All American Rejects and Eve 6 bring youthful spirit to Deer Valley

All American Rejects and Eve 6 bring youthful spirit to Deer Valley

When you look at those previous performers at this season’s Deer Valley Amphitheater concert series presented by the Park City Performing Arts Foundation, you might notice something. If you averaged the ages of each, it would come to nearly 62 years.

Of course, the appeal of that lineup is that Williams and the others bridge generation gaps, and young listeners can find as much beauty, wisdom and timeless art from Hodgson, Yoakam and Neville as older fans do.

The challenge is getting young music fans to buy tickets.

So, in a nod to the younger people who might be avoiding the older-skewing, wine-sipping Deer Valley Music Festival this summer — Kansas and Earth, Wind & Fire, anyone? — the decidedly younger rock bands All American Rejects and Eve 6 will perform in the next installment of the performing-arts series.

In past years, bands like OneRepublic, Civil Twilight, Katie Herzig and Thriving Ivory have played PCPAF shows, says Teri Orr, PCPAF’s executive director. She met some resistance when the OneRepublic show was booked, yet everyone in attendance loved the youthful energy the pop-rock group brought.

All American Rejects and Eve 6 feature "great musicians," just as talented as the older generation of performers, she said.

The Tribune talked to both bands to see what the kids have to offer when the volumes are as high as the elevation.

All American Rejects » The rock quartet from the bubbling music scene of Stillwater, Okla., met early success— they were signed to a record contract when band members were still in high school — but never as much as when their kiss-off song "Gives You Hell" was the most-played song of 2008 on mainstream radio. A video of the song garnered more than 25 million views on YouTube.

Other songs, such as "Dirty Little Secret," "Swing, Swing," "Move Along" and "It Ends Tonight," have propelled the band to the top of the charts as well, and its most recent album, 2012’s "Kids in the Street," debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard albums chart.

All American Rejects were in Park City in January, where they performed a rare acoustic set at the Sundance Film Festival’s Music Café. "It was easy for us," said Mike Kennerly, guitarist. "We got to have a nice evening in a cool town."

In between the band’s 2008 album "When the World Comes Down" and "Kids in the Street," songwriters Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter retreated to secluded spots all over the United States to write skeletons of new, different