Nothing But Thieves
w/ Taipei Houston
The Palladium – Hollywood, CA
Wednesday, October 30th, 2024
Review/Pics: Manuel Gay
Nothing But Thieves is a band I’ve been playing hide and seek with for a bit. If I ever left town for the week-end, they made sure to play in LA and whenever I’d come back from a trip, they made sure to play wherever I was staying a couple of days later etc. You get the picture; I could never seem to be in the same city as these guys. Well, I am happy to report that this apparent curse has finally been lifted and after years of playing hard to get, I was able to catch them at the Hollywood Palladium on the end tail of their Welcome To The DCC world tour, on October 30th.
First band on the bill was Taipei Houston, which I wasn’t really familiar with, but I seem to keep seeing their names pop up on all the big rock festivals line-ups. The band was formed during the pandemic (when was that, fifteen years ago?) by none other than Lars Ulrich’s sons Myles (drums) and Layne (guitar and vocals). Kai Smith handled the bass and hair waving throughout the show.
I had listened to a few of their songs and liked it without falling in love with it either, so I was curious to see how this would play out live. Holy Moly! These guys can rock! The trio delivered a thirty-minute set of nothing but furious rock at its purest form, raw, noisy, loud.
Myles turned out to be a powerful drummer and just could not remain seated and kept jumping up only to smash his set harder, the same way I’ve seen his father drum before. The crowd went wild throughout the show and since warming up the audience was their goal; it was mission accomplished for Taipei Houston. They closed their set with “Drop Song” which was quite the banger. I highly recommend catching these guys live.
Setlist
As the Sun Sets
Braindeaf
Enough
Savage Joy
Victory Tooth
Frequency
The Middle
Drop Song
While waiting for the main attraction of the evening, a lot of people killed time by following Game 5 of the world series on their phone. About five minutes before Nothing But Thieves scheduled start, cheers and claps filled up the Hollywood Palladium, indicating that the trophy was coming to LA. It was also the eve of Halloween night, so it was fun to see half of the audience in Dodgers gear and the other half dressed as Beetlejuice or possessed nuns.
Finally, the lights turned off and the British lads came up to the stage. They opened with “Oh No :: He Said What?” and the crowd started bouncing off the walls. What a relief, eight years after discovering “Trip Switch” on the FIFA16 soundtrack, I finally saw them play it live. It brought back so many beautiful memories of destroying FC Barcelona 5-0 with Real Madrid, but I’m getting sidetracked. The setlist was overall well balanced between high energy rock and more mellow tunes like “Sorry” or “If I Get High”. They dug through their four albums (and deluxe extensions) to offer a setlist that showcased a little bit of everything. My only regret was that only two songs from their self-titled debut album made it to the setlist, but I guess that’s what I get for not seeing them earlier in their career.
Around half of the show Conor stepped back to let the rest of the band get into an instrumental jam that what was electrifying. They treated us with a new unreleased song “Always, Always” which I need to admit did not convince me. Not every single song is a masterpiece, so I won’t hold it against them. My excitement level went back up real fast anyway as they delivered an incredible Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” cover. It might be one of the best songs of all time, but this version definitely would make Black Francis proud.
They played fan-favorite “Amsterdam” from 2017’s Broken Machine before leaving the stage. The band came back for a two-song encore including the one I had been waiting for all night “I’m Not Made By Design”. Beyond the fact that it might be my favorite of their song, Conor’s vocals are incredible on this one and I was waiting to hear him hit those high notes in person. Wow! What a performance!
I still can’t believe it took me so long to finally catch Nothing But Thieves live. But beyond the relief of crossing the band off my watchlist, I also need to stress how good these guys are live. The energy is absolutely fantastic and they manage transcend the audience’s expectations. In a fewer words: catch them live. NBT’s run in the US is coming to an end, so make sure to see them on their next tour. Now that my curse has been lifted, you should see me there.
Nothing But Thieves
Taipei Houston
