When students are brought in to the Grand Ballroom for their Western Illinois orientation, it seems hard to imagine that it could be transformed in to something as amazing as it was last Saturday for the All Time Low concert.
Attendance was far from an “all-time low” when more than 500 fans showed up for the University Union Board-sponsored show, which started at 8 p.m. Tickets were general admission, and fans started lining up as early as 11 a.m. to get a prime spot to watch the Maryland-native pop punk band. Western students weren’t the only ones in attendance — some fans came from as far away as Wisconsin.
The house lights went down and All Time Low opened with “Lost in Stereo” and the crowd screamed with excitement. The crowd was packed tight near the stage as the band brought all their energy to Saturday’s performance, and the intensity didn’t drop for the entire hour and a half show.
Alex Garkarth, lead singer of All Time Low, described what it was like to visit Macomb for the first time.
“You people live out in the middle of a sea of corn,” he said. “This town is just a little island out in the middle of the corn.”
The band played a combination of music ranging most of their career all the way from “Coffee Shop Soundtrack” off their 2006 “Put Up or Shut Up” EP to “For Baltimore” off their upcoming album, “Don’t Panic,” which comes out Oct. 9 on Hopeless Records.
“I really liked the balance between new and old songs, and even though they didn’t play my favorite song, ‘Poppin’ Champagne,’ I really enjoyed seeing them,” said Nathan Ed, a psychology major from the University of Illinois at Springfield, who drove two hours just to attend
the performance.
“You guys are the perfect cure for a hangover,” said Jack Barakat, lead guitarist of All Time Low about the crowd. Gaskarth added in, “It’s good to see you people like to get rowdy. You guys (expletive) rule!”
Macomb wasn’t the only thing All Time Low talked about on stage. Airport security, Harry Potter, and Batman (“Who decided to make Bane’s voice like that?”) were all subjects the band talked about onstage.
One lucky fan was in for the All Time Low experience of a lifetime. Gaskarth commented that the band normally has an opening act or opens for someone larger, and asked if there was anyone that wanted to play with them. Brandon Ferro, a civil engineering major from the University of Illinois, was picked out of the crowd to go on stage to meet the band. He played a short drum solo before performing “Sugar We’re Going Down” by Fall Out Boy with the band.
After driving three hours to attend his 19th All Time Low concert, Ferro could only describe this event as, “Freaking incredible, just amazing, like nothing I’ve ever experienced or thought would happen.”
Those unable to make Saturday night’s concert missed out on a performance high in energy and entertainment. All Time Low was at their peak, and put on an intense performance that showed Macomb they know how to rock.
http://www.westerncourier.com/the_edge/all-time-low/article_e9f26d66-0d86-11e2-a35e-001a4bcf6878.html
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