Anberlin at Irving Plaza

Stephen Christian

Vocalist Stephen Christian was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and in his youth moved to Winter Haven, Florida. While in high school in 1998, Christian and two classmates, bassist Deon Rexroat and guitarist Joseph Milligan, formed the punk band SaGoh 24/7, and after two albums became the alternative rock band Anberlin in 2002. Drummer Nathan Young joined in 2002 and rhythm guitarist Christian McAlhaney joined in 2007. Anberlin sold over 1,000,000 albums before disbanding in 2014 with a tour supporting the band's seventh and final album, Lowborn. Anberlin reunited for two live performances in December 2018 and embarked on a 22-stop U.S. tour in 2019, with no revealed plans for more concerts or recordings.

Anberlin returned to Irving Plaza for two nights, closing the venue which soon will undergo an eight-month renovation. With no new product to promote, Anberlin's set gravitated largely to its fan-favorite Never Take Friendship Personal (2005) and Cities (2007) albums, the two albums the band played in their entireties when the band last performed in New York City in 2014. The set also included a smattering of songs from Anberlin's four later albums. Stephen Christian led the high-energy charge, singing well and hitting high notes while jumping and dashing relentlessly across the dimly-lit stage. Christian's vocal melodies remained prominent, even though his lyrics for the most part were obscured by the band's intense wall of sound. The thunderous power and volume of the music cranked the adrenaline in the room, but swallowed the subtleties found in the recorded versions of songs like "Paperthin Hymn." Midway through the performance, the musicians left the stage and Christian led a reprieve by strapping on an amplified acoustic guitar. He encouraged the exuberant audience to sponsor a child via the Children International table in the lobby, and then sang a soft song, "Down." Before long, the other musicians returned to the stage and resumed the band's big booming sound. Anberlin gave its enthusiastic fans a hard-chugging rock show, but in the end the performance was chiefly a one-dimensional monochromatic that could have benefited from dark and light shades and variations.

Setlist:

1. (Début)
2. Godspeed
3. Never Take Friendship Personal
4. Paperthin Hymn
5. Disappear
6. Time & Confusion
7. A Day Late
8. Audrey, Start the Revolution!
9. Impossible
10. Down
11. (The Symphony of) Blasé
12. Inevitable
13. The Unwinding Cable Car
14. Other Side
15. We Are Destroyer
16. Self-Starter
17. Someone Anyone
18. The Resistance
19. Dismantle.Repair.
20. Feel Good Drag

Encore:

1. (*Fin)