As I was driving to my first concert ever last Thursday, I felt incredibly lucky. I was with a group of my best friends, going to the State University of New York at Albany, to see my favorite band, The All-American Rejects. At the beginning of the night, I had no idea how lucky I would be.
As we entered the Recreation and Convocation Center at SUNY Albany, I was surprised at how few people seemed to be there. It is a huge gymnasium, with seating for 5,000 people. Not even half of the seats seemed to be filled, and the majority of the floor space was open. Before entering the actual gymnasium, my friends and I looked around the lobby, taking advantage of the vendors giving out free stuff. At one point, a representative from Verizon Wireless, the company hosting the tour, yelled, “Who wants to meet the All-American Rejects?” Of course, gaggles of girls, including myself and my friends, ran after her, each one dying to meet lead singer Tyson Ritter and his bandmates. In order to win the backstage tickets, you had to answer a trivia question about the AAR. Two questions were posed, each wrongly answered by every girl. Finally, the question, “Where are the All-American Rejects from?” was asked, and one of the friends I went to the concert with knew the answer, and in turn, she received two meet and greet passes for after the show. I bet you can guess the lucky girl who got to go with her.
First, however, we had to sit (well, actually stand) through the entire concert. The AAR were preceded by three opening bands: Damone, Ima Robot, and Under the Influence of Giants. Each played a half hour set from their most recent albums, Out Here All Night, Monument to the Masses, and UTIOG, respectively. Although I had never heard of any of the bands before that night, I enjoyed each of their performances, from both a musical and a presentation perspective. As much as I liked the opening performances, they took up almost two hours of the concert time. Consequently, the AAR only played for a little over an hour. Of course, I have no basis for comparison, but my friends said that the main band usually plays for longer than that.
The AAR, however, were well worth the wait. And their performance, although short, was incredible. They began with their hit, “Dirty Little Secret,” and then played songs from both their self-titled 2002 album and their 2005 album, Move Along. The crowd, who had not been too receptive to any of the opening bands, suddenly came alive with excitement with the AAR on stage. Although moshing and crowd-surfing were strictly prohibited and could be a reason for expulsion from the concert, many fans took the chance, and the AAR noticed and loved it. One of the more humorous parts of the show came when the “water guy” walked onto the stage and threw water bottles at the fans crowded around, and the AAR played a rendition of the circus song, “Entrance of the Gladiators.” The AAR ended appropriately with “The Last Song,” but then came back onto the stage for an encore and performed another well known hit, “Move Along.”
Finally, the part of the night I was really waiting for had arrived. The fifteen or so winners of meet and greet passes (all but two were girls) were led to a special backstage area, where the band members of both Under the Influence of Giants and the AAR appeared. Each meet and greet pass holder was given an Under the Influence of Giants poster, which each band member signed; a photo holder, which each member of the AAR signed; and a copy of the AAR’s latest album, Move Along. Then, each meet and greet group had the opportunity to take a picture with both of the bands.
Needless to say, I never expected the night would end up as it did. The concert was incredible, and meeting the bands backstage was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can safely say that it was the best concert I had ever been to, and, most likely, ever will.
