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Anberlin, The All-American Rejects, & Taking Back Sunday
| November 16th, 2009 @ Patriot Center |
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by Courtney Campbell
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It was a scene kid’s dream line-up. The All-American Rejects and Taking Back Sunday doing a co-headlining tour with Anberlin opening, but for some reason, this Monday night, the Patriot Center in Fairfax was about half full. Maybe it was the fact that if you weren’t a college student the tickets were $35. Who knows. The only thing that I do know is that it was a great line-up and a great show. Those that weren’t there totally missed out.
The night kicked off with Anberlin. Opening for Taking Back Sunday is nothing new for this band as they were in this same position earlier in the year when they opened on Taking Back Sunday’s club tour. Their set, although it was short, encompassed their career except for their first release Blueprints for the Black Market. They also included their cover of New Order’s “True Faith” which they were releasing as a single the following day.
Next up was The All-American Rejects. Now seriously I’m a bigger fan of them than of TBS and was disappointed that TBS was closing out the show even though I got to see AAR earlier. AAR is seriously my guilty pleasure; just ask Michelle; she can tell you some funny stories about that. But back to the concert…having seen this band since 2002, it’s been great to see them grow as performers. Tyson Ritter is a great frontman and definitely knows how to play up to the crowd.  At one point, he grabbed a flashlight and singled out those in the stands that were sitting. It was a magic light he said that made people jump up, unfortunately I think its magic ran out as those highlighted didn’t listen. They finally did move when he went out into the crowd during “Mona Lisa” and as he was mobbed by many girls, Ritter jokingly commented how he hated his job. A definite change from when I used to see them back in 2002; Ritter seems more energetic almost like a marionette and someone is pulling his strings. Some things do get better with time. It also helps that Ritter gives up his bass guitar for a few songs so he’s no longer trapped by the microphone stand. AAR brought their set to a close with “The Last Song”, which turned out to be really the second to last song since they couldn’t very well end the night without their hit single, “Gives You Hell”.
All-American Rejects Set List :
Move Along
Fallin’ Apart
Dirty Little Secret
Top of the World
Swing, Swing
I Wanna
Mona Lisa
Real World
It Ends Tonight
Damn Girl
The Last Song
Gives You Hell
So closing out this night was Taking Back Sunday who have been touring in support of their fourth studio release, New Again. TBS is fronted by Adam Lazzara, who like AAR’s frontman, knows how to work the stage and the crowd. Lazzara is always moving, but for tonight, he was mainly stationary for the first two songs. A photographer’s dream! (had to throw that in, all of us photographing commented on this after our three songs in the barricade). But that didn’t last for long as Lazzara was all over the stage, swinging his microphone as usual, for the rest of the set. Their set encompassed their entire career of studio albums, which for their fans would equal to a great set even though it was only 13 songs long. That’s the problem with these co-headlining tours; both bands get to play for an equal amount of time. But TBS made the most of their time, ending their set with a trio of songs from Louder Now, which left the crowd chanting in hopes of that TBS would return to the stage. No such luck though; everyone will just have to look forward to upcoming tours.
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