All Time Low. How can I begin to express my love? I've been a fan (although that is a paltry word to describe the depth of my connection to their music and their band) since 2007. Nine years. Four years after this group of freaks (yes, they are freaks) just decided to make a band in high school. My relationship with this band has been a slow romance. Budding from a friendship with their easily loved songs ('Weightless' is a cult classic) to recognizing even the most obscure song from their repertoire before Alex Gaskarth even opens his mouth. I'm not writing this to toot my own horn as a fan. I'm expressing my love to show just how amazing this band is that they've created such a powerful thing. They've created music that was able to hold a human from awkward middle school, through angsty high school all the way to the sophomore slump of college. And our love affair is still going strong.
Why now? Why after nine years am I just now talking about them? Because after an extremely long wait, the band has finally put out their second live album and documentary, and it's so enlightening. Anyone who's anyone who knows something about All Time Low knows that shit went down during their brief stint at Interscope Records and the controversy regarding the album. But this documentary is where the band sets the record straight, and where we finally know their side of the story, not speculation. Honestly, hearing it from them it's no surprise they survived such an ordeal, and came off of it more amazing than ever. They're a band that the stress of the music industry couldn't break, and I love them for it. So many other bands would have quit, and they never entertained that idea.
Getting a backstage pass to their life as a band for the first time in seven years is one reason I'm writing now, but not all the reasons. It's also because when this album released, all the original feelings about this band came back to me. All Time Low may not go down in history, or be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but make no mistake. They're special. Each and every member of the band has each other's back, and over a decade of friendship and working together shows in their music and their fanbase. They are more than just a pop punk staple. All Time Low is proof that sometimes the best sound is not the most famous, or interesting or even catchy; it's the most sincere. They've made me rock out and brought me to tears. I still get goosebumps every time I hear 'Remembering Sunday'. And I'm just so proud of them. As I've grown up, they've grown stronger. And neither of us show signs of stopping.
