Music is so subjective that itap sometimes hard to understand why a band’s music can inspire one listener and leave another impassive and unimpressed.
How does a song urge that first listener to act out an interpretive dance to its lyrics while the second listener shifts from one foot to the other, looking for the nearest exit? Thatap the conundrum with . Front man Tom Delonge has not been shy about his mission with the band, often conveying a desire to motivate and emotionally affect his fans and putting on live performances that dramatically attempt to mirror that aim.
But Angels and Airwaves’ music is ultimately so bland, so vanilla, that itap amazing this inspiration actually has been imparted on some of Delonge’s fans.
Itap fair to say that Angels and Airwaves’ light show is the best — and more inspiring — part of the band’s current tour with Say Anything. The theatrically flashing backdrop of lights and swooping beams successfully elevate four dudes to an arena-ready rock band. The lofty drum riser and Delonge’s bounding stage moves tell us that the group we are watching is dramatic and huge. But Angels and Airwaves aren’t U2, as much as they may hope to be, and isn’t an arena, especially when itap only half-full on a Saturday night.
From Say Anything’s moderately interesting opening set to the ridiculously histrionic close of Angels and Airwaves hour-plus performance, the entire evening was lackluster and mediocre.
Say Anything is better than they came across on Saturday, perhaps a fault of the venue’s sound or maybe just thanks to a lack of motivation (Where’s Delonge when he’s really needed?). Angels and Airwaves played an expected list of songs off their three albums, including “Hallucinations” and melodramatic love song “Clever Love,” off the band’s newest disc, “Love,” which came out on Valentine’s Day. Those newer tracks received the biggest cheers, surprisingly, although older favorites like “The Adventure” and “Everything’s Magic” drew strong responses.
The most curious thing about the show, however, was Delonge’s repeated claims that Angels and Airwaves haven’t gotten any support from the radio or television, that all the fans have discovered the band’s music on their own. First of all, by saying that Delonge ignores his role in blink-182, one of the biggest bands of his generation. Secondly, the band’s first album, 2006’s “We Don’t Need to Whisper,” went gold almost immediately after its release — on major label Geffen — probably thanks to a lot of radio and MTV promotion. The video for “The Adventure” was, in fact, nominated for several MTV Video Awards that year.
Some bands allow their music to take form in the minds of their fans, leaving room for interpretation and subjective reception. Delonge wants his band to be something so badly and is forcing its tone and aesthetic so hard that there is no room for interpretation here. You either get it, and spend the show singing along with vigor, or you don’t, and you stay for the show’s entirety only because you’ve been assigned to review it.
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Emily Zemler is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Reverb. She also writes for Spin, Alternative Press, Relix and has a weekly column on where she forces musicians to talk about books.
Denise Chambers is a Denver freelance photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. See more of her work .
