All Time Low: Self-Made Maniacs

ALL TIME LOW mean absolutely nothing to the dim bulbs who work in commercial radio or to housewives rockin’ Daughtry tour tees. But it’s all good, thanks to the AP readers who overwhelmingly voted the wisecracking pop-punks Band Of The Year. AP caught up with them on their recent victory lap of the U.S. to learn where they want (and need) to go from here.



Story: Annie Zaleski

Photos: Evan Hunt



It’s a frigid mid-November night in St. Louis. Light snow flurries and a biting wind whip the shiny Christmas decorations hanging over Delmar Boulevard, in an area of the city known as the Loop. Still, the cold weather hasn’t stopped fans from lining up early for tonight’s All Time Low show: Several have been huddled in sleeping bags and under blankets outside a venue called the Pageant since 3:30 a.m., just a few hours after a sold-out Rise Against show ended.



The ATL show at the Pageant isn’t sold out, but it’s close: Nearly 2,000 people have packed the 2,300-capacity theater (an impressive number, even more so considering that it’s a school night). Most in attendance appear to be are jammed together shoulder-to-shoulder in the all-ages floor area. A mass sing-along breaks out in the pit when Blink-182’s “All The Small Things” plays over the PA system before ATL’s set.



At 9:30 p.m., a sea of cameras and cell phones springs up like fireflies as the lights go down. Bathed in purple light, drummer Rian Dawson appears first, triumphantly holding one drumstick in the air, like He-Man. As he starts pounding out the rhythm, bassist Zack Merrick and guitarist Jack Barakat each leap gracefully onto a lighted- stair-step platform to greet the crowd. The quartet launch right into “Poppin’ Champagne” as a sea of gold streamers and confetti falls over the excited crowd.



The rest of the hour-long set crackles with energy, right up until the final song, “Dear Maria, Count Me In,” which finds vocalist/guitarist Alex Gaskarth wandering offstage and onto a table to finish the song standing among the crowd. The band’s pop-punk permutations hint at (but never directly imitate) genre superstars like the Starting Line, New Found Glory, Green Day, Fall Out Boy and their beloved idols, Blink-182. From the balcony, the mosh pit looks like a storm-tracking weather map of a hurricane.



The band match the audience’s enthusiasm. Barakat takes advantage of the big stage and bolts around like a long-distance runner doing laps, pausing only to throw guitar picks into fans’ outstretched hands. Merrick leaps around with the grace of a gazelle, occasionally spin-kicking in unison with Barakat. Dawson ferociously pounds the drums, resembling the burly punk drummers of the Fat Wreck Chords bands he idolized growing up.



Then there’s the stage banter. Barakat: “Well, fuck my butt, St. Louis!” Gaskarth: “I would honestly like to have sex with every one of you [pause for crowd cheering] in a dump truck filled with hot lava.” But tonight, Gaskarth tempers these bawdy bits with plenty of sincerity. “We’ve never played this large of a venue before in St. Louis. But you guys really stepped it up. Thank you.”



Before “Lullabies” explodes from a punk waltz into a balls-out rocker, Gaskarth yells, “Now let’s have a fucking dance party!” The frenzied crowd response causes the tousled-haired vocalist to exclaim, “Holy shit, this is awesome!”



In the band’s bus after the show, everyone’s in a good mood. The last time All Time Low played in St. Louis proper was in March 2007 with Cute Is What We Aim For in front of a couple hundred people at the all-ages punk venue the Creepy Crawl. “The Story Of The Year guys shot their [Live In The Lou/Bassassins] DVD [at the Pageant],” Gaskarth says, sitting next to Barakat on a plush couch near the front of the bus. “We watched it [on Warped Tour] and we’re like, ‘That’s a really, really cool venue.’ After that, it was one of those goals to play there. When we got the routing for this tour, we saw that we had the choice of playing here, even though it was big. The last time we played [in St. Louis], we definitely didn’t play for anywhere near that amount of kids. We weren’t really sure if we were going to come anywhere close to filling it up, but we did.”



It’s a scenario that’s become familiar to All Time Low on their first national headlining trek, dubbed the Compromising Of Integrity, Morality And Principles In Exchange For Money Tour. They’re drawing bigger-and more enthusiastic-crowds to larger venues, like the 3500-capacity Roseland Ballroom in New York City (which the band sold out. Then again, 2008 has been nothing but one triumph after another for the Lutherville Timonium, Maryland, quartet. Their second full-length, So Wrong, It’s Right, has sold 142,000 copies and counting. MTV played videos for “Poppin’” and “Dear Maria, Count Me In” on TRL. Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, co-wrote a song with them, and introduced the band at mtvU’s Woodie Awards with a rambling, complimentary speech. Even Pete Wentz is a self-professed fan.



Not long after this headlining tour, ATL plan to record the follow-up to Right. In separate interviews, they admit to feeling pressure to produce something that’s better than the last record without losing their edge. Despite their goofy personalities, ATL are very serious about their music. They want to become the best band they possibly can while living up to the occasionally impossible expectations of their fans.



But these concerns can wait a few months. As it creeps past 1 a.m. in St. Louis, their aspirations for tonight are simpler: Barakat is going bowling with some of his crew members at a bar down the street. Gaskarth is retreating to the back of the bus to spend time with his girlfriend, who’s on a short visit from Baltimore. Merrick, who worked out earlier in the day, is heading to bed. Figuring out what ATL want to achieve with their music is the least of their priorities, although they give it a shot. Before they shuffle off, the members suggest winning a Nobel Peace Prize, “uniting the world” and winning “any award.” (Apparently, the band are still smarting a little from losing the breaking Woodie to Hopeless Records’ labelmates There For Tomorrow the week prior.)



If you’d like to read more about All Time Low pick up AP 247

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