All Time Low in New York City - 12/4/09

I attended my first New York City concert on Friday at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th Street.

Now, I'm pretty sure I was one of the only two 22-year-olds at this show (part of the Glamour Kills Tour) considering that the performing artists were the emo rock bands All Time Low, We The Kings, Every Avenue, and The Friday Night Boys, all of which are big with the teenage crowd. Regardless, I'm not going to deny the fact that I'm a huge fan of All Time Low's music. They are a talented band, which is why I've seen them four times in the past year (twice when they opened for Fall Out Boy and twice when they headlined).

I didn't expect to be anywhere near the stage because when I got there, the line for entry was backed up all the way to 9th Avenue (note that the venue was on 34th Street and 8th Avenue). However, in the midst of all the moshing (which was rather light compared to previous concerts I've been to), I somehow ended up in the front by the time All Time Low graced the stage. One thing that made me feel honored to be in the audience was getting to hear Alex Gaskarth sing the "Remembering Sunday" duet with Automatic Loveletter's lead singer, Juliet Simms, who is the female voice on the record track. Throughout the tour, Cassadee Pope had been singing Juliet's part (Hey Monday couldn't make it to this show for reasons that were undisclosed), and although she certainly does it justice, it was cool to hear the original two singers performing it together.

Rather than stating the obvious and reflecting further on how amazing All Time Low sounded, I'm going to take this opportunity to bring up some new insights that I gathered about lead singer Alex Gaskarth this week. One thing that I noticed is the blatant discrepancy between who he is onstage versus who he is off-stage. If you were judging Alex Gaskarth solely by his immature stage antics involving lead guitarist and best friend Jack Barakat, you'd think he was the stereotypical guy whose mind doesn't deviate from sex and girls - someone who loves and craves the attention of his fans. Yet, when he's outside greeting the fans, he seems a lot less enthusiastic - sad even. Last night, I listened to the song "Lullabies" off their album The Party Scene. For some reason, I always skipped over this track, and I was in the mood to broaden my musical horizons. "Lullabies" stood out to me as being different from the typical All Time Low song about partying. It was beautiful in a dismal sort of way - the type of song that you'd want to hear in concert, but one that the artists would understandably leave out of a set list because it's not exactly an upper. After doing some research, I found out that it's about Alex's brother, Steven, who committed suicide. Apparently, Alex and Steven had gotten into an argument right before Steven took his life away. In the song, Alex expresses his sadness regarding the suicide and unleashes the anger he feels towards his brother for causing their family so much pain. Why am I bringing this up? I don't know - I guess it just reminded me of the old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover." Everyone has their shit to deal with, even if they mask it.