Some quick onstage math in the middle of the show confirmed that it had been well over a decade since The Academy Is… last headlined a show in Los Angeles. Fans in the area flooded into The Belasco on Friday night to make up for a lot of lost time as the beloved band brought the Almost Here 20th Anniversary Tour to the stunning venue space. This time was just a little different because now the band is back and here to stay.
Slow Joy and his band emerged from the haze onstage to make plenty of good noise during their opening slot. Singer Esteban Flores preferred to get up close and personal with the fans, hanging out on the barricade and encouraging the early crowd to move with him during “Soft Slam”, “Pressure” and more. The energy heated up the room and had the packed house working up a sweat before the main event even took the stage.
The Belasco’s gilded walls and ceiling were bathed in blue and orange light for the triumphant return of The Academy Is… The first notes “Attention” snapped the room into focus as Los Angeles celebrated the band’s milestone anniversary, reliving pivotal memories through a filter of nostalgia. TAI played the entirety of Almost Here over the course of the night, but the album was just the cornerstone of a much larger picture- as singer William Beckett joyfully reiterated that the band is back for real with a new album on the horizon.
The crowd roared their appreciation for TAI all night, singing in unison during “The Phrase That Pays” as Beckett conducted the room from atop the stage monitors. They also juxtaposed the classic favorite “About a Girl” with a brand new track called “Miracle” to keep the audience on their toes and dive right into the new music they’ve been workshopping since announcing their comeback.
There wasn’t a song on the setlist that the crowd didn’t know by heart- these tracks are woven into the DNA of a specific scene and time period in music that the kids simply refuse to acknowledge could have ever been a phase. It would be enormously easy to grab at nostalgia for a band like The Academy Is… but they’ve decided to embrace the past while firmly looking towards a bright future for the reunited group. The joy onstage as the band thanked the crowd for waiting around was mirrored on the faces smiling back at them and singing along to “Neighbors”, “Seed” and new song “2005”.
The final two songs on Almost Here were also the final songs of the main set, with “Almost Here” bringing a sense of overwhelming optimism with the final chant of “our time is almost here”. Naturally the crowd pulled them right back for a fan-voted encore of “LAX to O’Hare” and “We’ve Got a Big Mess on Our Hands” before fading out to the tune of “After the Last Midtown Show”. After such a long time away and with nothing but good things to look forward to, the track hit home for a room singing that these indeed might just be the best days of our lives.
