My mini tour of the Editors, Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV sadly came to a close in glorious style in San Diego. The bands put on some impressive sets at the Wiltern and the House of Blues Anaheim but it was evident early on that all bands benefited from two days of rest before closing the tour in Las Vegas.
Hot Hot Heat
I was not surprised that Hot Hot Heat started the evening since Louis XIV had an in-store performance at Lou's Records at 5pm and also had hail from San Diego as their contingent of fans in the audience was prominent. This did not have an effect on Hot Hot Heat as they hit the stage revitalized with Steve Bays (Vocals/Keyboards) showing no residual signs from his bout with laryngitis. "Goodnight, Goodnight" bordered on a punk song with its frantic guitars and cutting synths. Hot Hot Heat do an excellent job of speeding up their songs live and sound very full in a live setting. "Bandages" was the crowd favorite again complete with a solid sing along from the audience that rivaled any of the prior two shows. Hot Hot Heat were feeling so good that they ended their set with Luke sprawling on the ground playing the guitar. The San Diego audience thoroughly approved.
Louis XIV
The smile on Jason Hill's(Guitars/Vocals) face indirectly told the crowd that he was happy to be home. Brian told a short story about going home and watching television on his sofa and that it was the best television he has ever seen. Louis XIV proceeded to light up the room with their sexy garage rock as they worked through songs off their recently released album "Slick Dogs and Ponies". "Air Traffic Control" is probably one of my favorite songs from the new album and is a good example of how to blend vocal harmonies in a song. "Pledge of Allegiance " is played at twice the recorded speed as James Armbrust (Bass) created the groove with his Rickenbacker bass. Louis XIV will go out again on their own headlining tour in March and will be back at the Avalon on April 4th and at the House of Blues San Diego on April 10th.
Editors
The Editors gave another spectacular performance that left me unable to determine which show out of the three that I enjoyed the most. "Weight of The World" lived up to its name sake with Tom Smith (Guitars/Vocals/Piano) graciously playing the piano while Chris Urbanowicz (Guitars) plowed away on his Rickenbacker guitar. "Lights" performed live is stunning and needs to be recorded for a live DVD as its pace is accelerated. The song builds and reaches it apex in the middle as Tom screamed out as the song folded back into its frantic pace. "Spiders" is another piano driven song with Tom at the helm. The song is almost a homage to REM as the breakdown of the song would make Peter Buck very proud as Chris makes his guitar sound like a mandolin. I have yet to mention in my prior reviews that Tom uses a capo quite frequently and had it on the second fret for "All Sparks" and "You Are Fading". Russell Leetch (Bass) was a madman at this particular show and must have a had a double expresso as he was inciting the crowd to clap along. "All Sparks" from their first album "The Back Room" was a giant clap along as the band crushed the song. "Bones" is one of the many standout tracks from their sophomore album "An End Has A Start" and features some of the finest tremelo picking from Chris. "Munich" live is slightly altered in that they start the song slow and then proceed to turn on the nitro boosters for a high octane performance of the song. The whole show seemed to go by in seconds as the curtains were drawn to a close at the finale of "Fingers In The Factories". The Editors plan to head back to Europe for another tour but I am keeping my fingers crossed for a late addition to the Coachella bill.
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