Angels and Airwaves at the Avalon
“Why hello.”
Angels and Airwaves guitarist Tom DeLonge breaks the band’s silence with these two words. It is one hour into AVA’s power-packed setlist at the Avalon Hollywood stop of its “Love Part Two” Tour.
For one hour, the trio has performed unbroken hits from its newest album, Love Part Two, and other favorites amidst a foggy backdrop illuminated by alternating colors of flashing, square-shaped lights. For one hour, fans have jumped, pushed, and punched the air while shouting the lyrics to “Saturday Love,” “Surrender,” “Everything’s Magic,” and of course, “The Adventure.” For one hour, Los Angeles has faded into memory’s farthest reaches, and all that exists is the stage, the songs, the music. Fans are breathless.
“We were putting together the setlist and we kept playing song after song, and we got really into it and we knew the lights would be going and we’d be playing music against the lights, looking like f***ing gods,” The spell is broken as the sold-out crowd laughs. The mortal Tom, the funny one we know from Blink-182, has returned. Fans sink back to Earth as he cracks another joke. “And then we realized we don’t talk, for like, an hour. So hello.”
AVA’s eclectic group of fans is enthusiastic as Tom introduces the next song as one from his first-side project, Box Car Racer, which he created with Blink drummer Travis Barker to experiment with “non-Blink” sounding songs. Box Car Racer only released one album, but Angels and Airwaves is seen as a continuation of the project and has enjoyed huge success: its first album reached #4 on Billboard 200 and went gold in the US and Canada, and the band has since released a number of hit singles (including their smash encore closer for the night, “The War”) and recorded three more albums.
After the slower, sweeter Box Car Racer cover “There Is,” which Tom wrote for his wife, AVA surges back with a slamming solo showcasing their new drummer, Ilan Rubin (from Lostprophets and Nine Inch Nails). Fans curious about the new drummer’s talents were not disappointed–Rubin proved his stripes in the opener, and very literally crushed any lingering doubts with his solo performance.
AVA closed with “Hallucinations” and “Secret Crowds” before a roaring crowd cheered on an encore.
AVA is known for breaking traditional rules. Fusing an electronics with alternative rock, their songs sound existential. They feel other-worldly. And that’s exactly what the albums Love and Love Part Two intend. Bolstering their experimental tendencies, AVA has become involved with a number of multimedia projects–one of which is a full-length feature film also titled, “Love.” The film captures the story of an astronaut’s struggle to stay sane in space after losing contact with Earth. It is a portrait of the human condition, and AVA composed the score.
During the interlude between set and encore, there is a brief allusion to the film when a computer-animated voice addresses the audience in monotone as if it has left Earth. It’s cheesy, but strangely effective. For in the midst of AVA’s charged performance, it feels like we have.
Songs from the Concert:
“Saturday Love”
“Surrender”
”Everything’s Magic”
”Secret Crowds”
