Bands rock McKay Events Center

FALL OUT BOY, ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, McKay Events Center, Utah Valley Community College, Orem, Tuesday

OREM — Call it spring training for the Warped Tour.

Five bands took the stage at the McKay Events Center Tuesday night, delivering nearly four-and-a-half hours of dual-guitar, pop-punk alternative music before a sold-out crowd of mostly high school and college-age fans.

The stage layout got progressively bigger for each band, culminating with headliner Fall Out Boy's full-scale rock show, complete with pyrotechnics. The Chicago quartet had the crowd jumping with favorites "Dance, Dance," "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" and sounded good on others, despite challenging acoustics in the basketball arena.

While the band's energy level was high — especially bass player Peter Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman — the crowd as a whole couldn't match it for the entire set. Many, by that point, seemed to be worn out from a full night's barrage of driving guitar and drum beats.

All-American Rejects, from Oklahoma, provided the most pop-sounding portion of the evening. In contrast to Fall Out Boy, Rejects did seem to keep the crowd energized throughout their entire set. Part of that may have been due to the shorter set length. But it was also partially due to the crafting of the set list, playing the current hit "Dirty Little Secret" near the beginning and ending with "Swing Swing," which provoked what was probably the biggest crowd reaction of the entire night.

Ohio-based Hawthorne Heights also played an admirable set with its blend of harmonic lyrics mixed with screams that are usually reserved for hard-core industrial bands. Dressed in all white with red patches on their chests, the group opened with "Saying Sorry" and followed with strong versions of "Pins and Needles" and "Niki FM."

From First to Last was able to get the general-admission crowd on the floor into the only real mosh pit all night. The band combined speed metal, punk and goth in a set that was musically inconsistent and at times nothing more than a constant double-bass pedal and inaudible screams. But the band members, with their painted faces, were entertaining to watch.

The Hush Sound needs to do more club shows before hitting the big arenas. Although, when the band hit the stage, it was like a small club, as there were more people outside waiting in the extremely long line than there were inside the arena.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com