The Main Event

Concert Review

The Airborne Toxic Event are a must see act!

In 2008, The Airborne Toxic Event put out their self-titled debut album. Definitely a solid album, the songs are exceptionally catchy. As the band got more hype so did their live show.The band had two shows at Schuba’s on February 28th. Earlier in the day they played a free acoustic show at the Hard Rock Café.

The Airborne Toxic Event is an indie rock band from Los Angeles consisting of Mikel Jollett (vocals and guitar,) Steven Chen (guitar and keys,) Noah Harmon (bass,) Daren Taylor (drums,) and Anna Bulbrook (violin and keyboard.)

Opening with the poppy bass line of “Gasoline,” the band launched into its set. Next was “Papillion,” and the crowd began to sing along. Jollett noted by saying, “You guys know the words!”

From there the band started “Happiness is Overrated,” which was stopped abruptly after Jollett sang only a few notes of the intro. He talked about how he had been sick and his voice is still recovering “but we’re gonna do it until we get it right.” In the second attempt Jollett hit the right notes and his voice seemed to hold up. Although throughout the night he did seem to be nursing his voice, not quite going all out.

They played “The Girls in Summer Dresses,” which is a song based on the short story of the same title by Irwin Shaw. “Echo Park” was a new song that they played and it was less than impressive. When the band played “This is Nowhere” the show was about half way over but at this point the band seemed to get more into the songs. Then they went into full stride with their hit “Sometime Around Midnight.”

As the band started “Wishing Well,” the crowd roared even louder, which was quite the surprise, and this song and next were the shows highlights. Nearing the end, the band played “Innocence,” the closing track to their album, it was high energy and perfect. They quickly exited off stage and went outside into the freezing weather. The crowd continued to cheer and it was not long before they came back for the encore.

Jollett thanked the crowd saying how nice it is to play to a full room. The riff for “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” started and he said “Jump around like monkeys with us.” He went into the crowd to sing the song as everyone danced around. The microphone went out for about ten seconds and Jollett looked very panicked, but recovered.

For the last song of the night, “Missy”, Jollett invited a young girl named Thomasina on stage to join the band. The girl hesitated to go on stage and seemed very nervous, as she just stood there and stared. Halfway through the song Jollett invited the rest of the crowd on stage. A handful of people ran up there as the band extended the song. Jollett ended the show saying, “that’s all the songs we have, we don’t have anymore to play.”

Overall it was a very good show. Jollett had been sick and they had to cancel a few shows going into these, so I was impressed and thankful for the performance. As the band is only a little over a year old, there were some minor rookie mistakes but regardless it was entertaining throughout, it was rock and roll. Check The Airborne Toxic Event out, it is worth it. The Henry Clay People opened.