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The Airborne Toxic Event returned to Columbus on Sunday night and took a step up the Columbus concert ladder by playing their first show on the indoor stage at the LC.
Truth be told, the band looked a little rougher than they have in previous visits and started out the set in a fairly low key way. Opening with the title track from last year’s “All At Once,” and following up with the previous albums opening track I had an odd feeling that this was going to be a fairly routine show. Thankfully, I was very wrong.
The brilliant single “All I Ever Wanted” sounds wonderful on record and played live has an extra kick of energy to it. It was starting to feel like the band were beginning to warm up.
And before long the band hit their stride. “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” and “Gasoline” were irresistible; “Numb” and “Changing” had the crowd at full volume.
While the newer songs didn’t miss the mark, it’s the first album’s songs that really got the LC crowd jumping. “Something New” found the increasingly playful Mikel Jollet ascend the LC’s slightly unstable speaker stack, much to the delight of the cellphone wielding fans below.
Before returning for the cliche encore, the band finished with a rousing rendition of “Sometime Around Midnight.” A song that will likely be the bands biggest hit.
On returning for the encore, Mikel Jollett claimed that “All we have are each other,” referring to his band mates. It was a statement that really encapsulates The Airborne Toxic Event. It isn’t hard to see that these five people are friends who enjoy being around each other and love what they’re doing without taking themselves too seriously. Seeing Mikel attempt to put Steven off in the middle of a song or seeing Daren and Noah jam along to the various music styles that Mikel can throw at them only goes to show that once they get going, they have a blast on stage. We can all only hope that the joy never fades.
I was at the show. They played fine but I think they had a much better show when they were here back in the fall. The stage looked very empty and plain and they just sort of all looked tired and worn out up there.
It probabbly didn’t help them not getting on stage until after 10:30… I go to plenty of concerts and it seems rare if the headline act isn’t on and paying by 9:30-10:00. I remember looking at my watch and noticed it was 10:32 and they were just getting around to final mic checks.
I agree that they’ve been better in past shows. But they were still very good. I was going to mention the lacking stage decor but it seems like that’s what they’re going for these days.
I believe this is something of the end for this records touring cycle as they’re planning to head to the studio shortly before (most likely) hitting the road again for another 2-3 years of constant touring
I saw TATE on Friday night in Cincy and then drove up for this show. I agree that the beginning of the set lacked energy. A few thoughts — they played in front of a lot of people at Bunbury and really seemed at home in front of large crowd. In some respects, this may have been a let down.
As Matt mentioned above, they are just doing a few shows while they are recording their new CD in Nashville. So no staging to speak of…
Finally, I’ve never seen a set change take so long….it was about 35-40 minutes between Minus The Beat and TATE. I don’t know what the issue was but it should not take that long to change the stage. So they did start pretty late — I know I got home very late :)
But it was still a really good show. And I drove up specifically in hopes of hearing “Graveyard Near The House” live and I was not disappointed. I still think TATE will end up very big as they can play both arena style sets and wonderful acoustic versions that touch the soul.