalgia is taking the worlds by storm and The All-American Rejects are taping into that in the best way. I can’t wait to see what they do with it next!