Fans waited a decade to see All-American Rejects headline a tour. But folks who got to Tampa's MidFlorida Credit Union early last night to see punk-rock elder statesmen The Get Up Kids and not-as-elder pop-punk hero The Starting Line open the show had to do some waiting of their own, too.
For some reason (A broken truck or bus? Perhaps with tires melting on Florida's soon-to-be radioactive roads?), the show started almost an hour late, with Matt Pryor and The Get Up Kids falling victim to a PA that cut out (props to the fans who attempted to carry the Kids through an otherwise great performance of classics including "I’m a Loner Dottie, a Rebel").
Drive-Thru Records darling The Starting Line also had to sacrifice its time onstage for what is essentially a tour featuring a kind of who's who of late-'90s and early-2000s pop-punk closed out by New Found Glory and All-American Rejects.
"It's seems like we have no choice but to start," frontman Kenny Vasoli surrendered after a haphazard onstage soundcheck, before also having to navigate bad sound as part of a neutered four-song set that at least included some of the band's biggest hits including "The Best Of Me."
"We're coming back," Vasoli assured fans. "And we're gonna be headlining this shit!"
