REVIEW: Angels and Airwaves @ Paradise Rock Club 9/15
By Jarrad Levy
It’s hard to describe what makes Angels and Airwaves special. Maybe it’s that they only exist as a byproduct of blink-182, while sounding like U2. Maybe it’s lead singer, Tom DeLonge’s, obsession with aliens and conspiracy theories. However, I think that what ultimately makes Angels and Airwaves really interesting and unique is their sincerity.
There was one reason and one reason only that 99% of the audience was in attendance on the beautiful Sunday night: Tom DeLonge. He has become a legend in the realm of alternative and punk music. As the former main creative force of blink-182, he defined the adolescence of countless Millennials and Gen Z kids. He and the rest of blink restructured what it meant to be punk and what the genre of punk-rock could be and would become. People at this concert were not there to listen to Angels and Airwaves; they were there to see Tom DeLonge. This could not have been more apparent when seeing the sea of blink-182 merch and the vast minority of people wearing anything relating to the actual band that would be playing later in the night.
Upon DeLonge and company taking the stage, Paradise Rock Club exploded. Having been to that venue nearly a dozen times since starting at Boston University, I have never heard the club’s attendance that loud. Wasting no time, the band began playing the energetic “Overload.” Ironically, DeLonge is infamous for having a less than stellar live voice; however he sounded significantly better than I expected, knowing the terrible reputation that his live shows tend to have.
As the night progressed, Angels and Airwaves played a mix of popular and lesser known songs, including “It Hurts,” “Everything’s Magic,” and “Moon as My Witness.” Eventually, the band got to that point in the setlist that every artist winds up reaching: that moment — the one where they and everyone in the crowd know that the next song is the band’s biggest and most well known. This was it: “The Adventure.” The song is not just Angels and Airwaves’ most well known, but it is absolutely one of their best. Telling the story of DeLonge longing for friendship after the first breakup of blink-182, the entire crowd finally sang in unison, “I cannot live / I cannot breathe / Unless you do this with me.”
The crowd’s connectedness with each other and the band did not end there, as DeLonge then did an acoustic mashup of some of his non-Angels and Airwaves hits. Included in this were the iconic blink-182 hit, “I Miss You,” emotional ballad by Box Car Racer, “There Is,” and a tribute to the 20th anniversary of blink-182’s breakthrough album, Enema of the State, “Aliens Exist.” Throughout this stretch, DeLonge cracked jokes, told fun stories of his time in blink, and plugged his upcoming History Channel show, Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation. The energy during this entire portion of the show was warm, inviting, and exactly what I look for when going to a concert. It felt like I was home with friends I’ve known for years despite not having said a word to anyone else in the building.
Closing the show with “Do It For Me Now” and “Heaven,” Angels and Airwaves then quietly left the stage, leaving the crowd with the good vibes and feelings of acceptance and tranquility that they tried so hard throughout the night to impart. While the show was shorter than I would have liked, clocking in around an hour and half, and being unable to see a good portion of it being on the shorter side and being surrounded by six foot tall behemoths, I adored my time seeing Angels and Airwaves, and would absolutely go out of my way to see them again.