Chris Allen, left, and Tyler Glenn perform in their hometown of Murrieta with their band Neon Trees at a special show at Vista Murrieta High School on June 8, 2013. (Frank Bellino/Staff Photographer)
Hours before Neon Trees took the stage at Vista Murrieta High School for a special show on Saturday, June 8, I found myself outside the gates of the stadium, talking to Tamara Cella of New York City.
The Murrieta concert, which was also a fundraiser for the school’s extracurricular activities, was Cella’s 94th time seeing the band. She told me that the night would be different from all other 93 times she saw the band.
She was right. It was something special, a homecoming of sorts for singer Tyler Glenn and guitarist Chris Allen, who grew up down the road from the high school. (Neither actually went there, though. It opened after they graduated from Chaparral and Murrieta Valley, respectively).
Even though there were about 4,000 fans in attendance, the show felt very intimate, particularly when Glenn shared stories about growing up in Murrieta.
And like any of us who grew up in suburbia as outsiders, there’s still that angsty badge of honor we bring out on occasion.
“I loved growing up here and I hated it all at the same time,” Glenn said before “Love and Affection,” the third song of the set.
RELATED: Neon Trees packs Vista stadium for benefit show
As always, the band put on an energetic set. Glenn has continued to grow as a frontman, refining his energy as he bounded across the stage dancing, posing and connecting with fans. Unlike some artists who overdo it, Glenn and has figured out just the right blend of crowd participation to engage the masses without taking away from Neon Trees’ performance as a whole.
As dynamic as Glenn is, it’s the unity of the group that makes them so strong in the live arena. You don’t have Neon Trees without the incredibly tight rhythm section of drummer Elaine Bradley and bassist Branden Campbell, whose grooves are just as hooky as the melodies. And you can’t have Neon Trees without Allen’s guitar finesse.
While the sum of the parts is what makes Neon Trees work so well on stage, the most revealing and inspiring moment of the show was when Glenn was on the stage solo to perform a moving rendition of “Your Surrender” with just a keyboard and his powerful voice.
PHOTO GALLERY: Neon Trees at Vista Murrieta
He told the story of growing up and going to Chaparral High School in Temecula and nobody knew he sang until his senior year.
“I was a weirdo,” he said, in a time before emo.
But he performed Billy Joel songs in a barbershop quartet at a pep rally, singing a little of “The Longest Time” as he told the story, and the people cheering made him feel like he was in the center of Beatlemania, but admitted it may have been only 15 people.
“Do your thing and do it well and to it loud and do it proud all of the time,” Glenn told the crowd.
Set list
“Moving in the Dark”
“1983”
“Love and Affection”
“Sins of My Youth”
“Animal”
“Mad Love”
“Lessons in Love (All Day, All Night)”
“I Am the D.J.”
“Trust”
“Your Surrender”
“In the Next Room”
ENCORE
“Don’t You Want Me” (Human League cover)
“Everybody Talks”
You can see a photo gallery of Neon Trees at Vista Murrieta at the PE Photo page. Also, education reporter Michelle Klampe wrote about how the school put this event on over on PE.com, too.