Another year has come and gone. As always, the last 12 months were good for some, not so good for others, and touched every gray area in between. One thing we can always seem to agree on, is, music and it’s ability to lift spirits and bring people together. A mere 18 days after closing out 2018 at Denver’s Fillmore, STS9 returned to the stage in Los Angeles at the famed Wiltern, officially kicking off their 2019 touring cycle with a two-night Southern California run.
On Friday night, Tribe took the stage and led off with one of their newer tracks, “A03”. The fairly short newbie has only been played sparingly to this point, and always serves to create an atmospheric mood before leading into another track. This night was no different, as the song transitioned into “Walk To The Light”. Despite the fact that this particular song has its fair share of naysayers, it was quite an appropriate track for the band to open their first show of 2019 with. It’s almost as if they were saying, “no matter how the previous year may have treated you, never stray from the light.”
Following the transition into an even shorter new track, “SOW”, the performance really began to take off. The fan-favorite “118” came next, which isn’t played as much as most would like. “118” was all but a given to be played on this night, January 18th (1/18). No matter the predictability, “118” turned the crowd’s energy up a couple notches and was nothing short of, as the kids would say, “a vibe”. A highlight of the evening came next with “Real & Imagined”, a slower track that was originally a b-side from STS9’s acclaimed Artifact album, and just released as its own single in 2017.
Following a brief setbreak, STS9 opened up their second set with the beautiful and mysterious “We’ll Meet In Our Dreams”. Few songs in the STS9 catalog can evoke the pure emotion that “We’ll Meet In Our Dreams” is capable of. When used as a set opener, it sets a sort of “oh shit here we go” tone for the remainder of the show, and that couldn’t have been more accurate in this case. “We’ll Meet In Our Dreams” transitioned seamlessly into “Equinox”, with percussionist Jeffree Lerner shining bright behind his rig.
“EHM” came next, and the tone coming from David Phipps keys could not have been more on point. It was dark, dirty, grimy, scary and, most importantly, sexy. The transition into “F. Word” was even sexier, and following another transition into “Tokyo”, the crowd was all stirred up into a fever pitch, searching for water and cold towels during the slight lull in between “Tokyo” and “New Dawn, New Day”. “Get Loud” pulsated, “Moon Socket” gyrated, and “World Go Round” capped off a fantastic night one, leaving plenty for Los Angeles Sound Tribe fans to be excited about for night two.
On Saturday, STS9 opened up the first set with “Circus”, much to the delight of the entire crowd. It’s common knowledge in the STS9 community that a show opening “Circus” is indicative of a wonderful night of music to come. “Wave Spell” followed, and took the crowd’s glee, as STS9 transferred that energy to everyone’s feet, as the crowd danced like nobody was watching. A heavy rendition of “Menacer” followed, before the band segued into “Presence of Light”. “Presence of Light” brought the crowd energy back to a more blissful state, before closing out the first set with “Seed > “Evasive Maneuvers” > “Kamuy”. The 26-minute segment featured a fantastic fake out of “Kamuy” before going into “Evasive Maneuvers”, before the band decided to actually transition into “Kamuy”. Saturday’s first set was just another day at the office of exploration for Sound Tribe Sector 9.
STS9 opened up their second set on Saturday with “Strange Games”. The remix-esque fusion track of “Get Loud” and Outkast’s “ATLiens” is a serious party starter, that’ll make you feel like you’re in a modern day version of Soul Train. Saturday night’s rendition was 14-minutes long and featured multiple samples from P-Funk to Talib Kweli. “March > “Wika Chikana” followed, and if you’re a fan of Hunter Brown, this was the segment for you. HB made his guitar cry during “March”, and then proceeded to speed things up on “Wika Chikana”. The jam during “Wika” had the crowd roaring.
“Music, Us” > “New Forms” was next, and was also noteworthy for multiple reasons. Maureen Murphy sat in on vocals for the first time since 2016, and did so on a drum & bass version of the tune. Maureen sang over the tracks in a beautifully haunting manner, and it was received as so by the crowd. The drum and bass didn’t stop there, as the segue train rolled into “Orbital” > “Subliminal Nature”. A crowd pleasing “When The Dust Settles” ended the second set and “To The World” > “Lo Swaga” served as the evening’s encore, ending the night in quite the room-shaking fashion. The band’s foot was placed firmly on the gas pedal throughout their two nights in Los Angeles, and STS9 shows no signs of letting up for the rest of 2019, or, for that matter, anytime soon.
For a full list of STS9’s upcoming shows and ticketing information, head to the band’s website.
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