The pop-rock group The All-American Rejects, a stretch from the Lupe Fiasco fall concert, played to a packed Kuhl Gymnasium Saturday night as a part of Geneseo's annual spring concert.
The "I Wanna Rock" tour's three other bands - Vedera, Ace Enders and A Million Different People, and Shiny Toy Guns - warmed up the show, put on by Activities Commission Concerts. All three bands, though merely openers who played noticeably smaller sets than the Rejects, were just as, if not more, impressive than the concert's headliners.
Vedera took to the stage and launched into their set to kick off the show, which had a slightly delayed start. Throughout the set, lead singer Kristen May, showed off her multi-faceted voice as well as her ability to play both the keyboard and the guitar. Several of Verdera's songs were vaguely reminiscent of the style of songs by well-known group, Paramore.
Ace Enders, formerly of the band Early November, was up next supported by his band, A Million Different People. Each member of the band was enthusiastically devoted to getting the audience involved in the show, clapping their hands and encouraging everyone to sing along, especially during the song "Reaction," which Enders said is "the easiest song in the world to sing along to."
Although most people had packed into Kuhl Gym for the Rejects, the second loudest applause from the crowd was definitely elicited for Shiny Toy Guns, an electronica-indie rock band from Los Angeles. They played several songs off their newest album Season of Poison as well as two more well-known songs, "You are the One" and "Le Disko," both off of their older album.
After Shiny Toy Guns, the audience began getting restless in anticipation for the headliner. Around 10 p.m., The All-American Rejects finally took to the stage, launching right into "I Wanna" off of their newest album, When the World Comes Down.
The Rejects played a variety of songs off all three of their studio albums. Some of the highlights of the night included "Dirty Little Secret," "My Paper Heart," "Swing, Swing" and "Top of the World." They also played two songs acoustically: "Mona Lisa (When the World Comes Down)" and "It Ends Tonight."
Front man Tyson Ritter did a duet with May of Vedera, who sang the female part on the new song "Another Heart Calls." He remarked that it was "the first time we've ever performed that," and how the audience was "lucky" to have seen it.
Ritter jumped energetically around the stage throughout the entire night, rolling around on the ground and making lewd remarks in between songs. He mistakenly kept referring to SUNY Geneseo as "Sunny University," to the amusement of most of the crowd.
Although it seemed like the Rejects ended their set with "Move Along," the audience knew it wasn't true, as they hadn't performed their newest hit, "Gives You Hell." After thunderous chanting from the crowd, the band took to the stage once again; a moment that freshman Carolyn Wolfram said was her "favorite part of the show."
Finally ending their long set with the new song "The Wind Blows," it was clear that the All-American Rejects would definitely be welcome at Geneseo again in the future.