"All The Way" Tour (The After Party, Hollywood Ending, Before You Exit, and Allstar Weekend)

This past Friday I took a trip to San Antonio's White Rabbit venue for the "All The Way" tour featuring The After Party, Hollywood Ending, Before You Exit, and Allstar Weekend!  This is probably the most mainstream show that I've been to in a long time due to the fact that Allstar Weekend emerged from winning Disney's Next Big Thing and has been popular ever since.  What was also new to me was being surrounded by teenage girls.  Normally at the shows I usually go to there are teenagers, but these were the die-hard, piercing screaming, teenage fangirls that you could possibly see at a Justin Bieber concert - just saying.

The After Party; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

Let's get started.  First off, I want to thank Vicci for letting me use her pictures for this post!  The first band to play were my buddies from The After Party, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, they always surprise me with their set.  Last time I saw them they were telling me what they had planned for this tour, and I almost didn't believe them.  They came onstage wearing thick black mustaches and riding in on toy horses that little kids buy at the store.  The cute intro led into their first song, "Secret Lover," which is the music video where the idea came from.

"Everyday I'm shuffling." photography by: Vicci Patneaude

The guys do their best to make their set really fun and entertaining for the crowd - they know how to engage audience members.  Along with rocking out to their own songs from their last self-titled album, The After Party also included a short segment of them dancing and shuffling to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (pictured above), a rockified rendition of Britney Spears' "Oops...I Did it Again," a slightly altered version of their last single "California," and a new song that will be released on their next album, "Still Got Love."  As you can see, they always have something new and exciting to share with the fans, and they always have a way to relate to them during the set.  The choices they make on what to perform for their tours work well to make them lovable.  For example, everyone knows LMFAO's radio hit, so why not bust it out for everyone to dance to?   Everyone knows Britney Spears, so why not bring "Oops..." back to life for the 90s music lovers?  And while we're at it, why not alter the words to "California" to serenade to the people in San Antonio (they changed the lyric "California" to "San Antonio" and the other cities they travel to)?

Lead singer, Kenny Greeley; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

If anyone has a chance to ever see these guys perform live, full band or acoustic, I would definitely recommend seeing them, and I'm not just saying that because they're my friends.  I really mean it.  They make music fun and exciting, and it's always a dance party when they're around!

Hollywood Ending; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

Enough about the boys from The After Party, the next band that played was Hollywood Ending.  This five piece pop rock band continued the party that the TAP boys started.  These guys are a diverse group with members from across the states AND from across the seas!  You'd think that with people from different parts of the globe it'd be difficult to create a cohesive group, but these guys seem to have together well!  They too played catchy original songs and covers of popular songs that everyone would know (Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight, Tonight" and a Jonas Brothers' rendition of "Year 3000").  Much like The After Party, Hollywood Ending made smart choices on what songs to cover so that everyone in the audience can be involved and potentially love them more.  They danced around the stage having a good time, and it shows how much they love doing what they're doing, which I think is a great quality for bands and artists to have.

Before You Exit; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

Next up were the boys from Floriday Before You Exit.  They're a young group, but they sure know how to perform like they've been doing this for forever.  I remember seeing them in AP Magazine, so it's nice to see this come full circle, sorta.  One of the songs I distinctly remember was "End of the World," simply because they drew upon audience participation.  They taught us the catchy melody of the "Na na na" hook, so that we could all sing together as one unified music force!  Another song that got to me was a song they fused with The Script's "For the First Time."  They combined their own words and lyrics with "For the First Time," and it was pretty cool how they did that.  Again, another example of a song that everyone knows and would appreciate!

Allstar Weekend; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

Last but not least, Allstar Weekend.  Their set was probably the longest one that I've heard in a good while, but I'm not complaining!  It's a weird feeling knowing that these guys have actually been a part of the Disney experience, and they were standing just a few feet away from me!  Needless to say that the energy from them was phenomenal especially for the long set list they had.  Although I'm not as much as an invested fan as I had hoped to be, I was glad to hear some old songs that I did know so that I could sing along!

Allstar Weekend; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

If the previous three bands didn't embed audience participation enough, then Allstar Weekend most definitely did.  What was really cool was they had a spinning board brought onto the stage with different song selections, they spun it, and invited audience members onto the stage to sing/dance along with them.  They made some girls happy that's for sure!  In my opinion, bands who embrace their audiences and fans this way get my vote for being one of the coolest bands ever!  Fans are what brought these guys to where they are so why not show some appreciation and gratitude?

The "All The Way" tour continues its journey across the US, so be sure to check the tour dates to see if these fellas will be stopping by!  You don't wanna miss a great show!