Tempe Music Festival Saturday Concert Review 04.04.2009

by Melanie Nelson, www.FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

I made it through the gate in time for Mute Math on Saturday at the Tempe Music Festival.  Their very electronic style rock was a welcome addition to a healthy dinner of Ben and Jerry’s and cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.   It was still relatively early Saturday evening, but a healthy crowd had already gathered and were in already dancing and partying. 
Today was the day of superfans.  I had an opportunity to meet very devoted dad, Larry Norton.  Larry’s son Wyatt had been a huge fan of the All American Rejects, for five years and was here to hopefully get a poster signed.  Once the band had completed their Tempe Music Fest TV interview and signed the sofa for charity, they began heading past our area back to their bus.  While their wrangler was keeping everyone back stating “no signing”, Tyson did stop for Larry to sign Wyatt’s poster.  As he stated, ‘You can’t resist a dad getting something for his son’.  Wyatt got even luckier later with dad getting his pass signed by 3 Doors Down.
Tom Morello: The NightWatchman was up after Mute Math and while I’m not a Guitar Hero player, I can see why he reached guitar god status.  His songs (I’m thinking particularly of “Shake my Shit”) had everyone dancing, beach bouncing in the crowd and even those sitting at tables were coming up with creative shoulder bobbing.  As an extra treat, it really did seem as if Tom was on stage much longer than the listed one hour.   His cover (uncensored) of “This Land is My Land” on the acoustic guitar was also one of many memorable moments.
The crowd had swelled to a massive sea of people by the time All American Rejects took the stage.  Starting off with some familiar crowd favorites ‘Dirty Little Secret’, they had everyone singing along in one of the best singing crowd moments I’ve ever heard.  Instead of the vague mumbling that precedes and follows the choruses everyone knows, this was clearly a group of fans who all knew their stuff perfectly.  The new waving lighter of the ages, a lit cell phone, was apparent in everyone’s hands in beat to the music and Tyson had the crowd eating out of his hands with his magic trick (though apparently it’s the only one he knows).
Between the bands that evening, winning High School and College garage bands were invited to play and both were excellent and talented additions that easily kept the crowd engaged.  Congratulations to both SRP prize winners.
By the time 10:30 rolled around, the event was a blend of the hard core 3 Doors Down fans, the hard core partiers, the hard core posers and the simply exhausted.  The latter group was determined to hold out as long as we all could as everyone huddled together for warmth and to keep one another upright.  Now IF I had any energy left, 3 Doors Down would have been a great band to stay to the very end for, but after a hugely long day we had to call it quits after their first six songs.  From that six though, I can say that lead singer, Brad Arnold has a voice that translates as brilliantly clear as if you were listening and rocking out at home.
All in all, a great event – I was exhausted, full of Mentos and ice cream, had several new songs to seek out and download at home and fully intend on returning to the Tempe Town Music Fest next year where I’ll definitely be springing for that VIP ticket.