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)
Kelli Shaefer’s songs get stuck in my head non-stop. Every other day I find myself waking up with one in there. And that’s a good thing, she’s a talent!
by Siri on Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 04.37 pm from the entry: Artist Profile - Kelli Schaefer (Portland, OR; Winter, 2010)
Probably johnston has wrote a excellent article for the readers and are excellent photographs and thanks for sharing your thoughts
by fake tattoo on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 10.03 pm from the entry: The Reverend Horton Heat + Nekromantix – Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR; Jul. 9, 2009)
ha, yes! the photogs in the front row were drooling throughout the entire set…
by chris on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 01.05 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
nice pics Chris. Don’t you love it when the artist brings some cool light. It’s a bunch of low hanging fruit after that.
by colin on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 12.53 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP
by BASSHEAD on Tue Mar 9, 2010 at 04.02 pm from the entry: Ginuwine's "Pony" Deconstructed Through Dubstep (Remix)
James,
E-mail me: info@jaredfroiland.com
Thanks!
by Jared Froiland on Tue Mar 9, 2010 at 12.37 am from the entry: State Radio - Showbox (Seattle, WA; Jan.19, 2010)
Check out a sick interview back\slash Magazine did with LMFAO about how they blew up in a down economy, the struggles of entrepreneurship, and getting high.
Here is the link: http://www.backslashonline.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=317:lmfao-entrepreneurship-interview&Itemid=56
by Mike McComack on Mon Mar 8, 2010 at 10.24 pm from the entry: Photo Feature! Black Eyed Peas + Ludacris + LMFAO - TD BankNorth Garden (Boston, MA; Feb. 26, 2010)
