Long review write up, please feel free to scroll past...
So this weekend went by like a flash, just a crazy 20 hours traveling to LA and going to the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show. The reason I went, besides the awesome line up, was to get my last 3300 miles with United to keep my status so this trip was cheap and enough miles, plus a cool show to do over the weekend without taking time off from work. The show was two days but day 2 I couldn't even tell you who those bands are
but day 1 was right up my ally. I snagged a general admission floor ticket the moment they went on sale and the show sold out at the Forum.
Started out with Badflower. I had never heard of this band before. They were some sort of rock band, not too heavy, but not soft either. There was a couple songs that were decent, but I overall didn't really like them very much. Thought the singer's style was not really my thing, but they are a new band and probably growing. I recorded their latest single (I think at least, they just released a music video a couple days before the show for it)
Badflower - HeroinNext up was AJR. I never heard of them, but my gf had. She played a couple songs for me and I was not into it. I knew this would be the band I enjoyed the least going in and my thoughts were confirmed. I felt they did belong musically, they just weren't rock. More like drum/bass/keyboards. They did a cool part of the set where they say "this is how we write a song" and they played some noises and turned it into a beat and then it lead into an actual song which was the one song I really enjoyed with a trumpet. This band was three brothers though which was cool, but man did they all have really goofy dance moves. I just felt like the music and dancing didn't mix. I don't know, I used this time for a bathroom and drink break.
How AJR writes a songSpeaking of, there were no breaks between bands! It was a rotating stage so maybe a minute of downtime as the KROQ people would come out and introduce the next band and it would rotated with the band already there and maybe even playing. I thought this was one of the coolest things. Next up spinning around the stage were the Interrupters. For me, this is when the concert got good, and I mean really good. I didn't know their music but really enjoyed the up tempo ska. Plus they all were just moving around and having fun on stage. And apparently this band is also a group of three brothers. They were clearly loving their opportunity to share such a big stage. To me, they set the bar for this event. The crowd was definitely into them and they had the only interesting guest of the night when they brought up Rancid member Tim Armstrong for the final two songs, one of which was a Rancid cover of Time Bomb (shared above). This was AWESOME! What was really cool was the guitarist after said KROQ was the reason he played guitar and discovered Rancid. Holy shit, same with me! Back when NYC had a KROQ 92.3 they used to play Time Bomb by Rancid when I was little and fell in love with ska and punk music. Something that you just don't hear on the radio anymore except that one peroid in the 90s. Was so cool to see the public recognition of this. I got another song of theirs live:
The Interrupters - A Friend Like Me (and you can watch that stage rotate
like that has got to me their most epic intro ever or at least one of them)
The punk wave continued next with my favorite band of the line up AFI. Davey Havok has been one of my favorite singers for a long time and while AFI has changed their sound a lot, I've always enjoyed whatever they released mostly because I love his vocals. However, I thought Davey might have been my biggest dissapointment. It seemed like he or his mic had issues. Kept cutting out, but I'm wondering if it was user error as he used a mic with a cable and kept pushing the limits of that cable. If I didn't know he was straight edge, I would have thought he was wasted by the way he moved and acted on stage. Either way, they were super fun and so energetic on stage, the rest of the band sounded tight. They have a new EP out and I captured the live debut of their new single.
AFI - Get DarkAnd the punk rock portion of the show ended with one of the biggest and best in the genre, Bad Religion. Must say they sound so damn good live. Just like their albums, so consistent. Even with changing line ups (their old drummer moved onto play for Avenged Sevenfold, and they've gone through so many guitarists over the years) and this show we got to see Brett Gurewitz perform with them (original guitarist and still contributes to BR but doesn't tour or is active normally with the band). They live debuted a couple songs, one a holiday song and another an anti-trump one. Must say I wasn't a huge fan of either, but their set was short and sweet (like the two before them). They played Los Angeles is Burning which seemed appropriate and I captured a fitting song
Bad Religion - Fuck YouThings changed a bit next. I was mostly in the back of the floor, and I could see all the punks leaving from the pit sweaty
The punk rock portion truly had ended and what a change it was. We got the up and coming big band, Greta Van Fleet next! As the punks moved out, you then saw tons of people move up. All of the sudden all of the seats in the arena had butts in them. It seemed like everyone wanted to see GVF. And they did not upset. A solid 40 minutes of rock n roll. I wish they didn't include a drum solo with such a short set, but it felt right given their show. Classic rock sounding, amazing guitar and sweet bass lines. The singer's voice just resonated through the arena. I think they stole the show. You could feel something you couldn't feel before. They were AWESOME! They ended the set with a long jam as well, so cool. Kind of made me wish DT would just go back to being a raw band like this, nothing extra just perform and jam and have fun with amazing execution.
Greta Van Fleet - Edge of DarknessNext up could not keep up. It was Third Eye Blind and while they opened with a hit song, it felt a bit of a downer. They weren't bad by any means. It was a good time to go back to the bathroom and grab another drink since it was hard to find time without missing anything. By the end of their set though, i thought they got the crowd back into it with Semi Charmed Life and there were a lot of really drunk girls near me going crazy
I've never been a huge fan, but they were definitely cool to see again and I was kind of bummed they didn't play Hows It Going to Be. They were probably the only band who didn't have new music out. They said they were in the studio in LA so playing this show was a nice break to get out. They didn't give us a taste of that new music though. Here was an older track.
Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive ByNext up was probably the rowdiest band of the show. 30 Seconds to Mars got the crowd going like no other this evening. With all the crowd sing a longs, they also must have staged some people in the crowd as people started showing up with huge flags to wave. Obviously you couldn't just walk in with those so something was set up for that plus the entire concert was live streamed except their set so I wonder if they filmed it for something? Either way, I'm not a huge fan of their music and I don't like how they don't perform with a full band (only the drummer and keyboardist is on stage). But I can't deny Jared Leto's control of the crowd and getting the girls to go wild. I noticed even more drunk crazy girls for them than Third Eye Blind. They also had balloons dropping in the beginning and confetti shooting out at the end. Defintiely brought everything they had for their set. I didn't record any full songs, but got plenty of footage of the balls dropping and confetti shooting (which was so much fun, probably the funnest moment of the show)
Me knocking the balloon away from a few girls (
sounds dick but this was after I caught about 3 of them for them and they kept letting them go so this time after they took a selfie I knocked it away as a joke and when I realized they were mad I ran away and then felt really bad)
The confetti blowing out right by me Finally the headliners were next, The Smashing Pumpkins, and I must say I felt a little bad for them having to come out after all that. People just immediately left and it seemed after every song the Smashing Pumpkins played that another wave of people left. This is where I blame the band though, their set list was shit. They played a lot of low energy music, did a few covers that were not impressive and thier special guest, Mike Garson, was not terribly interesting. It was defintiely cool though and they did have a small choir for another song, but overall their performance was really flat considering the bands before them. By the time their set ended, the place was mostly empty and kind of was a bummer of a way to end the night. I couldn't complain though. I had a total blast and it was 6 straight hours of non stop music from some of my favorite bands and some new bands that I really enjyoyed (The Interrupters and Greta Van Fleet). Definitely a contender for concert of the year for me
KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas *cramx3 concert experience*