All Time Low: The Extended Edition

It officially happened… On Tuesday May 19, 2015 All Time Low came to Rochester for the US leg of their Future Hearts Tour and I, Marissa Murphy, was in attendance. They had three opening acts which consisted of State Champs, a pop punk band from Albany, Tonight Alive a rock band from Australia, and Issues a metal core band from Atlanta.

The day of the concert was an intense day as I had a full day of school then went out to the venue in Rochester with a few of my friends. Everyone knows that before a concert the queue is a crazy wrap around the block, right? So when the line wrapped around the building next door to the Main Street Armory, which just so happened to be a church, it came to a shock to all the queued fans as well as the venue’s security when the church called the cops and began towing all the cars that were parked in the church parking lot.

That aside, the venue doors opened and the lines for the ladies room was just as long as the lines for band merch and the stage was already forming into a pit. State Champs opened the show and got the crowd going as well as a seemingly nameless band can even though I had been listening to them for a few months. They sang some of their classics like “Remedy”, and “Elevated”.  Next came Tonight Alive which was just phenomenal because Jenna McDougall is just the queen of the world! She sang “The Ocean” and “lonely Girl” as well as a few others and I wish that their set could have been longer, but Jenna came out to sing one of All Time Low’s songs “A Love Like War” which is usually accompanied by Vic Fuentes from Pierce The Veil. We left the pit after Tonight Alive knowing how crazy Issues would get and retreated to the balcony which was a pretty smart decision considering Michael Bohn started a death wall (the crowd separates in two and then runs at each other and starts fighting each other). I loved their set because they sang nearly all my favorite songs such as “Disappear (Remember When)”, “Princeton Ave”, “Mad at Myself”, and “Never Lose Your Flames”.

After what felt like an eternity, All Time Low came out opening with “Satellite”. They sang songs off of their old albums as well as Future Hearts. There was a plethora of inappropriate jokes and Jack Barakat (guitarist) even crowd surfed on an inflatable pizza raft.

I can honestly say that it was the best concert that I have ever been to and I wish that I could have followed the tour because I totally would have. All Time Low will always be one of my favorite bands and I can’t wait to see them live again. Who knows maybe next time I’ll be able to meet some of them. 

Issues

Issues is an American metal-core band that was formed in 2012 by former Woe, Is Me vocalists Tyler Carter (clean) and Michael Bohn (unclean). Other former members of Woe, Is Me, Ben and Cory Ferris were supposed to join Issues but didn’t show up to any of the recording sessions for the band’s first EP, Black Diamonds, and left the band within a month of each other in September and November 2012. Today the band is made up of Tyler Carter (clean vocals), Michael Bohn (unclean vocals), AJ Rebollo (guitar), Skyler Acord (bass guitar), and Josh Manuel (drums).The band was signed to Rise Records and began releasing music.

The Black Diamonds EP was released in November of 2012, but was rereleased as an acoustic version two years later in 2014. They only have one full length studio album which is self-entitled which was released in February of 2014.

They have a total of nine singles including a cover of NSYNC’s “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” for Fearless Record’s Punk Goes Christmas album and a cover of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” for Fearless Record’s album Punk Goes Pop 6.

Issues has been on a lot of tours over their three years of band hood. Their first support act was with Attila on their “Party With The Devil Tour” and have moved on to tour with Beartooth, Of Mice & Men, Bring Me The Horizon, I Killed The Prom Queen, Ghost Town, Marmozets, Nightmares, State Champs, Tonight Alive, and All Time Low.

I had heard of Issues before they announced that they were joining All Time Low on their Future Hearts Tour which was great for me because I really like their music. I was very pleased when they sang their song “Disappear (Remember When)” which is about the loss of a loved one. I would love to see them live again, but they are very fond of mosh pits and death walls. I was thankfully up in the balcony for their performance and they were amazing!

Tonight Alive

            Tonight Alive is an Australian rock band that formed all the way back in 2008 in Sydney, Australia. The band is made up of lead vocalist Jenna McDougall, Whakaio Taahi on lead guitar, Jake Hardy on rhythm guitar, Cam Adler on bass, and Matt Best on drums.

            They were signed to Takedown Records and it took them a few years before they released their first EP in 2010 called Consider This. They also released an EP called All Shapes and Disguises that year as well. It wasn’t until near the end of 2011 that they released their first full length album, What Are You So Scared Of?, after they left Takedown and signed with both Sony Music Entertainment Australia and Fearless Records. It wasn’t released in the United Kingdom or the United States until one year later.

            They recorded their 2nd and latest album, The Other Side, which they started writing just after the release of What Are You So Scared Of?. The Other Side debuted at number 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart in early September of 2013. They haven’t released anything else since other than a song called “The Edge” which they recorded for The Amazing Spiderman 2 Soundtrack in 2014. They are working on their third album as of right now and they expect it to be released this summer in July.

