The
Rejects, who aren't really rejects at all, rejoice
The All-American Rejects/Rooney/The Academy Is
November 11, 2005
by Marc Hirsh
[photos taken by Marc Hirsh]
originally published in
The Boston Globe, November 15, 2005
To judge from the response they received at Avalon on Friday, there are few bands whose names have revealed such a disconnect from reality than the All-American Rejects. With an audience that had committed the band’s lyrics to memory and jammed the venue before the first of two opening acts even took the stage, the band was given a welcome more like conquering heroes than four guys who couldn’t make the cut.
If they reveled in the power granted to them by their fans, the Rejects never abused it through laziness or arrogance. Despite the raft of rock-star affectations that seemed to afflict frontman Tyson Ritter every time he spoke, there was never a sense that they were anything other than inclusive. The band seemed to be having a blast throwing themselves into their ultra-slick but still sharp and muscular pop-emo anthems.
That contagious sense of fun as more than enough to counteract some of the material’s sameness and the prerecorded percussion occasionally triggered by a well-hidden keyboardist. Both suggested a disinclination to toy with a successful formula, even at the risk of sacrificing much of the spontaneity of live performance. Recasting “Night Drive” as an acoustic front-porch hoedown seemed less like adventurousness borne of their self-proclaimed “Oklahoma pride” than the token changeup.
On the other hand, formula though it may have been, it worked, and if “Top Of The World” sounded like Green Day lite and “I’m Waiting” and “Move Along” were beaten to the punch by Fall Out Boy, they still accomplished exactly what they set out to do. And while Ritter, an indelicate bass player himself, committed the unpardonable sin of letting a roadie finish playing the second half of “The Last Song,” the song ended the show with such a huge burst of noise and energy that it didn’t seem to matter.
Opening act The Academy Is covered similar territory and seemed primarily a vehicle for frontman William Beckett. Rooney followed and seemed more like a band and less like test-marketing. With a sound ranging from Weezerly alt-rock to more classic touchstones like Paul Collins’s Beat, the group took advantage of power pop’s teen appeal without relying on it.
