With a spectacular lo-fi dream pop performance, Cigarettes After Sex put to rest any speculation that a soft-sounding act couldn’t deliver an arena-style show.
The El Paso, Texas-based trio, comprising vocalist-guitarist Greg Gonzalez, bassist Randall Miller and drummer Jacob Tomsky, returned to the Kia Forum in Inglewood for their second Los Angeles show on Saturday, Oct. 12.
It was the wrap on the band’s three sold-out Southern California shows before heading to Mexico and Europe for the rest of their World Arena Tour. The band was initially scheduled to close out the three-day psychedelic rock festival Desert Daze in Perris on Sunday, Oct. 13, but the organizers canceled the event.
The group began the 80-minute show, which didn’t host an opening act, promptly at 9 p.m. with “X’s,” the title track off their most recent album, which was greeted with a welcoming barrage of screams from fans. It was clear from the start that the crowd was in for a carefully curated setlist of narrative arcs driven by love, lust and heartbreak.
While the two following tracks from the opener included singles “Pistol” and “You’re All I Want,” other songs from their latest release featured “Dark Vacay” and the Lone Star State-inspired “Tejano Blue,” whose lively tempo ever so slightly increased the speed of the swaying crowd.
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The instrumental reverb-driven guitars and subtle vocal cadences are emblematic of a group that is modest in spirit. They’ve never released a music video, and in anticipation of the tour, the group did minimal press to promote it and still managed to sell out nearly half of their nationwide stops.
Throughout the night, the band hardly addressed the crowd, but cheers erupted when Gonzalez appeared to move closer to the edge of the stage and crowd. There weren’t too many visuals on stage, with the exception of a fog machine interacting with white stage lights. The video monitors remained mostly static, showing black-and-white visuals, a nod to the group’s minimalistic monochrome album covers, which was also reflected by the majority of the crowd dressed in all black.
At first listen, you maybe wouldn’t have imagined the group would be headlining and selling out arenas, certainly not because of a lack of talent. In fact, their romantic sound is fit for what you’d imagine would play in fantasies of slow-dancing with a partner, rekindling a passion with a lost love and the sinking melancholy of when it all ends.
The cult-like appeal of Cigarettes After Sex produces atmospheric, dreamlike music that exudes feelings that could easily be the indie pop backing tracks of melodramatic films like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Does this slow-burn pop, driven by unique, raw and smutty storytelling, feel appropriately housed in an arena? According to the fans, who not only sold out the forum but also sang songs such as “John Wayne,” “Cry” and “K.” at the top of their lungs, the answer is a definite yes. The fanbase is mostly part of a generation raised on the internet, yearning for any sign of authenticity, which may be why Gonzalez’s straight-to-the-point lyrics resonate with so many.
The Cigs fandom is undoubtedly growing, and the packed arena tours with fans illuminating the dark-lit venues with their cell phone flashlights in unison is one of many testament to that.
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Since coronavirus restrictions began easing in 2021, ticket sales and attendance were primed to bounce back, and this new era of entertainment opened the floodgates to stadium and arena tours. Major acts such as Beyoncé, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift started selling out these venues around the U.S. Suddenly, it felt almost required for all major performers to book arena-style tours, from rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter to reuniting acts like Oasis.
Sure, the over 17,500-seat Kia Forum has hosted several Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and pop stars, each with an electrifying stage presence in its nearly 60 years of operation including Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac.
These acts and the many others who have followed may stand in contrast to Cigarettes After Sex, whose mellow shoegaze sensibilities fall somewhere between Mazzy Star and Cowboy Junkies.
Yet, the true indicator of stardom is the fans, and in this case, they showed up in droves to groove in the energy emitted from the group. They did so with cheers of joy, dancing almost like a flame dances and swaying side-to-side to songs “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby,” “Sweet” and others on their setlist. That is an ideal match best sparked between the artist and the audience.
Cigarettes After Sex closed the show with “Apocalypse” and “Opera House” from their first album and then walked off the stage in what felt like a sudden end to a trance. Some fans left smiling, while others walked off holding hands or under the arms of their significant others.