            They have done a plethora of tours since they formed and they just recently finished their latest tour supporting All Time Low on their Future Hearts Tour during their Australian and US legs of the tour. Through the years they have toured with bands like Set It Off, You Me At Six, Taking Back Sunday, Chuck! No Capitain Chuck!, Mayday Parade, The Story So Far, The Downtown Fiction, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, We Came As Romans, Black Veil Brides, Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce The Veil, The Wonder Years, We Are The In Crowd, Breathe Carolina, and Simple Plan. They have also gone on Vans Warped Tour in 2012 and 2013.

          Tonight Alive is an amazing band and Jenna McDougall is such an inspirational person. At all of the shows before singing “What Are You So Scared Of?” she would have the crowd repeat this mantra back to her “From this day I refuse to live in fear of someone else’s judgment!” She is literally the queen of the punk scene and I aspire to be like her! 

State Champs

             State Champs is an American Pop-Punk band from a small town called Averill which is just outside of Albany, New York. The band was founded by Tyler Szalkowski (lead guitar) and Derek DiScanio (lead vocals) in 2010. The two put out a self-released, unnamed EP in 2010 and another EP in 2011 called Apparently, I’m Nothing along with former members William Goodermote (bass), Dave Fogarty (guitar), Matt Croteau (drums) who departed from State Champs in 2011, 2012, and 2012. The departed members were later replaced by Ryan Scott Graham (bass, 2014), Tony "Rival" Diaz (guitars, 2012), and Evan Ambrosio (drums 2012)

            Just over a year after the release of their second EP they were signed to Pure Noise Records. Their debut off the label was their third EP, Overslept, that September in 2012. They soon set off on tour to put their new music across the United States along with bands like We Are The In Crowd, Set It Off, and Candy Hearts. They also hopped across the pond to support The Wonder Years and A Loss For Words in both the United Kingdom and some parts of Europe. In 2013, they released their first full length album, The Finer Things, which debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. With their new album they began touring once again. State Champs announced a co-headlining tour with another Pure Noice Band, Handguns. They have also done a few tour dates of Vans Warped Tour in 2014. Later that year they released an acoustic EP with songs from nearly all their EPs and from The Finer Things.

            State Champs is an unknown band, but they are really amazing. I had the pleasure of seeing them as a support act about a week and a half ago on All Time Low’s Future Hearts Tour and they were amazing. They were actually the only band that I hadn’t already listened to before they announced that they were on the tour, but I am so glad that I found out about them because their music is just wonderful. 

Crown The Empire

Crown The Empire is an American band formed in 2010 classified as Post-Hardcore and metalcore. The band is made up of Andrew "Andy Leo" Velasquez, David Escamilla, Bennett "Benn Suede" Vogelman, Brandon Hoover, Hayden Tree, and Brent Taddie.

The band was formed in 2010 by high school friends Andrew Velasquez, Austin Duncan, Hayden Tree, and Brandon Hoover. They mainly jammed together and one of their main goals was to "be heavier than most bands in their area." The guys got more serious and began to look for another guitarist and a new full time drummer to replace their current stand-in drummer, Alex Massey. Brent Taddie joined as their full time drummer in 2011 and Benn Suede joined as their newest guitarist in 2011 as well.

Not long after, Crown The Empire released their first Studio EP, Limitless, in November that year. Later they signed to Rise Records and even supported Pierce The Veil for a few of their UK tour dates. By August of 2012 the band announced a new vocalist, David Escamilla, who was the cherry on top of an amazing sound. In October the band began releasing teasers for their debut studio album, The Fallout, which featured the song “Johnny Ringo”. They were supposed to do the Infamous Tour but due to scheduling issues they couldn’t and the band released a statement saying "Unfortunately we will not be on The Infamous Tour this fall due to scheduling issues. We’re sorry to all of those who were coming out to the shows to see us perform and we hope you guys still go out to the shows to see all the other great bands" also stating "We have some HUGE things in the works :)”

Their promise of huge things wasn’t understated because not only did they join a multitude of tours, they also released The Fallout and a rerecorded version of their EP Limitless with David’s vocals. With the release of their album, and the completely redone Limitless EP the band was getting ready to get back in the studio to record their second album, The Resistance: Rise of The Runaways.

After the release of The Resistance: Rise of The Runaways the band announced their headlining tour that would span across the United States. Even though this band is still young, their talent is extraordinary and I hope that one day I get the privilege of seeing them perform live!

One Direction

            One Direction is a British/ Irish boyband that got their start on the popular music competition X Factor. The band was formed in July of 2010 when the five boys were eliminated as solo artists but were put into a group instead. The original members are Louis Tomlinson, 23, Zayn Malik, 22, Liam Payne, 21, Niall Horan, 21, and Harry Styles, 21. The band has rocketed to success within their first few months as a band and have even surpassed The Beatles in musical standings.

The band built up their following throughout their time on the UK X Factor and made it all the way to the semi-finals where they came in first place. They were taken under Simon Cowells wing even though they didn’t win and their careers skyrocketed from there on.

            They started recording their first album, Up All Night, which was released in the UK in 2011 and became one of the UK’s fastest selling albums. The album was preceded by the release of their debut single, What Makes You Beautiful, which is the bands most well-known song to date.

