For more than 18 years, Birmingham has been the home of the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil, a weekend event that brings music fans together for a weekend with friends, food and great music. What started as a small celebration has evolved into the organized chaos that it is today. Last Saturday at 8:45 p.m. marked a first that numerous pop punk fans, including this reporter, were stoked about. It all started with a very familiar and catchy guitar intro to a song known as “Dirty Little Secret.”

This performance not only marked The All-American Rejects’ first appearance at the Crawfish Boil, but it was also the band’s first performance in Birmingham. AAR, as they are commonly known, is currently touring all over the country on the “I Wanna Rock Tour” with support from fellow Crawfish Boil artists, Shiny Toy Guns as well as Ace Enders and Vedera. Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor (AAR) came to rock out. Their stage presence and enthusiasm was a sight to behold.

Luckily for fans, their performance went on without a hitch, despite all the severe weather warnings. Lightning lit the skies and the sound of tornado sirens wailing were more like background effects than show stoppers. A risk to take, but the fans wanted a performance and AAR was more than happy to oblige. It was a solid hour of rocking out to a set list that combined songs from their most recent album, “When the World Comes Down,” and the 2005 album, “Move Along.” The band also performed two songs from their self-titled album, including their classic first hit single “Swing, Swing.”

“When the World Comes Down” is the new album and encompasses everything fans love about AAR. What fans also loved was the encouragement of crowd participation, fueled by lead singer Ritter, with shouts to sing along that the audience ecstatically responded to.

The coolest part of their set to witness was when Ritter picked one lucky fan to go onstage to slow dance with him while he sang the title track from the new album.