Normally when I get tickets for a show, I buy two: one for me and one for the phantom friend who might be interested in coming along. With Angels & Airwaves, though, I only bought one. That turns out to have been a pretty good call. The show wasn’t awful, but I probably would have regretted dragging someone else to it.

I arrived at the gig last night at around 9:45, not long after the band went on. My first impression was the volume. I had ear plugs with me, and they went right in.

Second impression was the serious light show, and then the third impression was the vocals. DeLonge put a lot of effort into his performance, but it didn’t sound to me like he was having a terribly good night. He was slipping out of key and struggling to hit some of the higher notes in the songs. Also, maybe that’s the problem with really produced pop; the live show is bound to fall short of the record.

Again, I’m not saying the gig was terrible. They all seemed into it, particularly the drummer, Atom Willard, who I noticed was mouthing the words of the lyrics as he let rip some grade A chops. The hardware on the stage was interesting too. Here’s a photo:

Overall, though, it wasn’t quite the pop revival that I was expecting. One thing about the crowd was that there were a lot of couples. Here’s DeLonge, showing off some his rock star mojo and talking about the band’s approach to love songs.

Like most gigs I attend these days, I left early. As I exited the club, a DC cop walked in, followed by a very concerned looking bouncer who made a quick move through the door. Someone said that a fight had broken out, to which a young woman remarked: “A fight? At Angels and Airwaves?”