With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Dispatch: The Airborne Toxic Event, The Henry Clay People, Red Cortez & The Parson Red Heads in New York
Los Feliz-based The Airborne Toxic Event perform the first of two sold-out shows at Webster Hall in New York City
"It's like a Spaceland lineup from 2007," quipped The Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett in October the week before CMJ at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, about 20 minutes north of Albany. "Short of being at Spaceland in LA a few years ago, I'm pleasantly shocked that I'm getting to see a lineup like that," observed the East Coast-based indie music blog Between Love and Like. The Airborne Toxic Event was in the midst of their second cross-country tour -- their first since signing with major label Island Def Jam -- with openers The Henry Clay People and Red Cortez, but for that night, they were joined by The Parson Red Heads, who were coincidentally in New York for their first-ever East Coast tour.
Indeed, seeing those four local bands performing on the same bill, let alone The Airborne Toxic Event, The Henry Clay People, and Red Cortez for two consecutive nights at Webster Hall in New York City, raucously performing a cover of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died," was one of those rare moments that LAist was privileged to have witnessed live.
Tonight, The Airborne Toxic Event performs its biggest local show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown LA with The Calder Quartet and special guests, which include the Belmont High Marching Band and other surprises. According to Travis Woods from Web In Front, "The show is meant to "be a celebration, not just of California, but of the music and culture of East Los Angeles -- which we love and are proud to call home."
Special thanks to Red Cortez, The Henry Clay People, and The Airborne Toxic Event.