At one point during Angels and Airwaves’ show Saturday night at the Aragon Ballroom, Tom Delonge took a few minutes to introduce his fellow band mates. Each introduction was met with mild applause before he introduced himself with “Oh yeah, and me!” He smiled broadly and gave himself a hand as the crowd went nuts. It should come as no surprise that Delonge was the center of attention, as most of his band mates seemed to hide in the shadows. There were quite a few fans strolling around the arena in Blink-182 shirts, maybe hoping the band would bust out one of the older songs from Delonge’s earlier days. Nevertheless, the majority of the crowd came to see and hear Angels and Airwaves play hits off of We Don’t Need to Whisper, I-Empire and their latest release Love.
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Angels and Airwaves with Say Anything
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Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL
April 24, 2010
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Pop punk band Say Anything opened up the show with a 45-minute set, highlighted by such songs as “Eloise” and “Alive With The Glory of Love.” Front man Max Benis apologized a few times for “making us wait for Angels and Airwaves,” but it was unnecessary the band put on a great set. The vocals were drowned out on the first two songs, but things seemed to clear up from there. The six-piece band, all dressed in matching white shirts and black pants, rumbled through a ten-song set with a ton of energy. Benis shouted,” You guys are so nice (for listening to us)” about ten times before closing their set around 7:45 p.m.
Delonge and company hit the stage and opened up with the instrumental, “Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce” off of their newest album, Love. The instrumental piece could work as a permanent opening track. It sets up the spacey, shimmering Angels and Airwaves sound. While Delonge seemed to exaggerate Angels and Airwaves’ sound as revolutionary or out of this world, it’s not really a new sound.
Comparisons are often made to U2’s the Edge’s guitar playing. Simple, long-drawn notes, stretched out on an infinity guitar. Sure, it sounds good, but it’s far from something that could “change our world view.” It’s not that the sound is bad, in fact it sounds pretty good, it just doesn’t help to raise expectations to grandiose levels. It does a disservice to something that already sounds great. Maybe I’m too immersed in Delonge’s history with Blink-182, but it’s hard to take him too seriously.
The guys jumped right into “It Hurts” and Delonge encouraged the audience to sing right along, thrusting his microphone towards the audience during the chorus. From there the band touched on tracks mainly from Love and We Don’t Need To Whisper. As Delonge moved his lanky frame across the stage, he often stretched his arms out in a Christ-like pose. He seemed to soak up the energy of the audience. The backlighting worked well in illuminating the outer space vibe the band wants to push for. If you close your eyes you would feel like you’re flying, squinting through the glare of the suns and stars.
Highlights from Love included Shove, Young London and The Flight of the Apollo. The band finished up around the 90-minute mark with “The War. “ As Delonge sang “It’s almost over,” we expected to hear at least a few more songs. A few hundred fans waited for an encore that never came. As the house lights went on, we realized it was already over. I saw more than a few dozen confused faces strolling out of the arena Saturday night; it didn’t seem to be quite the experience we expected.
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No Encore?
Written by Guest on 2010-05-01 17:22:36
This is wierd that they didnt play an encore here. i just saw ava in norfolk, va last night and they did a two song encore. |
encore
Written by Guest on 2010-05-03 13:58:37
they did do an encore you dumbass it was breathe and the war. remember how they left and then came back after we were all chanting AVA AVA AVA
damn, dont know what an encore is do ya |
Bryor
Written by Guest on 2010-05-05 10:34:36
Your a dumbass best show ever.....there was a fucking encore and say anything sucked |
Written by Guest on 2010-05-05 18:38:41
They did do those two songs, but they never left the stage. How is that an encore? The show was good but i thought it was too short. |
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