It starts in a quaint and unassuming Chelsea, NY living room…This space doubles as a creative lab for the three brothers of the critically acclaimed three-piece AJR—Adam , Jack , and Ryan . It’s here that these young men assemble a handcrafted hybrid of sticky pop hooks, cinematic electronic beats, live instrumentation, theatrical panache, nineties nerd rock energy, and cleverly colloquial lyrics. This unpredictable homegrown style defines the trio’s second independent full-length offering, The Click and is especially impressive given that its viral single “Weak” is RIAA Platinum certified, “Sober Up” is RIAA Gold certified and reached number #1 on both the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and the Alternative Radio chart, and the second leg of THE CLICK Tour sold out. “Sober Up” also crossed over to Top 40 radio and charted on four charts at once: Alt, AAA, Hot AC, and Top 40. Inspired by the track, Steve Aoki, Party Pupils and Ryan Riback all remixed “Sober Up” for a new remix EP.
Speaking to an eternally D.I.Y. spirit, the thirteen tracks on The Click rally around a central question from the tune “Come Hang Out.”
“Should I go for more clicks this year, or should I follow the click in my ear?”
“The idea is that society wants me to go for more clicks: more fame and more notoriety, but sacrificing what I want to be on the inside,” Ryan elaborates. “As time went on, we realized it’s the central theme of the entire album. Since we write, produce, and record everything ourselves, the best metaphor to describe the inner struggle of following your own heartbeat is a metronome. Now, the metronome sound bookendsThe Click.”
First appearing on the 2016 EP and album precursor What Everyone’s Thinking, “Weak” introduced The Click to audiences everywhere with a big bang. The runaway smash has generated over 320 million Spotify streams and counting, achieved an RIAA Platinum certification, and amassed 40 million-plus YouTube views. The guys delivered a hyper-charged live rendition of the single on TODAY in between selling out back-to-back headline tours and garnering praise from Billboard, Time, Nylon, Paper, Pop Crush, and more.
Current single “Sober Up” represents a “full circle moment” for AJR as one of the band’s most musical heroes, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo makes an electrifying cameo.
“Rivers followed us on Twitter and said he was a fan of ‘Weak’,” recalls Ryan. “It was such a great moment when he officially agreed to feature on the record. When we’re making decisions about our music and image, we sort of position ourselves as the Weezer of the 2010’s. They’ve been a huge influence. The song itself is about being at a party and feeling too grown up. You get to that moment where you’re like, ‘This isn’t really fun anymore. I’m an adult now.’ This was a true story.”
On March 23, 2018, AJR released standalone track “Burn The House Down,” which has garnered over 25 million streams to date. As “Sober Up” hit Top 40, “Burn The House Down” impacted Alt with its “fiery” (Billboard) sound and was selected by both Spotify and Apple Music as a Song of the Summer 2018. March For Our Lives members heard the song and reached out directly to the band to use it in their video announcing the Road to Change summer tour. AJR was honored to oblige.
*Note: this concert has been changed from Tuesday, November 6th to Monday, November 5th.*
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