Nada Surf lets go at the Teragram Ballroom
Kevin Bronson on
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Nada Surf’s sold-out show Saturday night at the Teragram Ballroom had the trappings of a reunion of a college book club. Everybody not only knew all the titles, they got the nuances.
The occasion was the band’s 15-year anniversary reunion tour for their plucky 2003 album “Let Go,” a record they made with scrappy determination and funds from merch sales a few years after they were summarily dumped by a major label. Which was a few years after the MTV hit “Popular” put them on the map.
“What a pleasure it is to play this record in the city where we made it,” frontman Matthew Caws said halfway through the first set, which saw the band play “Let Go” in it entirety.
“It’s weird to be doing a 15th anniversary of a third album. Why not a seventh anniversary of a fifth album?” bassist Daniel Lorca said later, noting that “Let Go,” made in L.A. with Chris Fudurich engineering, came at a time the band had no label and no manager. (It was savaged, too, by Pitchfork, who suggested the band should retire.)
Now past their silver anniversary as a band, Nada Surf took about an hour to cruise through “Let Go,” then, after an intermission, returned to play a long career-spanning set. During that set, Caws recalled their first show in L.A., which was at The Roxy. Afterwards, they went to the Rainbow, “and Slash was there. … That just happens?,” Caws said, laughing at how odd that was to someone from the East Coast. “He’s still there!” yelled a guy in the audience.
During the second set, the band threw in a nice curveball. In the middle of “Stalemate,” they segued into Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” before going back into “Stalemate.” After “The Fox,” Caws said “We usually dedicate that song to journalists and we respect what you’re doing. Keep going.”
And after the show Caws went to the merch table for a meet-and-greet. It turned out to be more than that, though, as he grabbed an acoustic guitar and gave a little lobby performance.
The band play again tonight at the Moroccan Lounge in downtown L.A. It’s sold out.
Setlist — First set: “Let Go” in its entirety. Second set: Imaginary Friends, Teenage Dreams, What Is Your Secret, Cold To See Clear, Out Of The Dark, Your Legs Grow, Dispossession, Do It Again, No Quick Fix, Firecracker, Robot, Stalemate, The Fox, Amateur, See These Bones. Encore: Popular, Always, Blank.
Photos by Andie Mills
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