September 17th, 2024
Los Angeles has been infamously known by my family and friend as my least favorite big city in the world for the past year and a half. I am a huge fan of New York, Chicago, and Austin, which are all cities I've seen compared to Los Angeles in various ways, but I never saw the appeal of LA in particular aside from the music and filmmaking scene. I was even more deterred from wanting to go after I finally bit the bullet and went. I visited very briefly in the front half of 2023 for the final stop of Inhaler's Cuts & Bruises North American tour. I was there for precisely one day, and I spent most of the day inside or outside of a concert venue in downtown LA and the rest in an uber, a hotel room, or the airport. The concert was awesome, but simply driving through the city and walking around the area of the venue gave me the impression that I would hate it forever. While my friends said never again, I was well-aware I'd find myself back in LA at some point, and I always knew it'd be for Wallows.
Wallows are my number one favorite band of all time. I love music and I love to love things, so I have had many "phases" of bands or spikes of interests in certain people or artists throughout my life as I've fallen in and out of love with different things. That being said, I don't think anything has ever hit me as hard as Wallows did a few years ago. I talk about them a lot, post about them a lot, I've seen them more times than I've seen any other artist, I've traveled for them, camped for them, made a lot of friends through them, and just generally have made many fond memories from loving this band so much.
When Wallows announced this tour, the sizes of their venues surprised a lot of long-time fans. They played the Bomb Factory (capacity of 4,300) and the Greek Theatre (5,900 capacity) on their
Tell Me That It's Over tour 2 years ago, and upgraded to Toyota Music Factory (8,000) and the Kia Forum (17,505) for the
Model tour. I love seeing artists I've seen play small venues grow into arenas and stadiums, so I was really excited to see how they filled these bigger spaces.
The Kia Forum is a big deal venue for a lot of artists anyway, but especially those who grew up in LA. I've seen pictures and heard stories of shows there, and I used to think maybe I'd one day go for something, but I wasn't sure what it'd be. I knew from the moment the tour was announced on that strange little horror-formatted Youtube livestream that this show was gonna be it. I'd do what I could to be there. I figured I've fought the Los Angeles battle for an artist before, and it'd be worth it to attend to see Wallows play their hometown show, the final stop on the first U.S. leg of the tour, and such a bucket list-level venue for both them and so many of their fans. But even better: my best friend had told me at the beginning of the year that she'd be moving from Austria back to the states after spending a year abroad, and she was relocating to LA.
The hardest part of traveling for a concert is finding someone crazy enough to go with you. I am fine with flying and navigating new spaces on my own, but I do definitely feel I need to have a buddy in big cities if I'm planning to be out at night time and/or utilize public transportation of any kind, both of which are typically necessities for this kind of trip. However! I've discovered the greatest loophole of all time for this, which is simply choosing to travel to a city a long-distance friend already lives in. That way I have a travel partner who can act as a tour guide as well. The timing of this just worked out perfectly in every regard.
Ruby and I have been friends since fourth grade, but best friends since sixth. I think we will both give you slightly different timelines on when that shift really happened for us, but it happened at our 8-seater lunch table in middle school, where only the two of us ever sat, at some point after we turned twelve and before we turned thirteen. She's always been the friend that just keeps moving, and I've always been the friend that's lived in the same house her whole life. Ruby moved through two houses in her six-ish years of living a five minute drive from me, and then she moved to North Carolina when we were sophomores in high school. I have an aversion to phone calls and she has one to texts, so we communicated almost entirely through handwritten letters and random packages for a couple of years, taking occasional turns visiting each other where we were. She stayed in North Carolina for most of college, with the exception of the summer she spent in Italy, and then she went from Germany to Austria to teach almost immediately following graduation. That was the longest we had gone without seeing each other in person since before we met. She came to visit for the 4th of July this year, but her visit was so short that we only spent a few hours together, so the talks of this trip were already in motion before the Wallows tour was even announced. A little time together was long overdue for us.
Ruby and I have gone to a few concerts together over the years. The first few being Kodaline and Soul Asylum when we were in 8th or 9th grade, and the most recent being Phoebe Bridgers in Raleigh when we were juniors in college. She told me this weekend that one of the best parts about being my friend is she'd always have some random concert to go, and I think that's become true for most people in my life. If you want to go anywhere or see anyone, I am probably already going or interested in going or I'll want to go after you tell me what you're talking about.
I went through and revisited some of my older posts while I was in the process of writing this one. I touch on a lot of the same ideas in several of them, simply because this is something I am so passionate about and I feel so strongly each time, but I really got into talking about the connections to music and the artist and the crowds in my post about Maggie Rogers'
Surrender tour at the beginning of last year. I remember people making comments about this being my "biggest hobby" or wondering out loud about why I put so much energy into attending each show I go to, and I think it is just something you can't quite explain to someone who doesn't want to get it. There is something so special about connecting with music or an artist and then seeing a live performance. The connections you personally feel to art and the people making it or investing in it can't be taught. It can be described, sure, but most of the people I try to explain this to will never fully understand what I'm talking about. I think it's one of those things that you know when you feel it. You need to go out and try it for yourself in order to fully understand the fluttering stomachs or the money poured out or the chest pain or foot pain or back pain or the overwhelming joy that comes with those things. And even then, it isn't the same sensation unless you truly and wholeheartedly love what you are doing while you're doing it. As it is with anything else, you can't understand the warmth or the ache of loving something as anything more than a concept until you feel it. I've never loved anything in the same way I love live music--the experience is so unique that it has become incomparable to everything else.
