via Mike's Hard Lemonade
“We’re all on the group chat with the crew who’s out at the site loading our gear in, and their bus is stuck in the mud, and they’ve got a bulldozer trying to pull it out, and the bulldozer itself is tipping over.”
If you want to know what it’s like to take a multi-platinum rock band off the stadium circuit and drop them into literal backyards, fields, and dirt lots across America, Nick Wheeler’s dispatch from the front lines pretty much nails it. It is an uproarious, unpredictable brand of magic. And frankly, it’s exactly the kind of beautiful bedlam The All-American Rejects were looking for.
Last week, I sat down with Nick Ritter and Mike Kennerty to talk about a cultural moment that started as a rebellious stunt and evolved into the best live music experience of the year.
A year ago, fresh off a sterile, highly polished Hollywood showcase to debut their first new music in over a decade, the band felt an itch. They wanted to do the exact opposite. They wanted to go back to where they came from. So, they showed up unannounced at a USC house party. The walls sweat, the amps howled, and a movement was born.
“I actually wasn’t cool enough to go to many house parties when I was in high school, so it’s fun to be the main event at one, for once,” Wheeler joked. The Rejects are now retroactively giving all of us the blown-out basement and backyard shows we always deserved, just like the house parties in Todd Phillips movies like Old School look so damn epic.
This month, the band brought their gloriously feral House Party Tour to a climax to celebrate the release of their long-awaited new album, Sandbox, now streaming on your go-to audio platform.
On May 15, they transformed an empty, unassuming warehouse in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood into a full-blown, word-of-mouth concert venue. There wasn’t a box office or any pretentious VIP ropes for the guest list of music-industry scenesters and hangers-on. Just raw, unfiltered rock and roll.
Oh, also, delicious adult beverages, thanks to a fitting partnership with Mike’s® Dirty Lemonade.
via Mike's Hard Lemonade
“Mike’s Hard Lemonade was in rotation when we were throwing house parties,” Wheeler told me, leaning into the undeniable nostalgia of the pairing. “So it just made sense to partner with them…”
That beverage is the “Dirty Lemon Secret,” part of Mike’s new non-carbonated, 4.5% ABV line inspired by the viral dirty soda trend. (Other flavors include Dark Cherry Brew, Very Berry Grape, and Pineapple Haze.) Maybe I’m just projecting here, but it’s perfect for washing down the realization that we are all, inevitably, getting older.
If you missed the Brooklyn warehouse gig, wipe your tears.
Mike’s is currently running a sweepstakes that is aggressively on-brand. If you go to mikeshard.com/dirty-lemonade-aar and confess your own “dirty little secret,” you’re entered to win an all-expenses-paid VIP trip to Chicago to see the band play this August.
But beyond the lemonade and the secret shows, there is a humble sincerity to what the Rejects are doing right now. The House Party Tour was a necessary return to musical form, fueling the creation of Sandbox.
After years of vague “maybes” regarding a new record, the band looked inward. “Shit or get off the pot, kind of,” as they bluntly put it. They got back in the studio, didn’t force a thing, and let the music snowball naturally. The resulting album is a mature, razor-sharp reflection of who they are now as adults, wrapped in the infectious energy of a band that still actually likes playing together.
“There are so many solo artists out there… they’ll become a TikTok star, or vice versa. Bands are a commitment,” Wheeler reflected. “You really have to like who you’re playing with, and then you’re stuck with them. We lucked out. This is a family.”
via Mike's Hard Lemonade
That family vibe translates directly to the crowds. One night, there are 5,000 people in an Iowa cornfield turning up for live music. Wheeler likened it to the end of Field of Dreams. The next night, the same thing at a Michigan drive-in theater.
The show bridges a massive gap: Millennials get a pure hit of nostalgia. Gen Z gets a sweaty, loud rock show. Everyone has a blast.
You simply can’t fake that energy on a phone screen… It’s loud and sweaty, and straight up how rock ‘n roll should be experienced, damn it.
It is real music in wonderfully unexpected places.
So grab a friend… grab a Dirty Lemonade… spill a dirty little secret. Go catch a show!