Angels & Airwaves at House of Blues San Diego

It was a night of SoCal musical celebration as Angels & Airwaves brought a two-night epic tour to the House of Blues Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th in San Diego. Opening the night was Los Angeles-based alternative band Charming Liars, whose stage presence and chemistry grabbed the crowd’s attention from the start of their first song. The group jammed to many songs, such as “Alive” and “Like A Drug” from their most recent album Thought, Flesh and Bone released earlier this year, as well as bringing out the old favorites “Soul” and “Something Dark”. The band also nodded to their newest acoustic EP Bare Bones, just released on August 2nd of this year.

When Angels & Airwaves took the stage, the crowd went wild.

Next up, Angels & Airwaves drummer and San Diego native, Ilan Ruban, took front lead with his band The New Regime for some groovy, alternative tracks, complete with bass licks and guitar solos. The guys played songs off their most recent EP Heart, including “A Way To Feel Again”, “Turning a Blind Eye” and “Feel No Pain”. Ruban also didn’t hesitate to play his old favorites like “We Rise, We Fall” and “This Is a New World”. “Don’t worry guys — Tom [DeLong] will be coming out very soon!” Ilan joked onstage.

When Angels & Airwaves took the stage, the crowd went wild. Fans in the front were brought to tears, as the band began performing songs from their 2006 debut album We Don’t Need to Whisper, starting with “It Hurts”. The band played a wide variety of songs from 2006’s Whisper, 2007’s I-Empire (such as “Everything’s Magic” and “Love Like Rockets”) and new fan-favorites, “Rebel Girl” and “Kiss & Tell”. In addition to a night of great music, Tom took much time to be candid and speak with his hometown community. Delong caught up with the people of San Diego by addressing personal decisions in his life: from his temporary breakup with beloved band Blink-182 (which there were no hard feelings for; don’t get us wrong, those guys love each other) to the music creating process to stories of asking classmates out at Poway High School at 16 on corded telephones to using shower caps to dye his hair red. These, my friends, are NOT stories you want to miss out on! This incredible tour ends in southern California, with dates in Anaheim and Los Angeles this week. The band will continue their shows this December with dates so far announced in American cities, including, but not limited to, Tempe, Milwaukee, Louisville and Houston!

Photography by Franny Kovacs

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