08/13 @ Empire Live, Albany

“We don’t want to lose you, we want you to stay with us, we all need you here.”

Olive Vox, the first opener for the Toadies, came out to perform to a room full of people who were primarily there to see the latter two bands. Despite this, their performance was incredibly well done and their music was like a delightful modern twist on the music Local H and the Toadies have been making for years. Olive Vox has Parker James as the lead vocalist, Caden Shea on guitar and backing vocals, Ben Reid on bass and Dayton Phillips on the drums. As a relatively new band, I was surprised by how comfortable they already seemed onstage because usually with newer performers, you can notice little signs of discomfort in the way they move or carry themselves, especially when standing in front of a massive crowd in a space as small as Empire Live. It has to be a strange feeling to look down from the stage and be able to see the faces of almost everyone in front of you — maybe the comfortability is a result of them already being a quarter of the way through the tour.

What made them so captivating to watch was the exuberant stage presence of each member. My eyes were first drawn to James who sang with so much force that he would tightly grip onto the microphone to steady himself. Standing on his left was Reid, who was headbanging while playing bass — something I always find impressive. It shows that the musician is able to get so sucked into the music that they’re able to move along with it without losing track of what their hands are doing on the instrument. Phillips did the same behind the drums, slamming his sticks down while headbanging along with the music.

Olive Vox played several songs from their upcoming album, Trace It Back, which is currently on presale ahead of its September 18 release. Only three of the six songs have been released so far, but they played two unreleased tracks, “I Do” and “Black and White,” alongside “ Hear Me Out” and “Babydoll” that are out now. And after seeing them live, the audience was undoubtedly looking forward to hearing the full album when it comes out.

Local H was the second opener, a duo with Scott Lucas as the vocalist and guitarist and Ryan Harding on drums, who joined the band in 2013. Despite Harding not being a member from the very beginning, you could have convinced me he had been playing with Lucas the entire time. Experiencing the photo pit at a concert for the first time created a whole new feeling of immersion as I could see every even micro expression they had while performing.

Watching Harding through the screen of my camera, I could see moments where his concentration was so intense that he dissolved into the music. Lucas was doing the same thing from the other side of the stage, moving around with his guitar and ducking down with, what you would think, are exaggerated movements only seen in a movie during a scene when a concert is happening. When he returned to the microphone, he would open his mouth all the way and let his voice out that has not lost its edge even after all these years. While Lucas played and sang at the same time, his guitar started to seemingly sing with him; the riffs he was playing, at certain points, matched the pitch of his voice down to the exact note, switching tones as his voice did.

The first few songs were enough to leave both of them sweating, something noticeable only when a musician is putting lots of physical effort into their set, but the crowd was a little quieter than the energy Local H was putting out, with Lucas repeatedly trying to get a louder response from the audience by asking, “Are you guys enjoying the show?” When the response was not particularly loud, he followed with, “Are you sure?” Although this happened more than once throughout the set, neither member let it discourage their performance.

The Toadies made their grand entrance with “Eye of the Tiger” playing as they walked onto the stage, which was covered in decorations: a massive Toadies banner hung across the back of the stage, the set surrounded by little black plastic crow statues, lanterns and a crow-shaped plague mask to the far right, the bass drum had a black and white crow on it, and an anti-Nazi symbol tapestry was placed on the far left of the stage draped over an amp. As their set went on, crew members periodically added more plastic crows around the drum set.

Vaden Todd Lewis on guitar and lead vocals, Doni Blair on bass and backing vocals, Clark Vogeler on lead guitar and backing vocals and Mark Reznicek on drums have been playing together for years, and when a song called for Lewis, Blair and Vogeler to harmonize, all three of them approached the microphone in perfect unison, taking nearly the exact same number of steps and leaning in at the same angle as if they were tethered to one another.

Throughout the set, they went back and forth between older songs and more recent ones from The Charmer, released May 1. Before playing the record’s opening song, Lewis explained why this album was so important to the band.

“Generally when you get on a label and you make a record, the label's a bank and they pay for all your stuff and then they own all your stuff. You get some royalties, but they own it… forever,” he said.

“And uh, ‘boo.’”

The crowd responded with a loud roar of boos along with him.

“So we found ourselves in between labels and we were still on tour and we saved our pennies and went on to make our dream record, with our dream technician Steve Albini at his own studio.”

A much louder, more positive reaction came from this, followed by Lewis explaining that after wanting to work with Albini for years, the band finally had a record they owned themselves. He then thanked the audience for coming to their shows and helping make the record possible before playing “Closer to You” off The Charmer.

“Support live music, it's a good thing,” he said.

Later in the set, Lewis switched from talking about the conception of the record itself, to talking about why he made it.

“I want to say a few words about our new album, we are very proud of it,” he said before warning the crowd that they were going to “get super serious just for a minute and then we will get back to fucking off.”

Lewis then told the crowd that “the meat of the record” was about his struggles with thoughts of self-harm and suicide that he had carried with him since childhood, and that he eventually got help for them in adulthood and his life got better. He told the audience that there was probably somebody there who was feeling the same way, and encouraged them to talk to somebody, whether that is a doctor, therapist, psychiatrist or whoever works for them, and when he said that if somebody tells you to just “deal with it,” to “just fuck them and go somewhere else.”

“We don’t want to lose you, we want you to stay with us, we all need you here,” he said.

He then introduced “Normal,” a song he wrote specifically about the struggle of having those thoughts and the desire to be “normal”.

This was my favorite song of the set and one of my favorite songs by the Toadies. Their old music is what got me into them, but the reason I enjoy this song so much is because the resonant lyrics are deeply personal and powerful. The heart of the song is this repeated feeling of wanting to stop experiencing all of these negative emotions and just wanting to be “fuckin’ normal,” something I have said to myself and to my therapist on many occasions.

Hearing somebody who seems so put together, openly express those feelings makes you realize you are not alone, and when that person is then standing in front of a room full of people, encouraging those who may relate to get professional help instead of keeping it to themselves, helps to make the thought of getting help less scary. I hope more musicians and public figures do this, because it might help some people to see that their idol has gone through similar experiences as them.

After the Toadies finished their set, the crowd started chanting “Toadies, Toadies, Toadies” over and over until they eventually came back out for a six-song encore, including a cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.” For the final song of the encore, the members of Local H and Olive Vox came back onto the stage to join the Toadies for “I Burn,” with all of the members of each band playing together onstage. A great way to end the night, witnessing the beautiful sense of togetherness and community that music creates.

The Toadies Gallery by Pete Perry: