Taking Back Sunday / Angels & Airwaves @ Long Beach Arena
by Bree McGuire
I'm really not an arena-rock kinda girl-- I prefer the troubadour or
spaceland, where I can get rockstar sweat on me without showing up 4
hours early and elbow-wrestling to the barricade. But if the bands
have the energy to fill up the gaping concrete space, bring it on. Unfortunately we
missed The Subways and Head Automatica and came in at the beginning of
Angels & Airwaves set as they opened for Taking Back Sunday, Wednesday.
Angels and Aiwaves isn't terribly different from Blink182. They're
like Blink minus two personalities and plus a atmospheric/electronic
element. They even opened their single "The Adventure" with a part of
a Blink track ("Down"). The great thing about A&A is they came with a
built-in fanbase, which made for an amazing synergy that usually takes
more than two months to develop ("We Don't Need To Whisper" was
released in May). Tom Delonge took time out halfway through the set to
run around the arena with a spotlight telling a stories about first
dates, invisible pants and boobies. They played "There Is" (one of
Boxcar Racer's singles) near the end of his arena-jog and they ended
their set by dropping a black and white "LOVE" backdrop.
Taking Back Sunday had a tight set, a good mixture of new tracks
("Makedamnsure," "Twenty-twenty Surgery," and "Liar") and old
favorites (Timberwolves at New Jersey). Frontman Adam Lazzara was
dressed neck to toe in black, which was kind of a disappointment
having been accustomed to half-clothed rockers at the Vans Warped
Tour. Apparently that was enough for a young fan in the balcony,
though-- clearly suffering from Lazarramania, she was screaming and
pulling at her hair and clothes, looking she was going to take a
plunge for her love any second. Although this is a selfish thing to
say, I'd really love to see TBS play the troubadour again-- but with
all the mic swinging, I'm sure the massive stage at Long Beach Arena
suits them better.
photos also by Bree, more of which can be found here