For our very first Setlist Insider of the year we have Alex Gaskarth and Rian Dawson of All Time Low, who are celebrating 20 years as a band with a few special "Forever"shows.
Before we hibernated for two weeks of music industry winter break at the end of 2023, the guys came by our Setlist.fm studio to dig into their data -- it ended up being a whole lot of Rian quizzing Alex, but they also talked about very early shows, special guest appearances, how many hours they'd need to make a setlist that hits every album and more. Highlights transcribed below, but to get in on the quizzing, you'll have to watch the whole episode. Take a look:
In the beginning
Rian: The first show that Setlist.fm has us playing is All Time Low at St. John's in 2003, so it would've been the year that we formed.
Alex: Whoa!
Rian: No setlist.
Alex: No setlist. Probably 'cause no songs. There was a time in our career where we were just starting to write our own songs and we would book shows and go and play songs that were half-written and I would make up the words 'cause I hadn't written lyrics yet.
Rian: First setlist ever at the Ottobar. 2005. The Ottobar was a venue in Baltimore that we would just incessantly call the promoter there and just be like, "Hey, you need someone to sell 30, 50 tickets?" We would just literally go to malls, stand outside of Hot Topic and just sell tickets
Alex: Flyers.
Rian: Yeah, flyers and just promote it. Five-song setlist is awesome. And I would say out of these five--
Alex: Just the hits.
Rian: I would to this day still put "Hometown Heroes" as a good song.
Alex: That's a great song.
Rian: The rest of them are fine.
Home away from home
Alex: We have played the Starland Ballroom probably more than most other venues. You can cram so many people in there, but it still feels like an amazing intimate rock show and I think those are always some of the best shows we ever play.
Rian: It oddly feels like a hometown show for us. We grew up in Baltimore, playing in Baltimore, so Jersey was never that far away. So every time we come back there it's like we're back at home.
Alex: Home away from home.
Alex: Starland Ballroom was the first time we played "Fake As Hell."
Bamboozle Roadshow 2010
Alex: Bamboozle Roadshow 2010. It was us, Boys like Girls, LMFAO?
[Editors note: Also Third Eye Blind and Good Charlotte]
Rian: Yeah. It was a shit show. Not backstage, we were all very good friends and it was awesome.
Alex: None of us knew how to do that kind of tour yet so we were all learning.
Rian: Oh, it got rained out in Pittsburgh, so everyone played acoustic. Third Eye Blind played "Jumper" with you, that's awesome.
Alex: Kid me was very, very excited to be out there on the stage singing that song with them.
More special guests
Interviewer: Real quick, guest appearances by other artists in your set.
Alex: Vic Fuentes, that makes sense. We have a song together and we toured together and that was a really, really fun moment.
Rian: Halsey. One of our New York shows. She was like, "I know you're not playing ‘Remembering Sunday’ in the set, but do you mind?" We're like, "No, that's fine."
Alex: “We got you.”
Rian: And then Joel Madden, we did a tour in the UK and we have a song featuring him called "Bail Me Out."
Extra credits
Rian: On the bottom of the list here is “Improvisations” and you click on that, it's “Interpretive Dance,” “Improv Kazoo Solo,” "No One Likes Jack." (Rian laughing)
Alex: By the way, “Interpretive Dance,” two performances.
Rian: Two, yeah.
Alex: Not one, but two interpretive dances.
Alex: We have such a hard time these days making a setlist. Our show right now is 24, 23 songs. In order for us to perform something from every album, we'd need straight up two hours.
Rian: Two hours.
Alex: Which, that's a big show.
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The Forever shows could be 2 hours, maybe? That's 6/4 at Red Rocks Amp in Colorado, 7/26 in Chicago and 8/24 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. There's also two bonus shows in D.C. AND ATL is playing at Bottle Rock in Napa this year. More dates and details on their official website.
