Thousands of fans lined 200 South in Salt Lake City, braving cold night temperatures while waiting to get into In The Venue to see Angels & Airwaves, Tuesday, March 4.
Fans were forced to wait outside the club an extra two hours while the club attended to "technical difficulties." The excessive cold and fans’ impatience led to several small fires being started from debris and free copies of weekly newspapers, creating temporary warmth for the huddled masses as temperatures dipped into the freezing range.
Once the difficulties were fixed and fans were ushered into the venue, former Early November front man Ace Enders played to a crowd of filtering fans, most of whom only caught the end of his very short set. Enders’ project, Ace Enders and a Million Different People, was only the first of three in the evening that counted an ex-member of a more popular band among its numbers.
After Enders, Fred Mascherino, formerly of Taking Back Sunday, took the stage with his new crew, The Color Fred. The Color Fred were also forced to cut their set short because of technical troubles, but commanded the stage playing from their debut album, Bend to Break.
Unfortunately, The College Times was unable to catch the whole set by The Color Fred due to some misunderstandings concerning photo authorization, which resulted in The Times being forced to remove their camera from the club.
Following the brief disturbance, the show continued with Meg and Dia, who opened their set with their breakout single "Monster." Though the song provided a somewhat lackluster opening for their set, the group quickly picked up energy and crowd intrigue with their cover of Sublime’s classic "Santeria."
Meg and Dia also announced they would be heading into the studio to record a new album following the current tour. Along with the announcement, they gave the crowd a preview of some of the rather catchy new material — music that will hopefully transfer into an interesting future release for the band.
Rounding out the night, Tom Delonge (former guitarist/vocalist for Blink-182) brought his Angels & Airwaves to the stage, eliciting an ecstatic response from the sold-out crowd. Delonge and crew commanded the crowd from the beginning, playing hit songs like "Everything’s Magic" and "Distraction" in front of an immense light-display.
Midway through the set, however, after performing a great solo cover of Blink-182’s "Reckless Abandon," Angels & Airwaves took a nosedive. Delonge performed the next song with small lights strapped to his palms, twirling and acting very theatrical. From this point on, the band’s near-two-hour set became less than impressive, metamorphosing into an overdone production in tribute to Tom Delonge’s massive ego.
Even so, fans likely found the show worth the wait and cost, considering the alright lineup of bands featuring guys who used to be in other bands.
