Backstage with the All-American Rejects

The last time I hung out with the All-American Rejects was at a bar in Los Feliz, Calif., called the Bigfoot Lodge. It was a wild and drunken night that culminated with guitarist-keyboardist-programmer Nick Wheeler accidentally setting the bar on fire as we all prepared to chug a cocktail called the Flaming Dr. Pepper. That was two years ago, so it was great catching up with Nick and the rest of the band -- frontman Tyson Ritter, guitarist Mike Kennerty, and drummer Chris Gaylor -- before their show at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza last night. While an anxious group of teenage girls arrived early to form a line outside the Manhattan concert venue, the guys invited me backstage to their dressing room to give me the skinny about their upcoming CD, When the World Comes Down (out Dec. 16). Turns out, they're just as fun to kick it with even when they're sober. Watch the video and see for yourself. Oh, by the way, that's iced tea Tyson's sipping in the clip. I know because I was with him when he ordered it at the diner next door.