Airborne Toxic Event at Disney Concert Hall

 Rawk Shows   

As much as I hate going to L.A., you know if there is some worthy show, I will be there. Last night was an amazing experience, as Airborne Toxic Event had a “homecoming concert” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. For the uninitiated, this hall is part of a multi-building music complex in downtown L.A. The building was designed by Frank Gehry, the photo above is from my camera phone so it isn’t the best quality, but you get the idea. The capacity is only 2265 and this show was (of course) sold out. Set list first.

Airborne Toxic Event
Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, CA
12/4/09

Encore:
Missy

We sat on the side of the stage which were all people who got tix via the fan club, so kind of an interesting crowd in our section. I stealthed that photo because they are super serious about their no photo policy which is a bummer because it would have been a great night for photos. The show was billed as ATE with the Calder Quartet, who has appeared with ATE previously on KCRW, Leno, Letterman and Coachella. There were also some other guests throughout the show, which I will get to as I write this lengthy review.

The first song was “Wishing Well” - the band was out on the main stage with the Calder Quartet, and I had noticed earlier that Mikal’s keyboard was up in the section by the organ. Now this organ is a sight to behold:

(photo via the builder’s website, you can read more about it here)
So Mikal came out and played the organ for the beginning of the song, and then switched to his keyboard for the rest. A great start to the show. Mikal joined the rest of the band on the main stage after “Wishing Well” . After “This Losing”, they played one of their new songs, “Letter to Georgia”, with Steven playing the grand piano. The next song “Book of Love” was a Magnetic Fields cover that Mikal dedicated to his grandmother who passed away a couple of weeks ago. He introduced it by telling us that he had gone to visit her before she died and she asked him to sing her a song, but not one of his songs “with all the weird stuff”, So he sang “Book of Love” to her. It was a very moving moment and the song was fantastic. On “Something New”, Anna (who was in a floor length dress that was sparkly sequins on top with a different fabric on the bottom that had amazing ruching) played the mandolin. Noah was playing his stand up bass during this portion of the show, so there were a few twists on their normal set-up going on. After “Something New”, everyone but Mikal and Anna left the stage. They performed the acoustic song that they also played at HOB (which still doesn’t have a title as far as I can tell). The last two songs in the first set were “Gasoline” and “Happiness is Overrated” where they had a guest horn section. Awesome.

There was a brief intermission where we were entertained by the Folklorico Ensemble with Mariachi Alma del Sol and Conjunti Xi (thank god I got a program or I would have had to look that up.) They played traditional music and had two sets of dancers come out. It was really beautiful. After they left the stage, we anxiously awaited the next set. The band’s twitter was alluding to a HS marching band for the last two weeks and that’s what we got. Led by their drummer, Daren, the band came out to the hall from the sound booth opposite the stage, accompanied by the Belmont High School Marching Band. The BHSMB stayed on stage and rocked out with ATE to “Moving On” and a cover of the Ramones’ “Rock -n- Roll Radio”. Super fun. The Calder Quartet came back out for “Sometime Around Midnight” and stayed on stage for the rest of the set. Their now standard cover of “Goodbye Horses” was extra special with the quartet backing them. Ending the second set with a raucous “Innocence” was great. I kinda figured “Missy” would be the encore and it was.

For “Missy”, Mikal came out with the Guerrero School Children’s Choir (about 8 adorable elementary school girls). He played his acoustic for the first part, sitting next to the girls while they sang. If you’ve seen ATE live, you know how “Missy” gets a little crazy after the first part and that’s when the BHSMB came back out. Then it was typical ATE shenanagins - lots going on, especially with the marching band. And then throughout the song, the Calder Quartet came out, along with all the performers from the intermission. It was madness! And awesome. And a great way to spend a Friday night in L.A.

The end.