The band signed to Columbia records in the US and released the album across the pond and became the first ever debut album from an English act to ever debut at number one. The amazing success of the album led the band to tours of Europe, Australia, America, Canada, and the UK. Also, the band released a live tour DVD for the fans that couldn’t make the shows (like me).

In November of 2012 the band released their second studio album, Take Me Home, which held the top spot on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 copies worldwide in its first week in the United States alone. Prior to their Take Me Home Tour the band released a cover of One Way or Another and Teenage Kicks for the nationwide UK Comic Relief charity.

During their Madison Square Garden show, the band recorded the performance for the tour documentary This Is Us, which showed the boys on tour, at home and even had famous appearances from Chris Rock, and the very people that brought the five people into this world. The movie was released in theaters as a 3D experience and took over 60 million dollars worldwide.

By the time 1D released their third album, Midnight Memories, they had already announced their third world tour, The Where We Are Tour. This was the band’s first ever stadium tour and was also turned into a concert movie. The film showed the San Siro performance in Milan, Italy. The fans were the real starts, however, as they turned the stadium into an amazing picture of UK flags during “Right Now”, a photo album with each fan bringing a baby picture for “Story Of My Life” and an astounding duet with the band throughout their performance.

In November of 2014, FOUR, was released worldwide and topped the Billboard Top 200 chart as well as the UK Album Chart. Shortly after this release the band began the Australian and European leg of their On The Road Again Tour, and before the European leg ended the tensions began to run high among the band members and the media. Over the years the members were constantly targeted by the media on anything that would get people to read. After nearly five years this still isn’t something a person just gets used to and Zayn was accused for the last time of cheating on long term girlfriend/fiancée Perrie Edwards who is also an X Factor alumnus. Zayn took a break from the tour to calm down and reconnect with himself, Perrie and his family. On March 25, 2015 Zayn and the bands management announced Zayn’s departure from the band which caused a massive uproar amongst the fans and the rest of the world. There is much controversy of Zayn’s true intentions and there are a multitude of rumors swarming about the subject still, nearly a month later.

I personally won’t believe any of the rumors unless Zayn admits them himself or there is hard evidence. As far as I am concerned he left for his happiness and that is all I want for any of them. They deserve to be happy and they deserve privacy. I think people should leave them alone unless they are in public as Zayn Malik of One Direction or Louis Tomlinson of One Direction, etc. not plain Zayn Malik from Bradford, or Louis Tomlinson from Doncaster.

I have loved this band for about for or so years and they are one of the only pop acts that I like. I have seen them in concert twice and I have met some amazing people through this band. I am proud to call myself a fan and if you ask me Zayn will always be a member of the band.

Panic! At The Disco

Panic! At The Disco or Panic at the Disco (the band has been on an off with the exclamation point for most of their musical career) is an American band from Las Vegas, Nevada that has been very popular amongst music listeners across the world since they formed in 2004. P!ATD is classified as synthpop, baroque pop, and more commonly pop punk/ pop rock.

The band is currently made up of lead singer/ guitarist Brendon Urie and bassist Dallon Weekes. The original band was formed by school friends Spencer Smith, Ryan Ross, Brendon Urie, and Brent Wilson back in 2004 and they recorded some of their first demos while still attending their old high school. Their first single, I Write Sins Not Tragedies, was released which was shortly followed by their debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, was released in 2005 with a debut at 112 on the Billboard Top 200. The sales for their debut album were slow as they put their name and music out there. Their sales grew and they embarked on their The Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour which was noted to be a notable live show that was very theatrical. The circus inspired tour called a lot of attention to the band and brought them worldwide success.

The band started preparing their sophomore album, pretty. odd., without their original bassist, Brent Wilson. They wrote almost the whole album and even performed the songs over the summer but soon grew tired of them. They decided to chuck all the songs and start over on their album. In the anticipation of the release of their album, Panic was writing and recording music. They also created a new logo for their band that no longer held the exclamation point. Two months after the new logo was unveiled they released the new and improved pretty. odd. which did much better than their first album on the charts debuting at number two on the Billboard Top 200.

The band toured again and by the time their third album, Vices & Virtues, was released both Jon Walker, bass, and original member, Ryan Ross, announced their departure from the band. By March 2011, what was left of the original band and the newly inducted members released Vices & Virtues and began touring shortly after.

In the time between albums, the band made a song called “New Perspective” for the Jennifer’s Body soundtrack as well as a song called "Mercenary" for the Battman: Arkham City video game and even collaborated with the band FUN to create the song “C’mon”.

While trying to sort out their members they had many fill-ins and unofficial add ons. By late 2013 the band was recording their fourth album, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! Somewhere in the mix of all the adds, drops, tours, releases and creating sessions the exclamation point made its way back into the bands logo.

The band is currently planning their fifth ablum and even though their original drummer, Spencer Smith, departed from the band, Panic! still moves foreward!

I love how Panic! At the Disco doesn’t sound like any other band. The music that they produce is always amazing and they are one of the bands that I can play their songs on repeat for days and still crave to hear each lyric, note, harmony, drum beat, and guitar chord.