All-American Rejects drum up humor and fun at Kansas City’s FIFA Fan Fest
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- The All-American Rejects headlined Fan Fest's last day in Kansas City.
- The band performed a 13-song set including "Dirty Little Secret" and "Gives You Hell".
- Singer Tyson Ritter three times poked fun at the $225 Legacy Lounge VIP section.
When Midori Charles was a California teenager traveling to a tournament for her club soccer team in the early 2000s, “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects came on their sing-along team playlist. The girls spent the ride to the last game of the season flirting with the boys club team on the other bus, a moment of “stupid” teenage rebellion that the team kept referring to as their own dirty secret.
Knowing their crowd, The All-American Rejects took to the stage at Kansas City’s FIFA Fan Fest 15 minutes late Saturday with a opening visual showing a text message reading “I love going to church while high.” Meanwhile, the at-capacity crowd of 25,000 people hit every note.
“(The band) like, defined a generation,” Charles said.
The All-American Rejects are an Oklahoma-based, upbeat emo, “Midwest punk” group that inspired millennials growing up in the 2000s to reject the status quo in their own lives, no matter how small. Concertgoers Megan Penman and Steffie Olson defined the rock band in the same vein as My Chemical Romance and Yellowcard, but the pop-y sound is for when you want to be happy and not depressed.
The “Swing, Swing” makers headlined Fan Fest’s last day, playing for an hour the afternoon before Argentina and Switzerland were set to face off at Kansas City Stadium. This fact wasn’t unbeknownst to singer Tyson Ritter, wearing a Colombia jersey and a pair of jeans, who asked the crowd, “You think it’s going to get a little Messi tonight?”
Rejecting ‘corporate greed’ with free live music
This is far from the band’s first free show. In line with their unapologetic fight against opulence, and goal to meet listeners where they’re at, the band has been doing pop-up concerts across America backyards and basements with the House Party Tour.
They know that live music has become a luxury. Friends Jazzy and Saundra, along with their group of seven, even said that, while they’ve been fans for decades, they probably wouldn’t pay more than 50 to see them “in this economy.”
“It feels so homey,” Saundra said. “But it feels like they’re really sticking with their roots. That’s where they came from.”
The band did not shy away from sticking it to the man. Ritter, three separate times, called out the Legacy Lounge — which might not have been amusing to those who paid $225 for what was a free concert to everyone else. At one point, he told the VIP section to just give their money to the “poor” general admission attendees.
But given the reach of the band, lots of attendees came into town specifically for them — including Charles’ cousin Kirsten Maclang, who came from California specifically to see the concert she’s been waiting for since teenagehood for the first time.
“I think it’s just the nostalgia of it,” Maclang said. “Because when you’re in high school, you don’t have money, and when you’re in college, you also don’t have money. So it’s not like you can see them. Now we have adult money, and now I can fly out and see them.”
‘We’re the Paris of the Midwest’
It was hard to ignore the sweltering July heat — even Ritter, who started the show barefoot, had to put on shoes because the black stage kept burning his feet. He replaced the last line of “Beekeeper’s Daughter,” to say “Honey, I know you’ll wait for me, Why can’t the temperature be 73?”
Of course, that didn’t stop them from utilizing flame machines and cold-spark machines to produce a fireworks-like display.
The band grew out of Stillwater, Oklahoma., and made sure to stay true to Midwest roots — likely to the glee of Jazzy and Saundra’s friend Daniel.
“We’re the Paris of the Midwest,” Daniel said. “They’re The All-American Rejects, the heroes of the suburbs. If they’re not bringing a very Midwestern vibe, like a mid-sized city trying to be a big city, I’m not feeling it.”
Daniel had nothing to worry about. Cigarette smoke, the lingering smell of weed and enough beers to “stay hydrated,” according to Ritter, turned the National World War I Museum and Memorial into just another messy, backyard rock concert.
Ritter introduced the heartfelt acoustic song “Green Isn’t Yellow,” saying, “This is a song about being a Midwest kid, I don’t know if any of you know what that’s like.” A resonant cheer answered his sarcastic comment, and he began to sing about Oklahoma dirt roads, six-packs of beer and wondering whether his dad would come home at night.
“I think about how FIFA is an international, everybody’s-into-it thing,” Saundra said. “But then whenever you have FIFA Fan Fest and American artists like The All-American Rejects (who) really represent American culture, I feel prideful about it. This is the Midwest. Like not only are they American, this is like this is the Midwest culture. This is how we represent.”
What The All-American Rejects brought to Kansas City
Ritter and his bandmates Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty, Chris Gaylor and guest singer Zack Ritter were just as weird and rock-and-roll as ever. Zack, a dentist, attended the concert and was forced onstage for their concluding song “Gives You Hell” after he ignored his younger brother’s callout from the stage earlier in the show.
Tyson Ritter’s dance moves were consciously uncomfortable and funny to watch. Swinging his hips, moaning into the mic and briefly getting promiscuous with a mic stand was the authenticity that the majority-millennial crowd expected. There were some older, some younger and some kids whose parents were diehard fans.
A second special guest came on stage after another favorite, “It Ends Tonight,” to celebrate her 100-year-old birthday coming up — social media phenom Gangster Granny. Ritter took a shot of straight vodka with her, also to celebrate the upcoming 21st anniversary of “Move Along,” which was also played.
Jazzy, a longtime fan who once made a Dragon Ball Z music video to “It Ends Tonight” in 2007, appreciates that the band plays what the people want to hear.
“They go crazy for their old stuff, and a lot of bands don’t do that anymore,” Jazzy said. “(Not) like, ‘Oh, OK, everybody’s here to see “Gives You Hell,” perfect. Let me just mumble through this.’”
All-American Rejects’ set list in Kansas City
The band’s 13-song set list was reflective of that nostalgia:
- “Dirty Little Secret”
- “Fallin’ Apart”
- “My Paper Heart”
- “Get This”
- “Beekeeper’s Daughter”
- “Swing, Swing”
- “Sweat”
- “I Wanna”
- “Green Isn’t Yellow”
- “It Ends Tonight”
- “Move Along”
- “Easy Come, Easy Go”
- “Gives You Hell”
