Los Angeles – As is expected with any all-ages show with a mainstream bent, Albert Hammond Jr.’s Wednesday night set was a little more wacky and wild than the typical show at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom. While the sometimes-Strokes guitarist’s performance was a strong-if-standard performance for an artist of his stature, the audience was really what With the city’s most recently opened big-time venue reaching its quite-large capacity, there were plenty of bodies to make the night a memorable one.
After a quick opener, Hammond Jr. got the night going with one of his oldest staples, “Back To The 101” from his solo debut Yours To Keep. “101” most likely referring to Los Angeles’ most famous freeway, the song was a fitting start to his most recent visit to Los Angeles following a bit of a hiatus. A punchy pop-rock track, it was perfect for getting the audience of longtime fans and newcomers bopping and pogo-ing around the dance floor. The following song, “Born Slippy”, from third album Momentary Masters was more of the pitch-perfect indie-pop he is known for; the song features a riff directly lifted from Television’s “Midnight Moon”, though the song structure around it is so wildly different that the riff is effectively disguised.
Next, audience members got to take in another big single, “Caught By My Shadow”, which is backed by a slick, glossy high-production-value music video. The song is everything modern rock radio should feature but does not: a strong chorus, chugging and chunky riffs, and a steady mid-tempo back beat. While the previous three songs received a strong reception, the fourth in the set received the most enthusiastic response, with kids pounding into each other around the packed center-stage area and the occasional audience member drifting by on a sea of upheld arms.
Later in the set, another highlight from Momentary Masters made an appearance, the palm-muted pop-punk ballad “Losing Touch.” While Hammond Jr.’s most well-known creative outlet, The Strokes, might seem an ill-fit for Vagrant Records, this song explains the guitarist’s fit on a label filled with emo-punk stalwarts. Later on, during “In Transit”, he got even more punk-rock credit; while some goofus crowd-surfed on stage, knocking Hammond Jr. off-balance, he maintained composure and even brought the “punk”-kid in for a sing-along duet. Only when said goofus tried to film that once-in-a-lifetime moment did the singer rightfully pull back, grab the aforementioned cell phone, and chuck it a good 30 yards into the pit – good arm on you there Hammond Jr.! He must have felt a little bad about it, because during vocal lull in the song he reassured the audience: “Awww he found his phone!”
That being said, and despite his indie credentials, Hammond Jr. is easily one of the most mainstream artists to visit the Teragram Ballroom. And the audience showed it. In addition to the previously mentioned cell-phone incident, a lady rushed the stage demanding the headliner sign her breast. He had already signed a record for some demanding concert-goer – was it any surprise when he obliged? That might well have been the one and only boob-signing to ever go down at this DTLA venue.
There is no doubt that Hammond Jr. puts on one of the most high-energy and true-to-the-record shows in the indie circuit. Treading the line between indie stardom and mainstream curiosity, he always seems just one song away from having an album top the charts. Momentary Masters is a perfect example of his ability to evolve Strokes retro-rock and meld it with his emotional guitar pop tendencies.
Albert Hammond Jr. is in the midst of a huge international tour, with stops throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, and even a handful of appearances in South America. Check out his tour page for tickets.
Photo of Albert Hammond Jr. by Matt Matasci for BestNewBands.com
Matt Matasci
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