After the sets of power-pop quartet We the Kings and rock quintet The Audition, the House of Blues Sunset Strip turned into a party when the Baltimore-based foursome All Time Low took the stage Sunday night as part of the Tourzilla tour.
As the pop-punk band played the first notes to “Dear Maria, Count Me In,” a hit off its new full-length album “So Wrong, It’s Right,” the crowd went wild. The band raised the energy level in the venue with its set featuring songs from its EP “Put Up or Shut Up” as well as its new CD. Everyone in the House of Blues danced their way through old hits like “Jasey Rae,” “Coffee Shop Soundtrack” and “Break Out! Break Out!” along with ATL’s newest tracks “Six Feet Under the Stars” (the band’s single that currently has a video on MTV) and “Let It Roll.”
All Time Low’s stage presence forced every person to be on their feet and let loose during the band’s songs containing catchy hooks and raw lyrics. With playful banter between lead singer/guitarist Alex Gaskrath and guitarist Jack Barakat, along with Gaskrath proposing a crowd-surfing competition, the audience enjoyed a fun-filled, interactive performance by a band threatening to be the next big thing.
The quartet’s set ended with a dedication by Gaskrath to “all the hustlers out there,” and the band’s liveliness lasted all the way until the last notes of “The Girl’s a Straight-Up Hustler.”
After the crowd anxiously waited for about 30 minutes, headlining band Boys Like Girls blazed onto the stage, jumping right into its latest hit, the love anthem “Hero/Heroine.” The Boston-based quartet won over the crowd with a mixture of vibrant pop-punk tracks and emotional ballads from its self-titled debut album.
With bright colorful spotlights and strobe lights flashing on stage, Boys Like Girls jammed through energetic songs such as “Five Minutes to Midnight” and “On Top of the World.”
The highlight of the band’s performance came when it put an acoustic twist on the ballad “Thunder.” Front man Martin Johnson came on the stage without the other band members with only his acoustic guitar before asking that all stage lights be turned off. About two minutes into the song, the other three members joined Johnson and finished the song with the guitars and drums that can be heard on the CD version.
Boys Like Girls finished its set with its most popular hit “The Great Escape.”
Tourzilla had every person in the crowd partying through all of the sets, with every band interacting with the crowd so that the people in attendance were in the show, not just watching it.
With members from The Audition and We the Kings joining All Time Low and Boys Like Girls on stage for certain songs during the show, the camaraderie between the four touring bands was genuine and could be felt throughout the venue. At the end of the night, the audience felt like they were leaving a party, not just a performance.
