Live music is back! Both fans and performers can hardly contain their joy and excitement. The crowd is gleaming as the bass pumps through the room. On Wednesday, Oct. 20, Angels and Airwaves came to Boston at the House of Blues to perform as part of their Lifeforms tour, with opening band Bad Suns. If you’re unfamiliar with Angels and Airwaves as a band, you almost definitely know the lead singer, Tom DeLonge, former lead singer of Blink-182. The crowd was heavily mixed with Blink fans, Bad Suns fans and Angels and Airwaves fans, which gave a positive vibe to be felt amongst the crowd.

My friends and I arrived at the perfect time for the show to start, but we pushed the envelope getting there. Parking took forever as my GPS continued to bring me everywhere and nowhere all at once, and the 20 minute walk to the venue didn’t help. When we arrived an hour after doors were said to be opening, we were astonished at the line that remained as hundreds of people were still waiting to be let in. I think the longest hold up was that everyone had to have their ID and their vaccination card checked by House of Blues staff to confirm their entry into the show, before even showing their ticket information.

Because of our late arrival, I didn’t expect to have a great view of the show. I’m short and we had upper mezzanine seats, so it didn’t seem as though the night was going to work in my favor. As quickly as my expectations were let down, a girl nearby me saw that I didn’t have a great view and offered me her floor seat ticket instead. She mentioned she had bought both and decided she just wanted to stay upstairs, so she didn’t need it. This could not have been better timing! I originally bought tickets to this concert to see Bad Suns, and my friends were going to see Angels and Airwaves. If I could go down to the pit for the opening set, I could come back up when they were done and meet back up with my group. With a screenshot of her ticket in hand, I ran down the stairs to the floor stage.

I walked all the way to the left, headed towards the merch table and got as close as I could to the stage without stepping on the two stairs that lowered into the “pit”. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes who had been waiting for the show to begin for hours, but I also desperately wanted to have a good seat for the opening act. After about five minutes, I decided to muster up the courage to ask a guy with an Angels and Airwaves t-shirt if I could stand in front of him, just for the opening set. He graciously said yes, and just like that, I had front row seats to a favorite band of mine since my freshman year of high school.
The performance Bad Suns put on was incredible, and it was exhilarating to finally hear the songs I’ve been blasting in my car at the top of my lungs for years. With each song, the lead singer, Christo Bowman, was given a new electric guitar to play. From my seat, the singing sounded a bit muffled, as well as the sounds of the instruments overall. This could have been a production issue, but either way, I enjoyed myself as I sang along to words that meant so much to me through the years. As great as it was to see them perform, finally, it made me realize how much better it is when a band you want to see is the headliner of a tour. The set lists are much longer and their production budget goes up astronomically in comparison to opening acts, overall putting on a better show as a headliner. As much as I loved listening to old jams like “Rearview”, “Salt”, and “Cardiac Arrest”, I know I am going to enjoy it so much more when they’re played along with the rest of their songs that are so beloved to me. Seeing a band you love so much as an opener is like having an appetizer size of your favorite meal; delicious, but now you’re craving more.
When Angels and Airwaves came on, the crowd went crazy. It seemed like most people who were there had been huge fans of the band, or the lead singer, for over a decade, all the way back to when Blink-182 was formed. In between songs, DeLonge would crack vulgar jokes with the crowd and everyone laughed at his blatant, unfiltered comments. As he sang, he danced around and put his hands to the sky, getting the crowd even more riled up. There was a moment where he paid tribute to Blink-182 and did a cover of “I Miss You” on his own, apart from the band. He spoke of the old band members he had and how they inspired some of the songs he wrote, as well as his dad’s journey with cancer and the impact that had on him. Without a shift in the beat however, DeLonge was back to cracking jokes and belting his heart out. It was truly a special performance, and night, all around.