All American Rejects
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
The All American Rejects closed down the Cellular South Stage Friday night with a well-attended performance.
Those in the neighborhood, however, might have thought we were at the end of the month instead of the beginning as the band took the stage to the full recording of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
As locals know, it’s also the traditional closing theme of the Sunset Symphony. The only fireworks were on stage, however, as lead singer Tyson Ritter strutted and fretted his way around the stage.
Elsewhere, Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 kicked off their set with Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times.”
As always, we are ever-vigilant for interesting-looking people at the Beale Street Music Festival, and this person who shall remain nameless, suddenly appeared in the camera sight.
As usual, there were the festival characters, and beer vendor Johnie Whorton is one of them. His sales pitch for beer went something like this: “How ’bout an ice-cold beer? Get it while it’s hot! Nature’s own Viagra! You got two hands? You need two beers!” Undoubtedly, he will be the top sales person this year and was doing his part to get people to the proper level of drunk long before the music started.
The only “Thunder Cloud” to appear early in the evening was this one, a Native American singer who kicked off the Medeski, Martin & Wood set with a “Friendship Song.”
Bonnie Bramlett, the first white “Ikette” for Ike and Tina Turner, opened the festival in the Blues Tent, sending out a love song to Dickey Betts, with whom she toured with the Allman Brothers.
It didn’t take long before some lucky fans were treated to extreme crowd surfing in front of the Sam’s Town Stage when the punk band Rise Against opened the festivities. 
The important thing about this picture is in the foreground. Hint: it’s green.