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.