(a) setlist

1. Don’t Let Your Love Grow Away From Me
2. Hang Me Up To Dry
3. One Song at a Time
4. Hot Coals
5. Thunderhearts
6. All This Could Be Yours
7. Audience
8. First
9. We Used to Vacation
10. Miracle Mile
11. Cold Toes on the Cold Floor
12. Royal Blue
13. Drive Desperate
14. Every Man I Fall For
15. Hospital Beds
16. Something is Not Right With Me

Encore:

1. Mexican Dogs
2. Saint John

(b) highlights

• Cold War Kids are the shiiiiiiiiit, man
• CWK shows always feel stupid intimate, but this one in particular felt so incredibly special
• the lighting was freaking cool – give the lighting guy a raise
• seeing the band at their peak in popularity for an album that randomly gave them so much mainstream traction (Hold My Home) was awesome – you could tell they were having such a good time
• something about this setlist in particular – perhaps the way they mixed in the classic hits with deeper cuts – felt wildly refreshing
• they brought out a whole brass section for the encore – the horns took “Saint John” to a whole new level, I swear to God
• Matt Maust – bassist extraordinaire and one of my favorite musicians all around – gave me the setlist at the end of the show; how freaking cool is that?! I still have that hanging in my bedroom

(c) lowlights

• nothing, this band totally kills live; even Terminal 5 couldn’t bring me down

(d) overall thoughts

History has shown that I’ve seen Cold War Kids quite a few times – 3 or 4 times in 2015 alone, but this one had to be my favorite. Terminal 5 felt like their time to shine that night and the crowd was very much ready to be at their mercy. Hold My Home was doing so well with a younger and newer audience and it made me so proud of them. They’ve only gotten better as a live band and it’s made seeing them a complete joy.

Nathan Willett was in top-form and everyone was gelling together in that special Cold War Kids way; their jam band nature feels infectious. You can’t help but want to dance and move around with them. Everything from the production to the sound added to the intimacy of the evening and really kept everyone in the crowd present and alert. I remember “Hot Coals” in particular really hitting home – sometimes songs you’ve heard a million times gain new night when the band plays it just right.

I’ve always said that the band’s debut Robbers & Cowards is a truly perfect album, so of course I adore “Hospital Beds.” When the band brought out an awesome brass section to accompany them for the encore, I felt like I was experiencing the song for the first time. It’s such an amazing thing when a band you love so much and have seen so many times can still surprise you.

 

Bottom line: Any night seeing Cold War Kids is a beautiful night – their jam-band intimacy makes the audience feel like they’re part of the performance and their massive songs make that intimacy explode into stadiums jams. See them live. Please.