Angels & Airwaves hit the Hollywood Palladium last weekend on November 5th (and 6th). It was a sold-out show on Friday, and frontman Tom DeLonge was in top form. It’s not surprising that the Southern California native knows how to put on a good show; he’s been doing that ever since starting blink-182 with his high school buddy Mark Hoppus in 1992.
Supporting Angels & Airwaves (or ΛVΛ for short) was 1990nowhere and Bad Suns. Both bands did amazing at what they were there to do: hyping up the crowd and getting them excited for the upcoming main attraction. Especially while Bad Suns performed, the crowd loosened up visibly and when the group played their hit “When The World Was Mine,” their fans went wild.
After a short break, and it really was a short break, the lights went out and everyone got very excited once again. Then, the audience was hit with signal sounds, light and some smoke, just before the band members appeared one after another until DeLonge himself blesses the crowd with his appearance. The show started off with “Kiss & Tell” from their new album LIFEFORMS, and what a beginning it was. The lights were perfectly mixed in the general color scheme of the album. “Kiss & Tell” was a good choice to start a concert; it’s fast and easy to sing along to.
DeLonge showed the audience through just the first songs that he was having just as great of a time as they were. His vocal performance was surprisingly on point. It seemed that his vocals often varied throughout the years, having some fans complain or worried about the singer. Last night, nothing of this seemed to be the case; it was a solid performance. While some notes might vary from the originals like “Everything’s Magic” later on in the show, it was just natural, and let’s face it, when you come to a concert, you expect it to sound a little bit different than on the album.
Between “Euphoria” and the classic “Surrender,” DeLonge took to the mic and just lovingly hyped up his bandmates, talking to them directly and praising them. It’s always a joy to see bands actually interacting with each other and enjoying themselves. DeLonge is a natural when it comes to loosening up a crowd and creating a friendly atmosphere. Throughout the concert, he used the little breaks between songs to tell jokes that differed between poop, sex and brave heart jokes.
Like the title indicates, during “Losing My Mind,” the crowd did just that. They were jumping, waving and singing along with the song, and they got to sing a lot. DeLonge quite enjoyed having the crowd singing the chorus or the “oh woah oh’s” throughout the song. It’s this sort of engagement that shows again the true showmanship of DeLonge that made his former band blink-182 pop-punk legends.
Right after “Losing My Mind,” the atmosphere changed when the frontman actually gets serious for a brief moment. He goes on to tell the story of his father’s cancer diagnosis and how he tragically died only six months later. Throughout his monologue, the keyboard was playing and the lights were shining in the background; it gave the whole concert a rather spiritual feeling, and all of a sudden, it felt a little like listening to someone’s life story in church. DeLonge talked about how he felt his dad’s spirit passing through him like an electric strike in the middle of the night, “just like a hug,” the singer said. Throughout the crowd, you could actually see people tearing up while the singer told his story. “A couple of months ago, I all told you something nobody believed before, and now you see,” he told the audience, hinting towards his recent alien research that was supported and confirmed by U.S. military agencies. So yes, maybe if he says there is something supernatural/spiritual out there, he might be right? Who are we to not trust him?
The monologue lead to the next song, “Tunnels,” that he wrote while he experienced the grief of losing his dad. ΛVΛ wouldn’t be ΛVΛ if they wouldn’t promote some hope. But, like some fans already know, the band didn’t ONLY play originals. Even when only the first note hit, the audience knew, now it’s time for “I Miss You,” originally performed by DeLonge and blink-182. It almost felt like nobody really needed him to sing it because everyone was already singing the lyrics and vibing with the song.
ΛVΛ once again showed the world how it is done: a fun atmosphere with emotional highs and lows, but all in all, a one-of-a-kind experience that will live on in the fan’s memories.
Set List:
Kiss & Tell
Timebomb
Euphoria
Surrender
Everything’s Magic
Losing My Mind
Tunnels
It Hurts
Rebel Girl
I Miss You (blink-182 cover)
Automatic
The Wolfpack
Rite Of Spring
The War
Heaven
Photo Credit: Mehreen Rizvi
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