Rogue Wave at the Samueli Theater

The Off Center concert series rolled on at the Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa with the duel line up of Rogue Wave and Voxhaul Broadcast. I have covered a few of the shows at the Samueli Theater like The Walkmen, Cold War Kids. I last caught up with Rogue Wave at the Belly Up and heard they put together a great set at Coachella.

Voxhaul Broadcast




I unfortunately missed Voxhaul Broadcast's residency at Spaceland but was impressed with them when I saw them at the Silverlake Lounge. Voxhaul Broadcast came through loud and clear as their brand of urgent soul infused rock stirred the audience. Phillip Munsey (Bass) rocked out once again with his dominant bass thumping tone that was surrounded by the dueling guitars of David Dennis (Vocals/Guitars) and Anthony Aguilar (Guitars). Their set went by very quickly and it reminded me that I need to see them again as they have considerably honed their live show. Check out their latest release Rotten Apples on Retone records which is available on itunes.

Rogue Wave






A feedback of noise tricked me as Rogue Wave sculpted the noise into the chords of "Sewn Up" from their first album Out Of The Shadows."Every Moment" was turned into a hard driving rock tune Pat Spurgeon (Drums) did some extra cymbal smashing to punctuate the song. Rogue Wave had just returned from a European tour and now is gearing up for another tour across the country with Death Cab For Cutie. "Like I Needed" was introduced as a song about an incident in a supermarket as Gram LeBron (Guitars) cranked out the jangly chords as Zach Rogue (Vocals/Guitars) sang "These aren't The Droids You're Looking For" as a wink to the movie Star Wars. The rollicking riff of "Medicine Ball" quickly inspired a crowd participation in the form of clapping along. "Christians In Black" had a bittersweet tunefulness to the song as Zach quietly plucked out the notes. I was surprised to hear "Eyes" as Zach mentioned they had not played the song in awhile at the Belly Up show. "Chicago X 12" took on a new form with pedal steel interlaced with the intoxicating melodies. An assortment of keyboard blips and beeps rounded out the sounds of "Bird On A Wire" as I was internally debating whether this was my favorite show from Rogue Wave. "Lake Michigan" garnered the largest round of cheers from the appreciative crowd. Zach emerged by himself for a stunning encore of "Ghost". The night was brought to a show stopping close with a cover of Neil Young's "Birds". I may have to go to Santa Barbara to see them with Death Cab For Cutie.