Neon Trees at Rumsey Playfield

Tyler Glenn

Vocalist Tyler Glenn and guitarist Christopher Allen shared their childhood as neighbors in Murrieta, California, but when Allen relocated for college in Provo, Utah, Glenn followed. They formed Neon Trees in 2005, naming the band after the lighted trees on the In-N-Out Burger signs. After some personnel changes, they added bassist Branden Campbell and drummer Elaine Bradley in 2006. (Guitarist David Charles joins the band on tours.) Campbell previously had played in a band with the Killers' drummer, Ronnie Vannucci, Jr.; Vannucci saw Neon Trees perform in a club in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was so impressed that Neon Trees opened a string of Killers concerts in 2008 even before Neon Trees had recorded an album. Neon Trees released its first album in 2010, and quickly became one of the most popular pop rock bands in America. The band's third and most recent album, Pop Psychology, was released on April 22, 2014.

Neon Trees first performed in Central Park in 2011, opening for Panic! At the Disco. Tonight the band returned as headliners. Despite the extreme heat, Glenn came on stage wearing a yellow suit and yellow top coat; this was for flash, not for weather conditions. Glenn announced that pop music is the music that lasts, and the night's performance was just that, pop music enhanced with a rock dance beat, amusing lyrics and a lead singer with seemingly unlimited energy and personality. Tongue-in-cheek songs like "I Love You (But I Hate Your Friends)", "Teenager In Love", "Text Me In the Morning", "Sleeping with a Friend" and "Everybody Talks" appealed to the millennial fan base. Neon Trees' remake of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" also received a similar response. The longest applause of the night, however, came when the music stopped and Glenn articulated at great length about how cathartic it was for him last year when he came out publicly as a gay man; this was followed by the night's softest song, "Voices in the Halls." Save for that serious moment, the rest of the evening was about having fun with bouncy, danceable radio rock.

Visit Neon Trees at www.fameisdead.com.