The All-American Rejects kicked off the 40th South By Southwest (SXSW) anniversary with a dynamic set at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater.
resh off the adrenaline of their 2025 DIY tour, The All-American Rejects are officially back. According to the band, they wrapped production on their fifth studio album just days ago, all of which breathed new life into the group.
“We decided to go on a f*cking whammy of a tour last year,” says frontman Tyson Ritter. “We put all of our money in one basket for a little thing called ‘house tours.”
By cutting out the middleman and bypassing the traditional “Live Nation game” (which often leaves fans with high ticket prices and artists with fractioned earnings), the Rejects went back to basics. They traded arenas for backyards, porches, farms, and skateparks. What started as a one-off quickly turned into an informal tour where the band went to places where demand was highest based on fan-driven internet polling. Old fans fell back in love with the band while younger listeners hopped on to see what the hype was all about. The Result? The band went from well-respected, though tapering in demand, to headlining and in high demand.
The energy was electric at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin. As the scent of Texas BBQ wafted through the air, fans scrambled to enter before reaching capacity. The band opened with all guns blazing, delivering “Dirty Little Secret” to set the bar for the night. Guitarist Nick Wheeler showed all the enthusiasm in the world upon entering the stage, and he kept it up throughout the whole performance.
The band treated their crowd to a 2000s-heavy set, offering to take them on a ride in a time machine before diving into hits like ”Swing, Swing.” Their newer songs, despite the frontman trying to downplay them, were well-received, with “Easy Come, Easy Go” receiving particular praise. All this happened in between gentle ribbing to the audience as the frontman interrogated their status as fans of simply industry people.
The All-American Rejects are anything but a nostalgia act, and catching a set in a venue likeStubbs can only serve to prove that. They are funny, their on-stage enjoyment of their craft contagious. Most importantly, they’ve managed to hit the sweet spot between not taking themselves too seriously and still giving every performance their all.
If you’re in the mood for a mixed bag of nostalgic bangers and meaty new tracks, try to catch The All-American Rejects in a town near you. Seeing as they just finished their next studio album, they may be in a city near you within the next year.
I am a multimedia journalist with a passion for guitar-based music – be that rock-n-roll, bachata, or anything in between. When not in a mosh pit, I can be found knitting, collecting CDs, thrifting, journaling, or attempting to incite chaos among feuding global powers. I hold a bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism and a masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Houston, making me twice the Coog you'll ever be 😉
I'm a full-time music journalist/photographer from Houston, number one Paramore fan and Husky dog owner. I have a B.S in Radio-Television-Film from UT Austin and a M.A in Mass Communications from the University of Houston, which makes me smart! On top of being an avid concert-goer and movie fanatic, I love bonding with others over the power of local music and media.
