West Coast Night With The Neighbourhood

Photos Courtesy Of: Adrian Jusue

It never fails that the few occasions when I go to a show, as merely a fan, my writer instinct kicks in and I start itching to get home and write a review. And, that is exactly what happened after attending night one of The Neighbourhood's concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland.

The city of Oakland was lucky enough to be the last stop of El Blanco Tour (the United States part of it), and the band has had such success that the show sold out and they had to add a second night. The band brought along two fantastic opening bands, White Arrows and Bad Suns – both from LA, just like the guys from The Neighbourhood. 

Let's talk about Jesse Rutherford, and his unpredictable choice of outfit – basketball shorts, a band tee, and a leather jacket. While slightly odd, it worked, and two of the other guys follow suit with the ‘shorts' theme of the night.

The concert kicked off with "Female Robbery," Jesse's voice echoed throughout the Fox, and the young crowd of mostly female fans went wild! Shortly before "W.D.Y.W.F.M.?" Jesse addressed the crowd saying that this song was dedicated to all of the ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends – and the fans could not wait to sing along to the tunes of "Maybe you're right, maybe this is all that I can be, but what if it's you, and it wasn't me? What do you want from me? What do you want from me?"

The band also performed "Honest" which served as one of the songs from the Spiderman 2 soundtrack. One of the highlights of the night was when the band performed "West Coast." Jesse once more addressed the crowd, and talked about how, out of all of the tour stops California has been the best with Oakland being the third California city from the tour – the rendition of the song was an acoustic version, which let the lyrics of the song shine through… "I was the one who wasn't coming from where they're coming from. I speak poetically, and never pride my ignorance, but this California shit is rigorous, They say it's happy here, happiness is figurative. I'm happy 'cause of me, doesn't matter where I'm living."

Towards the end of the concert, the band introduced the first single off their new soon-to-be-released-album Black And White – the name of the single is "Dangerous."

The concert could not come to an end without the band's rendition of "Sweater Weather" and the encore being "Afraid." Because, let's face it, what's better than a sold out crowd singing along to "Keep on dreaming, don't stop breathing, fight those demons, sell your soul, not your whole self. If they see you when you're sleeping, make them leave it, and I can't even see if it's all there anymore so…You're too mean, I don't like you, fuck you anyway, you make me wanna scream at the top of my lungs. It hurts, but I won't fight you, you suck anyway, you make me wanna die…"

Seriously, if you don't know about The Neighbourhood, this review is the perfect opportunity for you to get to know them – while the concert was short, it was definitely sweet!