Critiquing the Airborne Toxic Event’s performance at the Paradise Rock Club this past Saturday requires a lot of grace. Enjoying the performance? That came easy. The need for grace comes from multiple factors. One, Airborne is a young band that, after quickly earning a lot of hype, is just starting to headline national tours. Two, with one self-titled LP under its belt, Airborne has a small repertoire. And while that repertoire includes some fun, catchy tunes, the songwriting is neither unique nor diverse enough to maintain interest for an entire set.
The band’s appeal rests in the players’ charisma and energy, the songs’ smart blend of angst, anger, and humor, and a general lack of pretension. What pulls Airborne’s sound together are the low, raspy vocals of singer-songwriter Mikel Jollett—which brings me to the third need for grace. On the current tour, Mikel has been suffering from laryngitis, canceling many cities, including the two prior to Boston. His condition forced the band to change the key of a few songs. As they are written, Airborne’s compositions have little range; changing the key made some of the performances sound flat and tuneless. Songs like “Innocence” and “Sometime Around Midnight” take repetitive, low and soft vocals and build and build them to loud, dramatic climaxes—difficult to achieve when the singer is struggling to hit even the lowest of notes.
But if the audience noticed the sub par performance, they sure didn’t care. This was a bar rock crowd—an older group clad in jeans and tight t-shirts, eager to swig their beer, dance, and, in the case of two pushy bottle blonds, hit on the opening band’s drummer. Airborne resonates beautifully with this type of crowd. Mirroring the audience’s energy, Mikel and group jumped around the stage, hopped onto monitors, leaned right into the crowd and playfully teased each other while performing. Further, they maintained a continual banter with the audience, graciously thanked the openers, and invited the openers and even audience members to dance on stage for the final encore. And the crowd loved them for it.
Airborne brought fellow LA rockers Henry Clay People on tour with them. Their nerd rock and playful interactions with the crowd (and cute drummer) were a huge hit. On the other hand, the second opener, Alberta Cross, was possibly the worst choice for this crowd. Introspective, muddled alt-country with Neil Young-esque vocals doesn’t cut it with a group that prefers Twisted Sister cover bands to indie rock. Though the audience loudly talked over their set, personally, I thought they had the most interesting sound of the night.
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Behold The Airborne Toxic Event and despair!
DOWNLOAD: The Airborne Toxic Event - Does This Mean You're Moving On? (MP3) or Follow us for more The Airborne Toxic Event MP3s (Twitter)
Two songs go in, one comes out. Pick a side.
thanks so much nadine! probably the best compliment a photog can get!
and thanks for reminding me to embed the video in the post too!
by Steve Benoit on Sun May 20, 2012 at 09.33 am from the entry: Father John Misty + Har Mar Superstar - Brighton Music Hall (Boston, MA; May 16, 2012)
I can’t get over how these photos captured my up close memory of the night.
by nadine on Sat May 19, 2012 at 11.08 pm from the entry: Father John Misty + Har Mar Superstar - Brighton Music Hall (Boston, MA; May 16, 2012)
Or should it be whoever? F my grammar.
by nadine on Sat May 19, 2012 at 10.30 pm from the entry: Father John Misty + Har Mar Superstar - Brighton Music Hall (Boston, MA; May 16, 2012)
Whomever took these photos certainly captured the night!
by nadine on Sat May 19, 2012 at 10.26 pm from the entry: Father John Misty + Har Mar Superstar - Brighton Music Hall (Boston, MA; May 16, 2012)
“Mindkilla” is awesome. I’ve got this music video last week and really impressed through watching every performance particularly “Glass Jar”. Thanks dude. :)
dance contest
by Mark Waugh on Thu May 17, 2012 at 05.54 am from the entry: Gang Gang Dance's Illuminating "Mindkilla"
Also, I have yet to pay this venue a visit, is it good spot? good people, good vibe, good atmosphere?
... man, i hope i win some tickets…
by Jaz Bonnin-Aldatz on Thu May 17, 2012 at 12.27 am from the entry: It's all good, see Fishbone for free at Fête
Looking forward to the show. Would love to win some tix for my pals.
by MC Breath on Wed May 16, 2012 at 07.40 pm from the entry: It's all good, see Fishbone for free at Fête
