Cage the Elephant
February 5, 2015
Tower Theater- Los Angeles, CA
The Alternative-rockers Cage the Elephant kicked off their 2 night (both sold out) Tower Theater shows on February 5, 2015. Lights dimmed at 9:45 and the band walked into the venue from the streets and hopped on stage. As the crowd erupted into cheers, the colorfully dressed guys went into Spiderhead the opening track from their latest album, Melophobia which was released in 2013. The set continued with crowd favorite In One Ear where lead singer, Matthew Shultz lay in the crowd as his brother and rhythm guitarist, Brad Shultz did the same.
It’s difficult to imagine a Cage the Elephant performance by listening to their mostly mellow alt-rock/indie rock songs because their live show is something that has so much energy and excitement. Matt Shultz constantly jumps and runs around the stage while Brad is constantly head banging and singing along. One of the band’s newest members Nick Bockrath on lead guitar also joined in on the fun and jumped up on an amplifier and played through the song. Keep in mind, this was all before the third song of their 14 song set.
The night continued with more fan favorites including Back Against the Wall, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked which caused a circle pit to break out, and Cigarette Daydreams, a song that has recently been getting quite a lot of radio time even though it was from the 2013 album. Matt Shultz occasionally took breaks in between songs to thank the crowd and show his appreciation. He said that it looked like they were having a good time, but he wanted to be sure so he asked the crowd if they were, to which they replied with deafening screams 
which definitely assured him that they were having a great time. The set ended with Come a Little Closer, the first single off of Melophobia. The band thanked the crowd one last time and jumped off the stage. Cheers for an encore began immediately but the band wasn’t going to give fans what they wanted so quickly. They teased the crowd a bit and didn’t come back out on stage for several minutes. Cage the Elephant started their encore with Shake Me Down from their 2nd studio album, Thank You Happy Birthday and concluded their set with Sabertooth Tiger off the same record. Toward the end of the song, Matt Shultz leaped into the crowd and crowd surfed until he was able to lift himself up, standing on the fans who happily held him up while they sang along.
You cannot judge a book by it’s cover… in this case, Cage the Elephant’s songs is the cover, but on the inside is the live show, which is a complete frenzy with band members crowd surfing, jumping around and doing so much more than anyone could imagine by just listening to their music and from watching other alt-rock/indie bands. Cage the Elephant is a band whose music many people enjoy, but whose live show, everyone should see. The band has recently announced that they are working on their 4th studio album so be sure to watch out for updates on that and be sure to check them out when they head to your city.
Review by: Nicole Lemberg
