Rock band the All-American Rejects will headline this year’s spring WILD on April 29, Social Programming Board announced this afternoon.

The band, known for hits like “Gives You Hell” and “Dirty Little Secret,” will be the first rock group to headline the concert since 2010, marking a departure from the list of rappers and electronic dance music artists that have been featured at the concert in recent years.

Heather Marie Fowler | Flickr Creative Commons

The All-American Rejects perform at Amos Southend in Charlotte, N.C. on Sept. 25, 2012. The band will be headlining this year’s spring WILD later in April.

SPB announced the headliner and the opening act, electronic duo the Knocks, with a video projected in Tisch Commons—an added element to the group’s usual announcement, which is typically only made through social media.

SPB WILD director and sophomore Nick Koutrakis said the band received the second most votes on the spring WILD survey sent out by SPB earlier this year.

“I think it’s going to be a nice change. We’ve had a lot of DJs and rappers over the past six years,” he said. “I think students will enjoy the refreshing change.”

SPB executives believe that the change of genre will be popular with students, based largely on the reaction to recent rock acts that have come to campus.

“We got a huge amount of positive feedback from Magic Man, who opened WILD last fall—literally nothing but positive feedback—so we’re really looking forward to making a rock band our headliner,” SPB president and junior Rahool Bhimani said.

Koutrakis also believes the group’s mix of established hits and new material will appeal to the student body.

“They just have so many hits; I think kids love it when they hear their songs come on,” he said. “This is a band that wrote hits when most of the students here were in middle school, so most of the students know these songs. And the interesting thing is that they’re still writing music, and it’s still really good.”

The concert will be accompanied by the traditional pre-WILD Happy Hour, as well as a slate of events throughout the week.

“Count on some film screenings and special events,” Bhimani said. “It’s going to be a whole week’s worth of activities just to get people really excited and ready to enjoy the last week of school and WILD.”