Tag: Airborne Toxic Event

Electric Touch, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Fratellis
at Roseland Ballroom, New York City, September 5, 2008

By 6:40 p.m. (20 minutes before the doors opened), there were already a few hundred people in line vying for choice “seats”. Obviously I’m quite out of the loop when it comes to Scottish indie bands. Most were Fratellis fans, of course, and I had no idea they had such a following. But of those I spoke to, it seems many knew of Airborne when they did some shows with the Fratellis a few months ago.

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Why, when discussing a group’s new album, do so many reviewers have the need to compare their sound to other bands? Is it that they wish to show off their musical pedigree and expertise by name-dropping the flavors of the day?

I count no less than 20 different groups that Airborne Toxic Event’s music has been compared to. They are as follows: The Smiths, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Trash Can Sinatras, Blondie, The Jam, Psychedelic Furs, New Order, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Rilo Kiley, Billy Corgan, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, U2, Marvelous 3, Maximo Park, Morrissey, and Echo & the Bunnymen. I’m sure there have been others, but that will do for now. Well, I’ll go ahead and toss one more on the pile, courtesy of my dad, who says they remind him of The Beatles. Yes, that’s right, The Beatles. Their latter work, I’m fairly certain, as “you want to be out on the street, crawling up the walls like a cat in heat” is quite a far cry from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” But surely it’s no more bizarre than Blondie. Seriously… Blondie??

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As unlikely as it sounds, the impossibly amazing Airborne Toxic Event performed a life-altering hour-long set at WFNX’s celebration of debauchery, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Featuring sexy scantily clad ladies and creepy guys in bathrobes and cowboy hats, shirttails and athletic socks, and the obligatory “dick in a box”, the event begged the eternal question: how is it that people EVER hook up?

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