The Front Bottoms are currently in the midst of their first tour of the year, a headlining run, and last night said tour made it’s first of two stops in southern California. A stop at the world famous Troubadour in West Hollywood, a venue the band had played before back in 2012 opening up for Motion City Soundtrack. To see the band be able to headline and sell out the same venue in a little over a year is a bit bewildering but I am glad to see the band grow as much as they have. I was also really impressed by how young the crowd was, I feel like a good 2/3s the audience couldn’t have been over the age of 18. For this run they brought some incredible openers; DIY folk punk staples The Wild and up-and-coming emo stalwarts You Blew It! Both excellent bands in their own right, each sounding very different from each other as well as The Front Bottoms. Regardless of different sounds the audience loved both of them which was nice to see as most audiences aren’t usually very receptive to openers. The only complaint I have about the whole night is that security seemed fairly aggro.
You Blew It opened the night to an excited crowd, most had probably never heard of the band before but by the end of their set they had definitely won over some new fans. While I was familiar with the band, listening to them for years now, I still had not been able to see the band live yet. Years of waiting finally came to an end and I have to say they killed it. Plenty of jams were played and the dudes had a lot of fun. You Blew It! was definitely an excellent choice to start the night and I am glad to see them on this tour promoting their new record.
As You Blew It! wrapped up their set The Wild took the stage, rather quickly I might add as they probably were playing within 10 minutes. Not that I minded at all, if you can set up in ten minutes and sound as fantastic as The Wild did last night then more power to you. I was curious as to how the crowd would react to the band and I am glad the audience loved them. I had seen the band twice to date, once at the Asian Man Records 15 year anniversary weekend and once at a DIY venue in the Pomona area called VLHS. This third time was just as impressive even with one of the members being a bit sick.
After a final set change The Front Bottoms took to the stage and played an excellent set. Playing a healthy mix from each of their two full length records, playing my favorite song from each record which made me squeal louder than the fangirls in attendance. The band had some slightly awkward but hilarious banter, sharing stories about vomiting and bowel movements to the crowd. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard applause so loud over a story of someone pooping but there is definitely a first time for everything. Instead of taking the now overdone and predictable stage departure into an encore Brian played one song by himself while the band took a much needed break before playing a final two songs together. I have yet to be disappointed live by The Front Bottoms, nor do I ever anticipate that I will, but this was easily one of the best sets I’ve seen them play to date and I’ve seen them play quite a bit in the past 2 years.
If you have a chance to catch this tour do so. They play Ventura tonight so if you missed out you have a second chance to catch this tour. So show up early if you plan on making the drive to Ventura!