It’s no secret. I’ve professed my devotion to The Airborne Toxic Event (TATE) across social media. And if you meet me in person, I’ll let you know too. So when the day finally arrived for their show in Orange County as part of the Wavelength Festival, I was ecstatic.
The writer sitting next to me had shared that the Keb Mo/Bonnie Raitt performance the night before was amazing. He was a Keb Mo fan. He asked me to describe TATE and I started off with saying “Well, they are a rock band.”
“Like Nirvana?” he asked.
“Well no, more melodic,” I said, “there’s a violinist in the band for one thing.”
My husband offered up: “The lead singer has a deep baritone.”
“You know, kinda like “The National” I said. But the writer hadn’t heard of The National either so finally I said, “What really makes the band great is their storytelling, like each song has a story. Mikel Jollet is an amazing lyricist/writer.”
“Oh so, like Bob Dylan?”
“In a way,” I said, “he doesn’t sound like Bob Dylan, but you could say he’s a poet like that.” And we left it at that, hopefully the TATE set showed him what it was all about. Meanwhile, the Delta Spirit’s set was ending and we got up to the front of the stage to get our requisite shots for the stipulated “first three songs” only.
It was amazing to see the audience at the show – it was all ages, young hipsters, families with their children, older people singing along to every song. Executive Producer Steve Beazley who I had met by accident next to the stage said, “I bet many people watching today have never even seen an orchestra!” To which I replied, “I bet many of the orchestra-fans here have never seen a rock concert either.” It was a brilliant combination and I do hope the Wavelength Festival happens again next year. The Pacific Ampitheater was an ideal venue and the line up from Keb Mo/Bonnie Raitt on Night One to Nilu/Delta Spirit/The Airborne Toxic Event on Night Two, and Jason Bentley’s show on Night Three and Pink Floyd/Dark Side of the Moon on Night Three were perfect!
I absolutely love how the Pacific Symphony is trying to reach out to a bigger audience. Here’s to their continued success!
While the other media members had their DSLRs and zoom lenses, I was armed with only my iPhone 5. I think these turned out all right, don’t you think?
