summer night favorite thing to do is blast Airborne Toxic Event when it's hot and the window's open. i blast that lovely, gorgeous, motherfucker of a sound. especially if my neighbors don't care for it. but i love it. i love how TATE reminds me of summers in California.

this wondrous feeling came about when i had the privilege to see them live in Sacramento at Ace of Spades. it was live, epic, and not alone. the drive there with my friend Grace was great, just talking and catching up and getting pumped and excited about the show and our futures. i even got a good first row standing at the show and got to take pictures with the band AND met lead singer Mikel in line just as we arrived at the venue. loved and remembered and savored every minute of that day, June 16th.

  now a summer later, their music still projects that feeling of youth and spirit into my surroundings. that is, California. TATE is California. their music screams it. not in the obvious ways, but to me their songs are all beautifully written lyrically and melodically. As The Owl Mag writer Mayumi Okamoto observed in her review of the Ace of Spades show i attended, The Airborne Toxic Event "has more to bring to the table than just songs lamenting about an ex" as well as "generating rich textured tones with Anna Bulbrook’s violin providing a ethereal yet dramatic quality to the soundscape." there's just an innocence, dreaminess to when i hear their songs that seem like what life is about out here at times.  the rest of the world perceives us, and they are right, as carefree people tricking ourselves into pursuing big dreams and dismissing falls as little defeats we can learn from. there's always going to be something bigger and better for the west coast. that's the ultimate illusion we have out here of ourselves. TATE writes in this way, but ultimately their songs are like the blessed lyrical fall back into reality, remembering and reminding that that's just life, and it's all okay. it relates to everything, in a romantic twisted way i guess only i can understand and make of the tunes for myself.
 

i think the band would disagree with me, but as a fan that's why i love their music. they're that one band where i appreciate all the lyrics in their entirety; with each song it's not like i regret any of the words to the music or wished they could have been better written. every tune is perfect, poetic.

summers in California. they're long, never without a few palm trees, hot, and unique in that summer always feels like summer on a west coast.












(images via google)