Last Friday, we went to see them play at The Depot in Salt Lake. I was ecstatic!
The band that opened for them was horrible. Like ear-bleeding bad. As I listened and laughed at the delusional frontman, I started to get scared. What if it didn't live up to my expectations? I was worried that I dragged my sister to a concert with an effeminate male reeking of pot dancing ridiculously and the worst sound system ever, with nothing redeeming to find.
But the racket of the first band eventually came to an end, and our ears were left ringing.
As soon as The Airborne Toxic Event took the stage, I had a feeling the night would end well.
I've yet to meet a song of theirs I don't like. Seriously, I can't get enough. It's the violin and bass (and the bassist--a little obsessed) and Jollett's ragged voice. But mostly it's the lyrics.
Literary. Profound. My own thoughts, but prettier. They even use the word feral.
At one point, Mikel Jollett (the main singer and writer) started to climb on the speakers and reached up to grab a speaker bar, like he was seeing if he could hang and swing on it. It's dumb, but it's something I would do, and it only made his stories more like my stories.
It was the best show I have ever been to. It was one of those nights that lets you live in it for a while longer because it knows you belong there, in that one particular moment. So I savored and sang to every song.
They played two encores, one of which was acoustic, which just unhinges me.
I think a lot of people think their lyrics are depressing and cynical. And I get that. But that's not what I hear.
I've always loved this by Oscar Wilde found in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray: "All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."
In the songs I heard last Friday, I see glimpses of myself. And it's beautiful. The reality of fully feeling, even when you just feel damaged. There's a hope in that. In realizing that you have to mend yourself. I was a little disappointed they didn't play one of my favorites at the concert; it's one of my pep talk songs. "Strange Girl." We traded blindness for some wisdom and some lines around the eyes. But you just act like it was a fact of life. It didn't come as a surprise.
Some things aren't black and white. And happiness is one of those things. The music from The Airborne Toxic Event reminds me that reality is an often astounding paradox. And I choose to see love in the symbols.
Now go get lost in their YouTube channel.
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