On Wednesday the 21st of November I was able to drive up to Boston to see The Downtown Fiction, Hit the Lights, The Summer Set, and more importantly, All Time Low, at the Paradise Rock Club on their Rock Show at the End of the World Tour.Now, the Dise is a great venue, but it just doesn’t have that drowning-in-concert feeling that makes places like The Webster in Hartford or The Space in Hamden truly amazing. That being said, All Time Low literally blew the fucking walls out of the Dise. Well, not literally but damn that was a good show.
After enduring a terribly annoying set by The Summer Set, and a less annoying set by Hit the Lights, I was ridiculously excited for All Time Low to come on and they did not disappoint. As lights suddenly lit the dark stage, All Time Low tore into “The Reckless and the Brave” which was the first single off their latest album Don’t Panic. “The Reckless and the Brave” is the perfect concert song and was therefore a supreme opener. Surprisingly, after that opening, ATL played a lot of their older songs from their first two albums like “Shameless”, “Coffeeshop Soundtrack”, “Remembering Sunday”, and “Poppin’ Champagne”. Needless to say, that crowd in the Dise was beyond pleased.
Though their old songs were definitely crowd pleasers, when ATL played their newer songs you could feel the atmosphere positively exploding. Upon playing newer songs like “Time Bomb”, “For Baltimore”, and “If These Sheets Were the States”,I could hear every lyric being screamed from the crowd just as loud as they were being blasted through the club’s speakers. A memorable example of this was during “Forget About It” which has a spoken bit in the middle that goes “You know…there are some days where I really feel like this could work; like you and I are finally gonna get it right. Then there are days like today, when you make me wanna tear my fucking hair out”. I have never in my life heard a crowd scream a band’s lyrics as loud as I heard “..when you make me wanna TEAR MY FUCKING HAIR OUT!”. I get chills just thinking back on it.
It really speaks to All Time Low’s fanbase when almost every single person in the crowd is shouting lyrics like that while the band stands up there on stage smiling like a little kid on Christmas. At one point, when ATL’s lead singer Alex Gaskarth asked what everyone was thankful for, I didn’t hear any other answer from the crowd besides “YOU!!” It’s moments like that, in between the songs, where you can always see All Time Low’s personality and the personalities of each of the band members. Among the many memorable lines of the night was Alex Gaskarth saying “Hey, if you’re gonna show us your boobies please also show us a signed permission slip from your parents”, right before going into their next song.
At the end of every single one of their concerts, All Time Low plays an old song, off their third album, called “Dear Maria, Count Me In” and it is this song and this tradition that leaves a lasting good impression of All Time Low on me. No matter what their set list is, or what their most popular song amongst their fans is, “Dear Maria, Count Me In” is played at the end of every concert, almost like the hug and farewell you receive when saying goodbye to your family at the end of a holiday. Besides being a fantastic song, it gets everyone in the venue singing and sometimes even makes people cry.
All Time Low has always been a band for their fans and if they continue doing so, and continue making fantastic music, they will never lose their loyal fan base. That show at the Dise was the second time I’ve seen All Time Low live and believe me when I say: they’re only getting better. If you didn’t get a chance to get tickets for The Rock Show At The End Of The World Tour, Alex said at one point that they would be back in the spring so keep your eyes peeled for tour dates