The Arizona State Fair brought alternative legends The All-American Rejects to their Coliseum Concert Series on Saturday night. A crowd of what can only be described as elder emos had a night out at the fair that culminated in one of the band’s final performances of the year and still had everyone home at a reasonable hour.
Taking the stage promptly and early, they flooded the room with fog and transported everyone back to 2002 with “Swing, Swing”. Singer Tyson Ritter performed barefoot, stomping around the stage with his guitar and signature quirky swagger to hype up the crowd.
The set was full of hits, but the band also pulled out some deep cuts for the longtime fans to enjoy. Naturally, “Dirty Little Secret” elicited massive cheers but the crowd also sang along just as boisterously to “I Wanna” and “Kids in the Street”. With this being one of their very last performances of the year, they gave Arizona all of their energy, with Ritter even launching himself into the crowd to mess around mid-set.
They even inserted softer moments into the evening, with a surprise addition of “Mona Lisa” and the iconic piano intro to “It Ends Tonight” getting the fans to light up the room with their phones and sway along. The main portion ended- of course- with “Move Along” before the crowd’s incessant shouting brought the band back out for their rendition of “Flagpole Sitta” and the forever classic “Gives You Hell”.
If this is the set that attendees at When We Were Young Festival will be missing this weekend, it is everyone’s loss- the band curated a stunning collection from their lengthy discography and we hope to experience this again in 2025.
