[kj] Santa Ana Show Review

[T.B.]

I caught last night's show at The Yost Theater in Santa Ana.

A while back I had planned on seeing the LA show at The Roxy in Hollywood on Thursday and bought a ticket for it even though Santa Ana is literally 15 minutes away while Hollywood can be an hour plus depending on traffic.  The thing was, Idles are playing the same night as the Santa Ana show so I opted for the LA date for Killing Joke the following night theoretically making for consecutive nights in Hollywood with Idles/KJ....

Then 3 weeks ago, my wife suffered a severe bowel blockage which burst and wound up having emergency surgery and being hospitalized for over a week.  Today (Thursday) the date of the LA show I need to take her late in the day to get her staples removed and it’s likely I’m not gonna make the Roxy show.  The Idles show had sold out and they added a show in November at The Wiltern which was a much better option for me.  So yesterday afternoon, I looked online and tickets were still available for the Yost Theater in Santa Ana.  A short 15 minute drive, free parking in the lot across the street, I’m in. 

The Yost Theater is pretty small, much smaller than even the Regent Theater in LA where I saw them last year and I believe has only been hosting concerts for just the last few years, probably holds about 300 people with a pretty small floor and it looked like the place was only 2/3rds sold, so it was easy to walk right up to the edge of the stage during the show.  The set was pretty similar to last year's tour, moving around a few songs in the running order, slipping in opening song Tomorrow's World, In Excelcis, The Fall Of Because, Tension, Total Invasion and The Hum through the set while dropping New Cold War, Butcher, Turn To Red, Follow The Leaders, Change and S.O.36. Other songs they've played through the tour this month during the encore like Love Like Blood and The Death And Resurrection Show weren't played last night - the encore was a short 2 song set of The Hum and Pandemonium.

I spent about half the show about 15 feet back from the stage where the sound was somewhat balanced and pleasingly loud.  Jaz actually did a great job on In Excelcis, a song he's seemed to always struggled with. Once I decided to move right up against the stage on Geordie's side, that was literally all I could hear was his guitar with some drum and a bit of bass, I couldn't hear any of Jaz's vocals. Geordie's rig is incredibly loud at ear level from only 10 back on the stage and my ears are still buzzing today.  I really can't understand how these guys can stay in sync with each other considering how loud they play.  Something worth mentioning, Geordie's tone sounds much more "organic" like years past versus last year where he had a more shrill, harsh "metal" sound. 

Considering this was a less than sold out show and the crowd was kind of sedate except for diehards up front, I thought the band played in top form and was in exceptionally good spirits. A lot of joking and smiles between Youth and Geordie - Youth often spent time playing right next to Geordie.  Performance-wise, I thought last night was even better than the show in LA last year although I preferred last year's setlist.  The only song I thought was a bit messy and shambolic was Total Invasion and the only song I really thought lost the crowd was Labyrinth.

As far as merch, it's mostly shirts as seen on the band's website and a couple posters, a few signed drumheads and only the 3 CD Deluxe singles package and the Live 2018 London 2 CD set - no record albums.

Although I'm going to still try for tonight's show at The Roxy, if I can't make it and my ticket goes to waste, I'll be happy enough with last night's show and my unbroken string of seeing them every tour since 2003.

https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/Partyslammer/Killing%20Joke%20Yost%202019%201%20small_zpszf4vsoya.jpg

https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/Partyslammer/Killing%20Joke%20Yost%202019%202%20small_zpspksnwuqm.jpg