LIVE: Angels & Airwaves Succeed Using Flashing Things
Monday February 25, 2008 @ 03:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Angels And Airwaves' Tom DeLonge Photo by Jess Baumung

February 22, 2008
Kool Haus
Toronto, ON
By Stephanie Joudrey

Tom DeLonge talks a lot of smack about Angels & Airwaves' greatness. On disc, they come across as many things, but "great" generally isn't among them. Angels & Airwaves as a live band are an entirely different beast. This night they took their middling source material and a crowd that was half-asleep and turned into something special.

If the night was broken into themes, the first would have been "Where do I know that guy from?" Openers Ace Enders And A Million Different People play typical emo-tinged pop-punk and feature The Early November frontman Arthur "Ace" Enders.

The Colour Fred, fronted by former Taking Back Sunday member Fred Mascherino, were next. Sounding fairly similar to Mascherino's former band, their tunes were acceptable and Mascherino could end up being a really good frontman.

A fairly good set by Meg & Dia followed despite the fact that singer Dia Frampton's vocals could barely be heard and the crowd response remained tepid. The audience clearly had little patience for all of these bands delaying what they truly wanted.

They finally got it when Angels & Airwaves hit the stage to an array of spacey, mind-bending sound effects. Within 30 seconds of the opening track "Call To Arms," the stage exploded with lights, sounds and a dancing, posing DeLonge. The crowd finally came out of its stupor. It's probably a good thing too because AVA brought it all.

Standing up close or to the side of the stage you didn't get the full effect. But from the back of the club you truly got the wall of sound and dramatic arena show feeling. The massive swirl of lights spinning and flashing made for a Pink Floyd level spectacle. Frequent backlighting would leave the band members shadowed in darkness, making you really focused on the sounds and the technicolour light show bursts much more vibrant.

All that doesn't even take into account DeLonge's contribution to the performance. He didn't speak between songs until 40 minutes into the set, but he vogued and somehow enticed the crowd to go along with it. He showed he had kept a little cheekiness from his Blink-182 days during a strange moment in the ballad "Breathe," where he danced with flashlights stuck to the palms of his hands. He even charmed the crowd with an acoustic version of "Rite Of Spring."

In short, AVA's stage show made the music. Big single "The Adventure" almost got lost in the flashy light display. Maybe it's a distraction, but it seemed to make the band's whole thematic shtick finally make sense. "Distraction" became a song to which people were suddenly dancing and the encore of "True Love" and "The War" sounded much heavier.

Some would say Angels & Airwaves are compensating for a lack of songs with such a grand stage show, and they're probably right. But at least DeLonge has put something together to back up his bragging. Naysayers would never believe it, but these guys actually delivered.