Hundreds of screaming and singing girls filled the sold out Minneapolis’ historic First Avenue on April 21st. Most were there to see the headlining act All Time Low, but many were looking forward to seeing Yellowcard and Hey Monday take the stage on The Dirty Work Tour.
Opening the show up that evening was The Summer Set from Arizona who had previously visited Minneapolis while playing the 2010 Vans Warped Tour. The band has a slight Disney pop sound to them and seemed to be a hit with the teenage girls. They were well received by the audience.
Hey Monday who has increased in popularity over the last few years, were next on the bill. This is not the first time that Hey Monday has toured with All Time Low or The Summer Set. Hey Monday is a power pop rock band from the sunny state of Florida. To the delight of the audience, the band started the night off with their single “I Don’t Wanna Dance”. Cassadee Pope (lead singer) was energetic throughout the band performance, hopped up and down getting the crowd even more wound up and into the songs. At one point, Cassadee slowed things down as she sat with her acoustic guitar played for the crowd as John Gomez from The Summer Set came out and accompanied her.
Soon after Hey Monday’s set, Yellowcard took the stage. It was pretty clear that Yellowcard was one of the bigger bands of the night. Lead singer Ryan Key must have felt the positive vibes from the welcoming crowd and announced that he was sorry it took Yellowcard so long to come back to Minnesota and that it would never happen again. Yellowcard played two songs including “For You, And Your Denial” and a slower song called “Hang You Up” from their recently released the album “When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes”. During the set, Key commented that it was the first show where he had almost got hit with a toothbrush, the crowd got a laugh. To end the bands’ set they played some of their biggest hits, “Only One” and “Ocean Avenue” from the album Ocean Avenue.
In between acts the venues speakers ranged of various music from Avril Lavigne, Ke$ha, and Katy Perry. As the songs played, it was as if one of the pop stars were actually onstage. A choir of female voices rang throughout the venue. But all stopped when the lights shut off. .. Singing turned in to screaming. And the screaming increased in intensity and volume as the alternative pop/rock band, All Time Low, walked onto the stage.
ATL (as they are called by their fans) must feel like the Beatles with all these girls yelling for them. The energetic atmosphere was set immediately. Guitarist, Jack Barakat, made sure of this with his energetic antics that continued throughout the show. It was obvious that the band really wanted to entertain the fans. The legendary night club felt much like a larger venue due to the unique lighting system on stage.
Once the band started performing their second song of the evening, the female fans started throwing bras on stage, many of them with phone numbers. Lead singer/guitar player, Alex Gaskarth, announced that all the bras get to be placed on Jack’s mic stand. More and more bras were thrown and added throughout the show until the mic stand was nearly hidden from view. One of many highlights of the evening was when the band left Alex unaccompanied on stage. He got out an acoustic guitar and started playing Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, followed by All Time Low’s “Remembering Sunday.” After a few lines, Cassadee of Hey Monday accompanied him, her strong vocals were a nice addition to the duet. The band then finished the set with “Therapy” before leaving the stage. As ATL was walking off, the chanting for an encore started immediately. Within a minute, the band returned to the stage to play “Weightless” and “Dear Maria, Count Me In” to end the show.
