The Airborne Toxic Event, from the Silverlake area of metro Los Angeles, was one of many bands I should have been paying more attention to, which is one reason they were on my Coachella schedule from the start. They turned out to be as excellent as their hype, maybe more so.
Although they have not been performing together for very long, they have the stage presence of seasoned performers. Tiny violinist, keyboardist, and backup singer Anna Bulbrook is everywhere on stage, interacting with everybody; while Noah Harmon might be the hammiest bassist I’ve ever seen. The different between a good band and a great band, is knowing how to entertain and play to the audience. The Airborne Toxic Event know how to do both. I highly recommend seeing them if you can.
Steven Chen on lead guitar
Lead singer and band songwriter Mikel Jollett (top photo) has a strong, Joe Strummer kind of voice and writes songs with depth and drama and epic melodies that are arranged to emphasize the power in their emotions. They brought along the string quartet that lends fullness and poignancy to several of their tunes.
Anna Bulbrook and Noah Harmon
Setlist:
1. Wishing Well
2. Papillon
3. Gasoline
4. Happiness Is Overrated
5. Does This Mean You’re Moving On?
6. This Losing
7. Echo Park
8. Goodbye Horses (made popular by Psyche)
9. This Is Nowhere
10. Sometime Around Midnight
11. Innocence
These live tracks are from KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic Podcast
MySpace | Website | Label: Island Records
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Show Schedule: Airborne Toxic Event is currently on tour in Europe and the U.K. Their London show on May 8 is sold out. They will return to the western U.S. for some dates in the second half of May.
- alt-gramma (371)
- indie.mom (395)
- Uncle T (7)
One of my favorite new bands in the last year! I’m green with envy, but happy you shared the photos/review of the show.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Anna is so photogenic and so much of her personality comes through onstage. Indie Mom and I both took about a billion pictures of her! ATE are SUCH a good band for having released just one album. They should only get bigger from here.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:55 am