Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The independent student publication of The University at Buffalo, since 1950

"So wrong, it's illegal!"


The timing. The structure. Did you hear? He...

If there's one thing that's empirically clear about pop-punk's surefire next big thing, All Time Low, it's that they were raised and misbehaved by Blink 182. If imitation is flattery, somewhere in this universe of angels, airwaves, and European area codes lies three men with huge smiles and bittersweet memories of their past.

Six feet under the stars and just above the sea level of girls not old enough to know who DJ, Michelle, or Uncle Jesse were, All Time Low, Mayday Parade, Just Surrender, and Every Avenue spread their Man Whores and Open Sores tour all throughout the innards of Xtreme Wheels on Wednesday night.

As soon as the Maryland-based pretty boys took the stage, the mashed mass of people began to move in every which way, snaking and shaking around until the last note of the last song was stricken with sugary sweet perfection. For those men of age in attendance, this was awkward to say the least. Being surrounded by girls not even remotely close to 18 and having them grind and thrust into you, against both of your wills for over an hour, isn't just wrong, it's probably illegal in all 50 states.

But we've yet to hit Lent and it's not exactly time for repentance, so that little tidbit is being left alone.

Opening with their fun, catchy single "Dear Maria, Count Me In," All Time Low had everyone in attendance at their beck and call, eating up everything they threw at them. The band nicely transitioned into "The Girl's a Straight up Hustler" and "Poppin' Champagne," before their Blink fueled antics kicked in.

From there on out, the ATL set was one big series of man-part jokes. Talks of fellatio, "fellation," and "felating" were rampant and filled the air, alongside singer Alex Gaskarth's mouth. There were literally less junk jokes in the Extended Unrated DVD of Superbad than during the hour-plus long set. And what better place to tell said jokes than in front of hundreds of little girls that haven't the slightest idea what, or who this fellatio character is.

After asking the crowd to pick up the pace and increase the amount of crowd surfing, an intelligent request to say the least, taking into consideration the venue's unforgiving setting, Gaskarth tempted fans with an offer that few in attendance could resist, or understand.

"If you guys can beat Syracuse, I'll blow everyone in the crowd. Even the girls," he said, in reference to crowd-surfing.

Stay classy, Mr. Gaskarth.

Aside from various indecent proposals, the music was plentiful and on point. Live renditions of "Holly (Would You Turn Me On?)" and "Shameless" received huge responses.

Also well-received was the collection of bras flung at the band. After guitarist Jack Barakat mentioned the reoccurrence of bras finding their way to he and his cohorts, a hearty handful were unsnapped and tossed at the wanton four on stage.

Interestingly enough, the only band member that was well-mannered, other than drummer Rian Dawson, who was way in the back pounding underappreciated beats, was bassist Zack Merrick, who was just recently named the douche bag of the week on bigdouchebag.com. Go figure.

After an initial offering of music, four-letter words and crowd surfers, some of whom opted to do so during points in the show where there actually wasn't any music, All Time Low exited stage left, just to come right back for an encore better than anyone could have expected.

Taking the stage on his lonesome, Gaskarth and his shiny new acoustic guitar played the first half of their beautifully written and "Hey There Delilah"-esque ballad "Remembering Sunday," before being joined by the rest of the band, bringing the song to its mournful conclusion. Gaskarth pulled double duty, covering Automatic Loveletter's Juliet Sims' verse without ever missing a beat.

After plucking two eager, fresh faced teens from the crowd and arming them with two guitars, and a third boy with a "if you don't dance, you hate your parents" shirt, who seriously just wanted to dance, ATL +3 ended the night with the classic Blink182 track "Dammit." As Gaskarth sang his little skinny jeans off while walking around the venue, his bandmates played every note they were supposed to, and that random boy danced like some sort of possessed, gay, break-dancing-impaired break-dancing robot, the night reached its completely fulfilling end.

"The show was exactly what I expected," said UB freshman and WRUB personality Jameson Butler. "All Time Low was funny and they played pretty damn good music for a pop-punk band."

Extremely strong sets by Mayday Parade, Just Surrender, and Every Avenue garnered consistent vocal support and dance-like movement throughout the night.

Though hopefully no STDs were contracted from the various "man whores" in attendance, vocals were blown out, feet were blistered, and bodies were left worn and sore - a job well done.




Comments


Popular






View this profile on Instagram

The Spectrum (@ubspectrum) • Instagram photos and videos




Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2026 The Spectrum