On November 9th, I made a stop at Newport Music Hall to see Cold War Kids‘ 20th Anniversary tour. I made my way through the surprisingly packed venue to the wall-to-wall crowded second-floor balcony to get a better vantage point on the band. From there, I could see I was one of the younger members of the crowd, with the bulk of the people being well into middle-age. This makes sense for a band on their 20th Anniversary tour, but it also made for very interesting people watching.
For me, however, the people watching ended when the opening act Husbands came on stage. They brought a modern 2020s pop flare to the room of people trying to relive the 2000s. Husbands’ innocent, feel-good music got the crowd engaged and dancing (as much as they could in a crowded hall). Their sound reminded me of Backseat Lovers with their indie surf rock and pleasant lyrics. Along with dynamic harmonies, Husbands made good use of sound bites and samples to create depth in their songs. Their songs take a tongue-in-cheek approach to modern pop music, and I could tell the band was having fun on stage. Even with an imbalanced sound mix that resulted in feedback bubbles and indecipherable vocals, Husbands made the stage their home and invited us all in to party.
As they finished their set with an anecdote about being robbed last time they were in Columbus, Husbands had the audience wrapped around their fingers – not an easy thing for an opener. Their spacey sound coupled with an engaging stage presence got the crowd pumped for the main event.
Cold War Kids came on the stage to a crowd brimming with as much energy as they could muster. For a band performing in their 20th year, Cold War Kids made it feel like they were just starting out. They brought the energy for every song, sending waves of electricity across the overcrowded room. Overpowering the feedback problems Husbands faced, Cold War Kids played all their instruments with equal fervor. They had no need to leave space for the vocals, as Nathan Willet could sing to match every other instrument on stage.
As they played, Cold War Kids kept reminding me of the Arctic Monkeys, a popular British band famous for songs like “I Wanna Be Yours” and for their eclectic lead singer. Their 2010s alt rock came as a slight change of pace from what I was expecting from hearing their old 2000s music. Coming into the concert, I had only known a couple of their songs, most notably “Hang Me Up to Dry” off their first album Robbers & Cowards. Admittedly, I found the song from watching the movie Saltburn, but I enjoy that song enough to join the artist on their 20th Anniversary tour.
Throughout their set, Cold War Kids jumped from old familiar classics and newer songs, although their new sound was never as well received as their old stuff. They admitted themselves; they write new songs simply to have more fun playing tours. And this strategy must work, as Cold War Kids looked as if they were having a blast on stage the entire time, jamming and dancing with their bandmates.
When it came time to play their most well-known song, the one I came to hear, “Hang Me Up to Dry,” the lights came up on the crowd and we all were prepped and ready to sing along. However, in true Arctic Monkeys fashion, Willet kept the crowd on its toes, bending the tune of the song to make it distinct from the album version the crowd knows and loves. The band’s obvious enthusiasm for the song and love of the crowd made this act of subversion permissible. The crowd still sang along to the version they knew, taking all of the attention from the band for a few moments.
The roar of the crowd knowing these lyrics that I only recognized from a film made me appreciate just how important this band is for some people. I often pride myself on having a diverse knowledge of music, but coming to this show and seeing the crowd flip out over a band I was barely familiar with made me realize just how much meaning music I’ve hardly heard of can carry to others.
Other standout songs from their set were “Saint John,” another hit from their first album, and “For Your Love,” a recently released song Willet wrote and sang for his autistic daughter. Backing the powerhouse vocalist, Willet, were captivating performances by the keyboardist, Matthew Schwartz, and bassist, Matt Maust. Maust has been with the band since its inception, and I could tell he knew these songs like the back of his hand. He was entirely comfortable behind his low hanging bass, throwing it and himself around his corner of the stage. Schwartz, on the other hand, often wandered away from behind his keyboard, either to play other instruments or to just mess around with the other band members. Either way, both instrumentalists kept the audience from being drowned in Willet’s vocals.
Throughout the set, even through the songs I did not particularly find engaging, the audience watched with bated breath. Maybe it was the age of the crowd, but there was hardly a phone in sight. I only ever saw screens merely filming a single song. As far as I could tell from my perch on the balcony, the audience love’s overflowed for Cold War Kids, eking out every drop of entertainment from their 90-minute set.
To the joy of everyone in the crowd, Willet ended the performance by jumping off stage and walking around in the photography pit, holding hands and taking pictures with audience members. He announced that this band had been coming to the Newport Venue for years and that the crowd never disappoints. The compliments for Columbus were met with more appreciation than Husbands’ anecdotes about being robbed in this city. In their 20th year, the Cold War Kids know how to put on a show and how to engage an audience.
This concert was a testament to the band’s enduring appeal and musical prowess. The seamless blend of old favorites and new material was a celebration of nostalgia and musical evolution. Even after two decades, as long as I’ve been alive, Cold War Kids proved that they are a formidable force in the alt-rock scene. For both long-time fans and people just curious about a concert, like me, the evening served as a reminder of the enduring impact of passionate musicianship and the euphoria of live music.
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