A new music festival added to the roster this year!
For some unknown reason I’d never heard of this emo-leaning festival for nine whole years and it was taking place practically in my backyard! Okay, Pittsburgh isn’t my backyard, but it’s pretty dang close to where I live. Close enough that I felt that I should have known or heard about it before now. In any case, I’m glad I found it this year because it gave me the chance to see a band I’ve never had the pleasure to before: The All-American Rejects! I know what you’re thinking: how could you have never seen these guys? They’ve been around forever. I know! And I just haven’t. But that all changed last night, and it was totally worth the wait.
But first, more about the festival itself before I get into the music of it all. I heard this as I was walking in yesterday, but this is apparently a completely independently funded festival, which ten years in is really impressive to accomplish! Especially after a pandemic and also with the talent they are able to wrangle. This was also the first year at this “new” venue, which was for sure some kind of abandoned factory at the end of a dead-end road. Made it just a little creepy, tying the Mansfield Prison for the strangest festival venue. Nothing will beat seeing Emery in a sketchy attic, but these are close seconds. The rest of the spread, though it looked a little bare-bones, was actually quite robust given that it wasn’t a huge festival like Sonic Temple or Riot Fest.
The fact that it was only two days was refreshing, as well. Though Saturdays’ lineup was nice, I’m not the biggest fan of A Day to Remember, and they were also just at Sonic Temple. Senses Fail were probably the only band that really got me excited for that day and I’ve seen them too many times to miss a day at the pool. No, the big draw for me was seeing Motion City Soundtrack and The All-American Rejects. The former because they are amazing and sound amazing every time I see them, and the latter because I had never seen them before. And what a great place to do it! Like I said, it was a smaller festival, so really almost anywhere I stood was a close, great view of the stage. Even when I decided to move in closer, I never felt smothered or overwhelmed by anyone else in attendance. It was quite nice.
As it went, I got there a little later in the day, as I wasn’t wild about the earlier sets, but I got there to catch Hunny and Taylor Acorn who actually put on some pretty impressive sets. Then I caught essentially local Reliant K, who got such a rambunctiously loving reaction that I truly wasn’t expecting from this group. The Get Up Kids played next, and as I heard someone in the crowd say, these guys are truly elder emos. They weren’t wrong. I’d never heard their music before, so I couldn’t appreciate the album they played front to back, but Motion City Soundtrack, who played after them, were big, big fans. MCS sounded fantastic, as expected. Similar to The Get Up Kids, I had absolutely no appreciation of the reunion of Something Corporate, but it was a very energetic set, full of gratitude from the band.
Finally, going on a little later than originally slated, The All-American Rejects took the stage and were high energy from the go. What better way to start a set than with the song that originally blew them up? I’ll admit, as the set went on, I realized I wasn’t as familiar with a lot of their work, but the crowd that was made it really fun to enjoy. Given that these guys are in their 40s, I was really impressed with the wild energy they maintained throughout the whole set. They also seemed really happy to be there. That kind of a reaction always makes me really happy at shows. You can be cool and know you’re cool, but if you show any gratitude, you’ve made me more of a fan for life. Other than a randomly included cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow,” we got to hear all of the hits like “Dirty Little Secret,” “Move Along,” and “Gives You Hell.”
Even though I got drenched three times over the course of six hours, I still had a blast at this little-known festival. Now that I know about it, I hope that it remains a best-kept secret, and I hope that they still host it for another ten-plus years!
