Bleachers Fill Up At The Kia Forum [Recap And Gallery]

A blackened stage with nothing but the flickering of a streetlight gives shape to Bleachers’ frontman Jack Antonoff. A post-apocalyptic Milhouse, draped in a purposely ill-fitting blazer, fogged glasses concealing a black eye. He kneels before the horde of raw nerves that line their inaugural arena show at the Kia Forum. All members of the Antonoff army, here to aid in the fight against silence, vibrate along with the strings of their song ‘91.

Antonoff orchestrates his own regrets into a universal emotion. Giving way to planned pandemonium with his hive-minded bandmates acting as limbs of an art school octopus. Distilling a feeling to its simplest parts. Making an existential crisis feel as common as losing your car keys. There’s frustration, anger and longing. Searching in a place you’ve been one thousand times before and come up empty. Knowing what it was like to hold them. Imagining where they can take you.

As they enter ‘Chinatown’, Bleachers’ energy never waivers. A rorschach of sweat morphs across Jack’s back. It takes the shape of unfurling wings, illustrating the freedom that comes with finally feeling anything. To prove you’re alive. [It also reminds me of the jam on the turkey club from my favorite childhood diner. Either from a bobbing induced appetite or something new to bring up in therapy.]

With their final appeal, ‘Stop Making This Hurt’, the band's namesake is reminiscent of high school pep rallies. The stands acting as a class system, layering the jocks over the band geeks as the burnouts pass around a joint underneath the congregation. All sharing in the same experience, connecting catchy, pleading chants to a past or current headache. Giving everyone their right to feel.

The Jersey collective is currently touring their third studio album, Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Nights. For a list of remaining tour dates and tickets, click here. See our photo gallery from Wednesday’s show below.

Photos by Josh Druding