Rock of Ages is a podcast hosted by Andrew and started in February 2021. It involves himself and his friends, many of whom are theatre kids, reviewing classic rock albums. When they get to a Concept Album or Rock Opera, then they review a musical theatre cast recording the following week. A lot of the podcast's appeal comes from the panelists' tendency for conversations that have little to do with the albums.
It can be heard on Spotify
and Anchor, among other places.
It also spawned a movie commentary-themed Spin-Off, Watch This, hosted by panelist Romi.
This podcast contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Human: Throughout many of Cade's rants in the podcast, he refers to Ringo Starr as a god that everyone should worship. However, whenever this is true or just the ravings of an indoctrinated youth remains to be seen.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: While this is a music podcast, the panelists make it abundantly clear that Copyright Infringement laws exist, thus limiting the copyrighted content played each episode. Other instances include the panelists referencing that they are actually in a Discord voice chat, and they will refer to the different channels in the Discord server where they link references or statements during recording.
- Circling Monologue: Many of Cade's monologues/long winded speeches will actually have him circle around his recording area despite him not psychically being around his cast mates.
- Christmas Episode: Just after Christmas 2021, they did a bonus episode covering David Bowie and Bing Crosby's recording of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The fate of one cast member Jess after the Back in Black episode. While she gets the occasional mention here and there, she rarely comes up in conversation.
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Creator's Favorite Episode: The 2021 Roundtable episode features a section where the entire crew lists their favorite episodes of the year. Cade's favorites include mostly episodes during the first Cade month arc of the podcast, including the Sgt. Pepper's Movie Soundtrack; an episode that almost everyone else absolutely reviled. - Deadpan Snarker: Almost everyone has this in spades, but especially Kay.
- Epic Fail: During the Fear of Music episode, Riley shows up to recording having accidentally listened to Remain in Light instead, which she realizes midway through the episode, and is completely oblivious to the fact that the podcast already covered the latter back in August 2021. This incident became a recurring joke throughout the podcast, most notably in the Led Zeppelin first self-titled, where she jokes about how she liked a song from their second self-titled.
- Fantastically Indifferent: This is the tone many of the crew whenever Cade delivers a Ringo sermon. Andrew in particular seems to be more over with Ringo worship with each and every instance.
- Halloween Episode: Fittingly, it was Black Sabbath's Self-Titled Album, seen as the birth of Heavy Metal as a genre (literally, as the gang notes with the opening track).
- In October 2023, a Halloween Month occurs, with the episodes being Sweeney Todd, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' "Murder Ballads", and the musical "Murder Ballad".
- Hostile Show Takeover: Cade Month, in which recurring panelist Cade filled the entire month of June (with the exception of Sam's Town, which was Jackson's birthday episode) with his picks, was treated as this by Cade himself. In contrast, Romi's half-month takeover was more modest, amounting to a regular album, concept album and theatre album apiece.
- Insane Troll Logic: They use a mild case of this to claim Breakfast in America is a Concept Album so they can get to Fun Home quicker.
- It Makes Sense in Context: Pretty much a lot of things the panelists say in almost every episode. A particular example comes when they did John Lennon's "Wall's & Bridges" and Andrew said "I'm never getting over the bongos man."
- Let's Duet: Usually whenever a cast member starts singing a song, either from the album of the week or just a random one from their head, another cast member will join along. Usually Romi.
- Milestone Celebration: Company was the 50th episode, as well as the Stephen Sondheim tribute.
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Most Wonderful Sound: Riley & Romi’s laughs are definite qualifiers for how wholesome they are. - Only One Finds It Fun: This sort of thing has happened in a few instances, perhaps most notably with Revolver - Andrew liked the album, while most of the others didn't.
- Andrew also seems to be the only one who genuinely enjoys Jimmy Buffett, though he didn't like Escape to Margaritaville.
- Plot Twist: At the end of the "Fun Home" episode of the podcast, Cade used his birthday wish to take control over the podcast for almost an entire month. Cade actually foreshadows this twist early on in the episode.
- Running Gag: Several, such as:
- "There are [number] albums better than [album name]" - started in the Fun House episode, when Romi notes an album's placement on Acclaimed Music's top 3000 albums list.
- "LA Blues" is constantly brought up over the podcast's run.
- The snowclone created by the gang based around songs that have "Blues" in the name. Sometimes this even extends to some movies on Romi's podcast.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: The gang enjoys doing this. During Breakfast in America, Andrew successfully ties a few of these tangents to the topic of the episode by giving some short statement and mentioning having breakfast in America during it. In another instance (Company), Romi brings up Elmo's feud with Zoe's pet rock simply because she feels the need, and attempts to tie it to the discussion.
- Skyward Scream: In the 'Bat Out of Hell' and 'Pretty. Odd.' episodes: "DOOONN HENNNLLEEYYYY!!!"
- Un-Installment: The review of The Nostalgia Critic's parody of The Wall was never recorded and its intended episode number is skipped over. They still intend on doing it when the time is right.
