One of our concert reviewers, Molly Müeller, was given VIP tickets to see AFI. She felt it was nice to get out of her comfort zone and lower her nose a bit. Here’s what she has to report:
December 6th, 2009 marked the return of A.F.I to Denver after a long stretch; the last time they were here was July 11, 2006 @ the Fillmore (I’m not including Davey Havok and Jade Puget’s electronica side project Blaqk Audio appearance at Cervantes’s Ballroom on September 22nd, 2007.) There were several opening bands including Red Jumpsuit Apparatus but I had come to Magness Arena to see A.F.I. so let’s get on with it. Red Jumpsuit ended their crappy sounding show to wild applause from their mostly under 21 fans and the house lights came on so the stage could be set up for the California band that has been rocking in one way or the other since 1991. My favorite part…the ego boxes. Every A.F.I. show I’ve ever attended involves three ego boxes set up in front of three mic stands so Davey Havok, Jade Puget, and Hunter Burgan can jump around and act out like true egotistical rock stars. I was excited to see what was up with the incredible light set up that overwhelmed the tiny stage at Magness Arena. The stage lights went all purple and front man Davey Havok stormed out in a white suit (looking rather masculine…quite a change from the last album’s “queen” persona) and performed “I Saw You” from the new album “Crash Love.” I watched two bands perform this night and actually saw the Pixies here on September 30th, 2004….the sound and lighting, ESPECIALLY the sound, sucks at this venue. Somehow these professionals managed to overcome this and damn, they looked and sounded fabulous. The next memorable song was “Love is a Many Splendored Thing,” this song satisfied all of the old school punk rockers in attendance and afterward Davey said something like “That takes care of that.” Funny! For “Silver and Cold,” a radio favorite, everything went black and white, the whole aura of the arena changed and every person in the arena was singing along. Jade did a guitar solo three songs into the show…this is sooooo rock and roll. Obviously they did “Medicate” from the new album and several songs from 2006’s “December Underground” including “Love Like Winter” and super crowd pleaser “Miss Murder.” Love them or hate them, A.F.I. put on an excellent show and played the entire gamut of their discography so everyone got to hear what they came to hear (except me…I wanted to hear “Bleed Black,” … next time.) When you step back and really listen to and watch every song they play you realize that this IS the same band that has been around since my brother was a sponsored skateboarder and George Bush Sr. was elected head of the U.S.A. What will the Bay area rockers do next? I guess we will see in three more years. -Molly Müeller