On Tuesday night, The Neighbourhood played at The Rialto Theatre. The band’s 14-song lineup and two opening acts made for an impressive two-and-a-half-hour concert.
The Rialto was the perfect intimate atmosphere for the five member alternative band. The theater was packed for the sold-out show with people of all ages, ranging from elementary schoolers to middle-aged adults — though the crowd was predominately UA students.
At about 8 p.m., Casinos, the first opening act, came to perform seven songs on stage. Tracks such as “Catacombs” had aluminum, alien qualities. The band overall seemed very disheveled and didn’t please the audience.
Around 8:40 p.m., the second opening act, Hunny, performed nine songs to the audience. The band played its songs including classic raspy-hipster, “Cry for Me.” Between each set, the house DJ played rap music to try to pump up the audience a little more, but that didn’t seem to do much until The Neighbourhood came on stage.
The Neighbourhood, classified as an alt-rock or indie-rock band, is comprised of five different band members: lead singer Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Zach Abels and Jeremy Freedman, drummer Brandon Friedand bassist Michael Margott.
The band came on stage at 9:47 p.m., after an almost two-hour wait. Rutherford was wearing his tour outfit: zebra-print skinny jeans, a denim vest without a shirt and checkered tennis shoes. The lights dimmed before the band graced the stage. Then the techno background of “Greetings from Califournia” started.
After the techno start, the band played upbeat track “Prey,” energizing the crowd, and equally chilling it with guitar-intensive slow-jam “Baby Came Home.” To pick up the pace, The Neighbourhood then played “Female Robbery.” The tempo then slowed down again when the band played “Wires” followed by the song, “Daddy Issues.”
The band then played “Wiped Out!,” “Baby Came Home 2” and “Cry Baby,” most of which are slower songs because the majority are love ballads written about a woman.
Rutherford then began to sing “The Beach,” from the album Wiped Out!, “Afraid” from I Love you and “Warm” from #000000 &#FFFFFF . The crowd seemed to enjoy all of these songs, but really started to buzz when they heard the chords of a familiar tune.
The 13th song, “Sweater Weather” was a top hit in 2013 and the crowd was pretty excited to hear it.
“I really liked ‘Sweater Weather,'” Erin Gentzler, a high school student, said after the concert. “Other than that, I thought they were really good. I don’t know, I think I loved every song they played.”
To finish the show, The Neighbourhood performed “R.I.P. 2 My Youth,” which was an interesting finish to the show because it wasn’t a flashy ending with a song everyone knows. It was a subtler way to end the show, so the audience proceeded to chant for an encore that never came.
“I really liked the show,” said Justin Rauman, a freshman studying Japanese and Spanish. “I think the first two acts made my ears bleed a little, but I’m really happy they stuck to their roots and played songs from their first few albums.”
Overall, the show was an excellent performance that really seemed to please the audience. The 14 songs were played concisely with little time in between and kept the enthusiastic crowd entertained.
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