With When We Were Young fest headed into its third consecutive year and the announcement that Warped Tour will be back for 2025, an aughts scene revival is in full swing, swing. Yes, that whole intro was written just to drop the reference to the breakout hit by The All-American Rejects who were mainstays in that era and just last month released their first new music since 2020, a cover of Harvey Danger’s 90s classic “Flagpole Sitta.” While we don’t know what else is to come in the band’s new release future, in the present we were lucky enough to get Nick Wheeler and Mike Kennerty into our studio to share some live music memories. They talked about legends from the punk, metal and rock scenes and one of them even apologized to their mom. To find out who and why, watch below!
Dillinger Four
Mike Kennerty: 1999, I was 19. Dillinger Four was one of my favorite bands. And they're actually coming to our town to play at the tiny little record store in town. I had to lie... Sorry, Mom. I would stay the night at friends’ houses, which was true, but then we would drive to these really awful parts of town that I probably shouldn’t have been in at such a young age. There was maybe 30 people there, and we were all very excited, we're all waiting, and they didn't show up. And we're like, “Ah!” Super bummed, we're thinking this isn't going to happen. And then at the last second, they pull in and they're like, “Sorry, we're running late!” And then Dillinger Four played, and everyone knew every word to these songs. And we're arm in arm screaming them, and they’re just playing on the floor in this record store. And it was just one of these moments that you don't get often in life because there's not many shows I can think of that have come even close to that for me.
Metallica
Nick Wheeler: I grew up in a small town. We didn't get a lot of shows. So, whenever big concerts would come through Oklahoma, we'd have to drive to “The City,” as we called it. The Myriad, I saw a lot of shows there, but probably one of the most memorable ones was Metallica on the Load tour. It would have been my first time to see Metallica. At this time, I was probably 13 or 14. Metallica was just one of those seminal bands for me. One of the first CDs I bought was The Black Album. And what made this so memorable is it was a huge production. Kirk Hammett had wah pedal stations all over the stage. It took up the entire floor. Near the end of the show, the entire stage starts collapsing. Stuff catches on fire, guys start falling from the rafters. We thought, “Oh my God, something has gone severely wrong.” And then they come back all set up really tight in a circle and this little work light comes down. And I was like, “Oh my God, we’re getting something so special here in Oklahoma City at the Myriad!” A few months later, MTV News does a segment on this tour, and they show the part of the show where the stage collapses and shit catches on fire. And I was like, “They did that every fucking night, didn’t they?”
Tom Petty
Nick: On tour, sometimes you have the opportunity to cross paths with other bands that happen to be in the same city where you have a night off. It would have been late 2000s. I don't even remember where in Amsterdam it was, but Tom Petty was in town. It was like a theater, or just a large club, just a few thousand people maybe.
Mike: I definitely had some takeaways from watching his show, in that how not-a-show it was. It seemed like there was no setlist and they were just taking their time between songs figuring out what the next song was going to be. It was dead air, just talking to each other. That was cool! That was really cool to see someone not care about that part of it and just be like, “I'm just a dude up here playing.”
Nick: I mean, especially now that he's not with us anymore, that's something we'll never forget.
The All-American Rejects have tour dates lined up through October, including two sets at this year’s When We Were Young festival where they’ll be playing their self-titled debut album. For other dates and ticket information, check out their official website.
