All-American Rejects / Wakefield / Limbeck

live in Detroit (2003)

Anthony J.C.

Originally the All-American Rejects show was scheduled
for the Shelter in Detroit.  I was excited to see a band that I thought had a
good amount of talent in such a small venue.  A local radio station picked up
the show and began promoting it and moved it upstairs to Saint Andrew's Hall,
which is about 5 times bigger.  Needless to say, I was a little disappointed,
but I kept my tickets and checked it out anyways.  I guess that was a mistake.

First up was a band called
Limbeck.  After
they kicked into their first song, I was thinking that this was going to be a
good night for music.  I enjoyed their set, it was
no-nonsense pop-rock that didn't rely on gimmicks or whining to get the point
across.  It was a little too poopy to be
considered good rock and roll, slightly reminiscent of music that would play
on a sitcom or something of the sort.  Nevertheless, I thought they were a
decent opener and set the stage well for the evening, or so I thought.

Any momentum that the night had musically by
Limbeck's solid set was shot to hell by what would
take place for the remainder of the evening.  Wakefield took the stage and
started into a pop-punk blitz that eventually left me nauseous. Supposedly,
their drummer was in Good Charlotte at one time, and it showed.  This band
smelled like any of those other MTV pop-punk bands, Simple Plan, NFG, etc. 
Not what I was hoping for.  With that being said, Wakefield was very good at
what they do.  They took a quiet, sullen crowd, and had the majority of them
into the music by the end of the 3rd song.  This energy continued
throughout their set, and most of the crowd ate it up, but wasn't my thing at
all.  Needless to say, if you are a fan of MTV-style manufactured pop-punk,
you would probably enjoy Wakefield.  As they left the stage I was hoping that
AAR could restore my evening with a good set.

That didn't even come close to happening.  AAR took the
stage and right away I knew it was going to be awful.  Just the way they
carried themselves throughout the set said "rockstar",
which they aren't, considering 4 months ago nobody had heard of them.  Tyson's
vocals were below sub-par, he didn't necessarily sound off-key, but just
really not in sync with the music. They basically played every song off of
their self titled album, and nothing more, which left for an extremely short
set.  I think they went off after 40 minutes and played a 2 song encore, which
left the length of the show at about 45 minutes.  If they had been playing
well, it would have been 45 good minutes of music, but since they butchered
every song that they played, I was kind of happy that they played such a short
set.

One thing that especially bothered me was the fact that
they pump in the samples (bells, ect)
through the speakers, instead of playing them, which I found to be cheesy.  I
found out afterward that they have never really done that, but I was expecting
more from the band that seemed to be very talented.  I would have rather they
not use the samples, a la Jimmy Eat World.  To me, that shows some skill if
you can make your songs sound good live without the samples from the album. 

I would have to say that this was one of the worst
concerts that I have ever been to, definitely in the top 5.  If it wasn't for
Limbeck's above-average set, I probably would have
wanted to jump out in front of traffic after the show. 

If anyone has been a fan of the All-American Rejects
since before they gained their mainstream popularity, you probably will be
disappointed with seeing them live now. I was and so was everyone else that I
talked to who has been a fan since their Doghouse days.  It seems like they
have let their commercial success go to their heads.  What a sad waste of
potential.