ALL TIME LOW in Allentown...

On Friday night, myself, Dusty, and Pattitude embarked on a road trip of sorts up to Allentown, to see All Time Low at the Crocodile Rock. This was my first time in the fair city of Allentown (excluding trips to Dorney Park) and it was an interesting experience. It took a little getting used to during the show when each band kept saying things like, "What's going on ALLENTOWN?" and "Hello ALLENTOWN". It's tough hearing anything other than "What's going on PHILADELPHIA". But anyway, the Crocodile Rock had two different bar areas, one right outside the concert venue with an adjacent pizza place, and a little bar area in the back of the venue, where those under 21 were not allowed. You have to keep in mind that the average age of ALL TIME LOW's fans is in the teens so that can be a little trying for people our age. So A+ on the setup and atmosphere of the Crocodile Rock.

For the three opening bands, we spent our time at the bar, going round for round, and even buying a shot from the shot girl walking around, who seemed a little intimidated by us (and no Dusty it was not because of you). The opening bands that we did see were alright. I thoroughly enjoyed Just Surrender, who according to Dusty and Pattitude have been around for a little while and have released 3 albums so far. I'm a little perplexed that I had never heard of them previously, but I picked up their latest CD and it is currently a mainstay in my car. May Day Parade was the final opening band and I didn't really think much of them. The only thing that really stood out in my mind was that one of their guitarist kept doing a stabbing motion with his guitar every 10 seconds even when it didn't correspond with the music at all. And their other guitarist was morbidly skinny and he may have also permed his hair.

While hanging at the bar, the three of us also furthered our plans to start a pop-punk band. Dusty apparently wants to be the singer which works in the sense that he dresses effeminately (he'll admit to it) and he could have a pretty good stage presence. Downside would be that Dusty really can't sing, although he claims he'll be taking vocal lessons from his sister. Pattitude is going to play the bass and handle the duties of screamer as needed. And I'm going to be playing guitar and handling the harmonizing duties. I'm thinking we're going to need another guitarist because by no means am I good lead guitarist, but Dusty and Pattitude think we'll be alright with one guitar so we'll see. We've got someone in mind to drum, but if he's not interested, we'll be heading to Craigs List. So hopefully by the spring things should start to get in motion.

Back to the ALL TIME LOW show... right after May Day Parade's set, Dusty and Pattitude decided to head to the front by the stage to sweat among all the 14 year old girls, but I decided to hang back and enjoy the concert by the supposed pit area. I generally enjoy hanging by the pit area and seeing what the kids are up to these days. Keeping in mind that ALL TIME LOW is a pop-punk band, there really shouldn't have been much of a pit - maybe some people could have done some skanking but instead there were just a couple of morons who kept making space and then doing nothing with the space mainly because there was nothing you could do to the music. Yet another reason why I hate the direction that our youth is taking the scene / concert experience in.

In general, ALL TIME LOW's show was pretty awesome. They've got a ton of songs that you just love to sing along to so that made the concert experience even better. The music selection was on par and they even managed to do two covers: "Under my Umbrella" by Rihanna and "Dammit" by Blink 182. They claimed that it was the first time they had played "Under my Umbrella" but I had read about it weeks ago on Absolute Punk so that was a crock of shit. But, they closed with "Dammit" and that was pretty awesome. It was the perfect opportunity for people to skank in the so-called pit, but nobody knew what to do. HORRIBLE. Other than that, the show was pretty awesome. I found ATL's sense of humor to be a little vulgar considering the majority of kids there had to be 14, but I guess that comes with being influenced by Blink 182. It was on par with my sense of humor, but I wouldn't feel comfortable saying things like to 14 year old girls. Oh man, I feel old for having found something to be too vulgar. GREAT.

Dusty and Pattitude emerged from the front of the stage soaking wet with sweat and Pattitude had managed to get a hold of one of the set lists. Having enjoyed a pretty awesome show, we embarked on our ride back home and even managed to go to the "good" Denny's for a late night dinner. And I was able to discover that my new favorite dish at Denny's, the country fried steak, isn't just a breakfast food; it's also on the Dinner menu. So that was pretty clutch. I always feel like shit after eating something that's as unhealthy as the country fried steak, but man does it taste so good going down.

Oh and a final shout out to Pattitude for making it to and from Allentown without any printed directions. He just took a look at the directions real quick and then we just winged it any time he forgot where we had to go next. Apparently this is something he and Dusty do all time so I guess it's some sort of gift...