Airborne Toxic Event at HOB Delta Room
The first night of a tour is always special. But the opening night of a band’s first headlining tour after their single has broken the top 10 on the alt rock charts, well that has the making of something extraordinary. The Airborne Toxic Event came to play tonight and the packed Delta Room matched their energy.
Some photos first:
(Mikel)
(Mikel and Noah)
(Anna on violin)
(Steven with Noah)
As you might have guessed by looking at these photos, ATE was very energetic and had great stage presence. Mikel was super talkative - he kept giving shoutouts to his family in the crowd (with the warning “watch your wallets") and introduced quite a few songs before they played them. The set list below:
Airborne Toxic Event
HOB San Diego Delta Room
2/11/09
Gasoline
Papillon
Happiness is Overrated
Girls in Summer Dresses
Echo Park
Something New
This Losing
Horses
This is Nowhere
Sometime Around Midnight
Wishing Well
Innocence
Encore:
Does This Mean You’re Moving On
Missy
Notes on the set list - they played some songs that are not on their self-titled debut - notably “Girls in Summer Dresses”, “Echo Park” (which they told us they had never played before tonight), “This Losing” (while not on the album, is widely available from their Live Daily sessions), and a cover, noted as “Horses” on the set list.
There were some amazing moments in their set. Noah plays his bass with a violin bow a couple of times during the set (notably during the main set ending “Innocence").
(Anna and Noah)
(Noah)
We weren’t sure if they were gonna play an encore (there wasn’t one listed on the official set list), but everyone was stoked to get two more songs. Mikel climbed up on the speakers and did “Moving On” up there while Anna joined us in the crowd.
(Mikel)
(Anna in the crowd)
Mikel encouraged people to come up on stage during “Missy”.
A great show if you couldn’t already tell. I guess I kinda don’t feel the need to write much about the show - if you weren’t there, you missed an epic one. But you know this won’t be the last time you hear about these guys within the confines of this space. I’m so rooting for them (can they break the top 5 on the alt charts?) - you know how I love the indie on my radio.
P.S. View all the photos here.
Previous ATE coverage on chickrawker:
album review
Show review - HOB Dallas
