{"id":5487,"date":"2019-09-19T15:23:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T20:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=5487"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:09:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:09:32","slug":"review-angels-and-airwaves-paradise-rock-club-9-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/09\/19\/review-angels-and-airwaves-paradise-rock-club-9-15\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Angels and Airwaves @ Paradise Rock Club 9\/15"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jarrad Levy<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to describe what makes Angels and Airwaves special. Maybe it\u2019s that they only exist as a byproduct of blink-182, while sounding like U2. Maybe it\u2019s lead singer, Tom DeLonge\u2019s, obsession with aliens and conspiracy theories. However, I think that what ultimately makes Angels and Airwaves really interesting and unique is their sincerity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 club\u2019s attendance that loud. Wasting no time, the band began playing the energetic \u201cOverload.\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the night progressed, Angels and Airwaves played a mix of popular and lesser known songs, including \u201cIt Hurts,\u201d \u201cEverything\u2019s Magic,\u201d and \u201cMoon as My Witness.\u201d Eventually, the band got to that point in the setlist that every artist winds up reaching: that moment \u2014 the one where they and everyone in the crowd know that the next song is the band\u2019s biggest and most well known. This was it: \u201cThe Adventure.\u201d The song is not just Angels and Airwaves\u2019 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, \u201cI cannot live \/ I cannot breathe \/ Unless you do this with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowd\u2019s 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, \u201cI Miss You,\u201d emotional ballad by Box Car Racer, \u201cThere Is,\u201d and a tribute to the 20th anniversary of blink-182\u2019s breakthrough album, <\/span>Enema of the State<\/span><\/i>, \u201cAliens Exist.\u201d Throughout this stretch, DeLonge cracked jokes, told fun stories of his time in blink, and plugged his upcoming History Channel show, <\/span>Unidentified: Inside America\u2019s UFO Investigation<\/span><\/i>. 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\u2019ve known for years despite not having said a word to anyone else in the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Closing the show with \u201cDo It For Me Now\u201d and \u201cHeaven,\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jarrad Levy It\u2019s hard to describe what makes Angels and Airwaves special. Maybe it\u2019s that they only exist as a byproduct of blink-182, while sounding like U2. Maybe it\u2019s lead singer, Tom DeLonge\u2019s, obsession with aliens and conspiracy theories. However, I think that what ultimately makes Angels and Airwaves really interesting and unique is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[893,770,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5490,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487\/revisions\/5490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}