{"id":18190,"date":"2025-07-23T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/18190\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:49:09","slug":"the-all-american-rejects-are-having-the-summer-of-their-lives-we-are-going-to-savor-every-bit-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/18190\/","title":{"rendered":"The All-American Rejects are having the summer of their lives: \u2018We are going to savor every bit of it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNN
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Emo band All-American Rejects<\/a> are giving us one hell of a summer.\n <\/p>\n

\n The group, who has been playing together for more than twenty years, is on a so-called House Party Tour, popping up in backyards and other unsuspecting locations for impromptu concerts.\n <\/p>\n

\n They may call themselves \u201crejects,\u201d but the enthused crowds that have turned up at their shows prove they\u2019re far from that.\n <\/p>\n

\n The quartet\u2019s classics \u2013 including \u201cSwing Swing,\u201d \u201cDirty Little Secret,\u201d \u201cMove Along\u201d and, of course, \u201cGives You Hell\u201d \u2013 were on the soundtrack of many a Millennial\u2019s high school mixtape, but these tracks are now appealing to a new generation<\/a> of young people. Their resurgence sparked the band\u2019s current tour, based on their shared belief that music acts may not need all the frills of a stadium show to give concertgoers a good, and inexpensive, time.\n <\/p>\n

\n You just need good music, youthful energy\u2026 and a big backyard, apparently.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe live experience, the communal experience of watching something live on the floor is, I think it\u2019s coming back in every aspect of art,\u201d lead singer and bassist Tyson Ritter told CNN in a recent interview about the band\u2019s upcoming performance at San Diego Comic-Con\u2019s Fandom<\/a> party this week. \u201cWhat\u2019s great is to be able to play shows and to be not too old to still pull them off.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n After forming in Oklahoma in 1999, the All-American Rejects \u2013 who include Ritter, guitarists Nick Wheeler and Mike Kennerty and drummer Chris Gaylor \u2013 became part of the DNA of the emo music genre when they released their 2002 self-titled debut album, which included their first big hit \u201cSwing Swing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"(From<\/p>\n

\n They went on to release four studio albums including their most recent, 2012\u2019s \u201cKids in the Street.\u201d After nearly a decade of not touring, the Rejects reunited in 2023 for their Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour, and got back in the studio to record an upcoming fifth album, \u201cSandbox.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The genesis of the House Party Tour started with the band\u2019s eagerness to promote \u201cSandbox,\u201d but what ensued is entirely organic, according to Ritter, who said that their intention was simply to \u201cget back to the place that we knew we started.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That wound up turning into a chaotic nine-day spree of surprise shows in people\u2019s yards, following a pop-up show on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Fans started applying to have the Rejects come play in their neighborhoods, with video footage posted to social media showing hundreds of people lined up, rain or shine, to catch a show.\n <\/p>\n

\n One gig in Columbia, Missouri even got shut down by police<\/a>, but not before the authorities let the band play one more song.\n <\/p>\n

\n The response has moved the band, two decades into their career, just as much as it appears to have moved their audience.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is the best experience that we\u2019ve ever had playing music in this band and we are going to savor every bit of it,\u201d Ritter said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The band has captured footage of the House Party Tour up until this point, and told CNN that they are reviewing it now to potentially release something next year in conjunction with the release of the \u201cSandbox\u201d album. A \u201cmovie,\u201d as Ritter referred to it, \u201cis already in pre-production,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t realize what we did until we saw some of these little clips. There were really harrowing moments of danger\u2026 So we got out by the skin of our teeth,\u201d Ritter added, going on to joke that \u201cmaybe that\u2019s the name of the doc \u2018by the skin of our teeth.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Tyson<\/p>\n

\n Wheeler added that the House Party Tour \u201cturned into something bigger.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo these nine days and what we captured is something that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us and for those who were there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just stoked that somebody was there to capture it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Wheeler also hopes \u201cSandbox\u201d will help recreate the magic of their seminal hits that have solicited such a response from their new generation of listeners.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople attach themselves to those legacy songs because of where they were in their lives or nostalgia,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cSo I think the goal now, especially after coming off this house party thing, is creating new nostalgia.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The All-American Rejects do have some big-ticket shows coming up.\n <\/p>\n

\n They\u2019ll headline the Fandom Comic-Con party in San Diego on Thursday, where, according to Ritter, concertgoers can \u201cexpect a Reject-goes-Comic-Con experience.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n They\u2019ll also be joining the Jonas Brothers<\/a> on tour in October, where they\u2019ll be sure to bring that same backyard energy to the big stage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to open up something a little bit bigger than just people\u2019s eyes now. We\u2019re trying to open up another possibility of getting to the artists that you love, and we\u2019re so excited about what\u2019s to come,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cYou could call what we\u2019re doing punk rock, but it\u2019s not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201c\u2026It\u2019s actually pure connection,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n