The Audio Perv

Though they had been playing shows for a few years, The Airborne Toxic Event were largely unknown outside of southern California until early last year when LA rock stations started playing “Sometime Around Midnight.” Whether you want to call it the song of the year last year or this year is up to you. It was only a year ago that the band was playing the Mercury Lounge; now they’re selling out Webster Hall on consecutive nights. We happened to catch the band on October 16th and we know one thing for sure: NYC loves indie rock that you can dance to. Opening with “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?”, T.A.T.E. would play almost all of their songs including a few covers. Before launching into The Drifters’ “This Magic Moment,” frontman Mikel Jollett said that they were going to steal back a song that “Lou Reed stole from The Drifters” and even sang the line “Won’t you dance with me?” which indeed had the sold out crowd at Webster Hall dancing to every word.

Perhaps having even more fun than the crowd was the band. Repeatedly, Mikel and Anna Bulbrook would start across from each other on stage and come towards each other almost as if they were in a duel and find themselves on the floor rocking out. Webster Hall was truly Mikel’s bedroom as he bounced around the entire stage and even sat at the edge of the stage, hanging out/singing with the crowd. The band even played two new songs (“All I Ever Wanted” sounds like a hit single) in addition to almost everything off of their self-titled album.

If you’ve never heard a volcano, you should’ve been at Webster Hall to hear the eruption from the crowd to the first few notes played on Anna’s viola as she began the band’s biggest hit to date, “Sometime Around Midnight.” Despite the band’s growing popularity and newer singles, the song still resonates strongly (hopefully, it will not be known as their only hits). Before covering the late Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died,” Mikel told the crowd about the band’s difficulty in deciding whether to play the song live or not upon hearing of Carroll’s passing. It seemed to be a wise decision as one of the biggest parties ever occurred as openers Red Cortez and the Henry Clay People came onstage to drink, pound on another bass drum, and sing along merrily to all the “People Who Died.”

Prior to closing the show, Mikel addressed a few things that were going on during the show including the guy upfront “shooting the Youtube videos,” the two girls who said “I love you” and sang every word to the songs on his left, “the guy in the back by the bar who’s probably at the wrong show. Coldplay’s not here,” and even the guy “who yelled that he wanted his $20 back. I’ll see you outside.” (Haha!) Throughout the set, each bandmember would walk up staircases (whose height reached the top of the band’s large amplifiers and where drummer Daren Taylor) and jam out. Were they posing? No, for once, this modest band could truly show what they’ve been feeling: on top of this world.

Setlist
Does This Mean You’re Moving On?
Something New
This Magic Moment (The Drifters cover)
Gasoline
(Missed this one, sorry)
The Girls In Their Summer Dresses
This Losing
Papillon
This Is Nowhere
New Song
Wishing Well
Sometime Around Midnight
Goodbye Horses (Q Lazzarus cover)
All I Ever Wanted
Innocence

Encore

Happiness is Overrated
People Who Died (Jim Carroll cover)
Missy

(click pics to enlarge, videos below pics)