Ruby asked me if I've ever felt the urge to make music myself. She said she considers me to be one of the biggest consumers of music she knows, which I found to be incredibly interesting coming from someone who went to a school of the arts and studied music through college. And honestly, I have no desire to make my own music. Sometimes I listen to songs and admire the sound engineering or the way the instruments are blended. I often admire the stage production of tours, so I have considered that I would probably enjoy touring with a musical artist as part of their crew. I draw a lot of inspiration for my writing from lyrics or the emotions they evoke, but that is as far as that "craving" for creation has ever gone for me. The question really stimulated thinking about the negative stigma around fan culture for me, especially in young women. Obviously this is not what Ruby meant with the question, but my mind wandered to the countless conversations I've had where people try to find deeper meaning in supporting an artist you like, and sometimes there isn't any. You like what you like. I don't understand why investing time and energy into admiring someone else's work has to amount to anything more than fulfillment. The act of support is just as important as the act of creation in everything, but especially in the music world. Half of the beauty of music is gained through the connections it makes, and the connection maintained between the musician, the music, and the fan is a cyclical thing. Artists couldn't get anywhere with their art unless there is someone to receive it. That is where so much of the "meaning" behind being a fan comes from. It's incredible to watch someone create something out of what they feel so deeply and getting to see and feel how it can reach you where you are, too. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.
And, all of that meaningfulness aside, I don't think there should be any shame in harmlessly enjoying something. You should be allowed to like something as much as you want to without judgment from other people. Finding meaning and intention within hobbies and passions is an obvious bonus, but it is not a requirement. You can like things without definite reason, and nothing is ever "pointless" if it matters to you.
September 12th, 2024 - Los Angeles, California
I'm actually going to talk about the concert now:
Ruby managed to get off work for the whole day of the concert, which I appreciated probably more than she will ever know. I love to treat concerts as an all-day event, and I was glad we got to spend that time together after landing in LA Wednesday night and planning to tackle the Forum parking lot Thursday afternoon. I followed her through an appointment she had in the early afternoon, then we went to get coffee and lunch before heading to the venue. By some miraculous alignment of all the stars in my universe, we met half of Inhaler while we were sitting outside the coffee shop. Ruby was sorting through her emails for her new job and I was sipping my drink while people watching, and Josh and Ryan walked out of one of the shops right next to the strip of coffee shop tables on the sidewalk. I told Ruby I thought they looked like my
other favorite band I'd flown to LA for, she kind of laughed, and then they turned back around to confirm they were exactly who I thought they were. We talked for a moment about their past tour and their upcoming shows, I got my picture, and then we continued on with our day our smiles a little wider and more frequent than they had been before.
We got to the venue in the later afternoon so we could park our car and buy merch before the show. We walked around the Forum maybe three or four times before the concert, just killing time, and we ate some (very good) vegan tacos before going inside. I wanted to be in the back of the floor for this one so we could run around and see Wallows no matter where they ventured in the arena, so we hung back while the pit filled up. I knew the show was sold out, but I was still in awe of the amount of people filling the room for a band I've been following for so long. I expected changes to the setlist, but the changes we got weren't the ones I had been anticipating. My Wallows concert "bucket list" has always consisted of wanting to hear "Do Not Wait" back to back with either "I'm Full" or "Only Friend", but I ruled that out as an option for this tour because "Do Not Wait" has been the consistent tour opener for most shows so far.
Nothing Happens is still my favorite Wallows album, mostly for nostalgia's sake, but also because I love an album with a cohesive concept or repeated elements to make it cohesive musically, and that album has both implemented pretty strongly in the music. And though I did not get "Do Not Wait" back to back with either of my dream
Nothing Happens picks, they did play all three songs that night. "Do Not Wait" was the setlist opener, "Only Friend" followed not far behind, and "I'm Full" was the added final song of the night. It was perfect.
I did believe (along with everybody else) that Clairo might make an appearance, which she did not, but the show was so good that I don't think anybody noticed. The boys were so happy to be there. Their energy was as high as their spirits and they expressed great gratitude for the opportunity to play their "dream venue" many times throughout the night. I love that Wallows always allow a slot of time for each member to speak at each show, and they all got the chance to say something meaningful in their allotted time that night, which I know meant as much to them as it meant to the fans in the room. The show was incredible as always. There was confetti, a tunnel made of fans in the pit for Dylan to walk through, a fan pulled on stage, the trumpet for "Let the Sun in" on the b-stage, and, of course, Braeden hit the nosebleeds during "Going Under." The setlist had 26 full songs on it and they did an incredible job of maintaining the typical flow of a
Model show while still throwing in a few extra things to make the show more special. I know this was their dream show, and that radiated off of each of them so strongly that it felt like mine.
September 16th, 2024
I didn't immediately go home after the concert this time. I stayed with Ruby in Los Angeles through Sunday so we could explore a little more and spend more time together, and I think that was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. I didn't need a reminder, but it is always comforting to reunite with your best friend and remember why you've spent more than half your lives choosing to stay so close, especially after so much time apart. I saw no more celebrities, my allergies spiked dramatically after spending any time outside, and we wandered up and down the Walk of Fame eating giant slices of pizza and still never actually located Ewan McGregor's brand new Hollywood star, but none of those things matter for anything. I saw the smallest edge of the Pacific ocean for the first time, I got to know Ruby's partner a little better, and I spent a perfect four and a half days remembering (and learning) with my lifelong best friend what it's supposed to feel like to be 23.
LA is still probably tied for number one as my least favorite large city I've personally experienced (with Houston, Texas as its biggest competition. Sorry but I'm not sorry), but I would go again and again for Wallows and for Ruby. As long as they're playing there, which I know they always will, I will come back to see them again. And if Ruby stays there, I'll do what I can to make my periodic trips to that end of the country just to see her... but she should probably come back to Texas, too.
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