The Airborne Toxic Event w/ Mondo Cozmo at The Truman – Kansas City, MO (2022-03-28)

Kansas City turned into “Hollywood Park” for the night, as LA-band The Airborne Toxic Event returned to the area to play downtown at The Truman. 

Philly-raised, LA-based singer-songwriter Joshua Ostrander, akaMondo Cozmo, opened the evening with a forty minute set of his “chorus-heavy folk-rock”, in support of upcoming third album, This is for the Barbarians(on Last Gang Records), out on April 8^th (also his birthday and when they happen to be playing his hometown) though >shhh<, attendees at the merch booth might have had an early chance at it. 

The album is named in honor of a group of of 80’s Bay Area writers who would gather at a Cafe Barbar and talk about the world and, recorded in the mountains during the pandemic, it deals with its isolation and getting older, among other themes.  “Good evening everyone, I hope this finds you well” were Ostrander’s first words sung on stage, initial lines from the set and new album-opening single, “Electrify My Love”. 

“I’d even play a barbecue!” Ostrander exclaimed, visibly happy that he and his band were back on the road after two years away.  While some songs lean toward a Springsteen influence, the new “Meant for Livin’” sounded more Dylan-esque with its jangling guitars and rapid socially-conscious verses. 

2017’s “Shine” is their biggest hit to date, still present on the radio, and assuring us that “everything will be alright, if you let it go”.  “Black Cadillac” featured still very-in-the-moment political lyrics and the set ended with a revved-up, bar band version of a ‘90’s classic by The Verve.

Kansas City had not seen The Airborne Toxic Event live since 2015 (and for us even longer-  a 2013 show in Minneapolis), though the pandemic has had a funny way of making things seem not as long ago. So, with everyone in the room looking forward to their 110-minute headlining set, they did not disappoint the many still-loyal fans, singing along to their every lyric. 

The latest record is 2020’s Hollywood Park (on Rounder Records), released in tandem with bandleader Mikel Jollett’s memoir of the same name, and features a marked change in Jollett’s storytelling lyrics- turning them very personally upon himself, instead of introducing us to third-party characters, as in most previous songs.  The somber “Brother How Was the War?” even detailed a letter sent by Jollett’s incarcerated father to his brother, sent to Vietnam to fight. 

Fans were ecstatic to hear the new “Faithless”, a positive-sounding single released just weeks ago, that encourages those to believe in something, even when the world is telling you everything otherwise.

Though followers were heartbroken when original violinist/keyboardist Anna Bulbrook left the group in 2019, current touring replacement Mimi Peschet more than ably filled the role, often spinning with energy and fervor while playing her violin. The string presence in their songs often gives them an additional Old World sophistication, unique amongst their alt-rock peers.

Jollett lyrically reminisced on “The Place We Meet…” as his eight-year old self witnessed the tearing down of Hollywood Park, which then segued into 2008’s “Wishing Well’ from their breakthrough debut album.  The energetic back-to-back punch of “Gasoline” and “Changing” brought the crowd alive and they even played “Hell and Back”, culled from the 2013 Dallas Buyers Club film soundtrack. 

2008’s “Sometime Around Midnight” remains their biggest hit, and still echoes with an urgency- a rare musical synthesis of an-entire-movie-in-a-single-song that was true lightning in a bottle, and fans clapped along to “Innocence” to end the main set. 

Turns out the show was only getting really started, as the band would return for a six-song encore, complete with cover medley.  Starting slow and acoustic, things picked back up with 2008’s “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” and would end with another first album song, “Missy” which happened to bookend a chugging cover medley of Jesus and Mary Chain and Johnny Cash hits.

After more than fifteen years together as a band, The Airborne Toxic Event still keeps pushing the boundaries of their own musical identity and Mikel Jollett’s veering into more personal lyrics and themes seems to be satisfying, both to he and the band as well as the fans that have continued to support them for almost two decades.

(click on any image to enlarge and see in full)