Some bands have followings and some bands have families. The Airborne Toxic Event (TATE), founded by Mikel Jollett with Daren Taylor in 2006, has turned the idea of fan clubs on its head. Moving away from the email list format, Jollett built an interactive private web presence where fans mingle online with the quintet, chat with the band as well as each other, hear unreleased music, and watch deep dives into track favorites. Between the fan website and Telegram chat channels, the band has built a fanbase in response to the global pandemic and not being able to connect with fans in person at shows. In late 2019, Jollett announced he was working on his memoir, “Hollywood Park”, named after the LA horse track he frequented with his father as a teen. A companion album of the same name was also on track to be released in May 2020 following the same thematic arc as the book. Hollywood Park is the story of Jollett’s mother escaping his brother and him away from a Southern California cult after which he navigated his teen years moving between his mother’s home in the Pacific Northwest and his dad’s space in Southern California. Jollett eventually developed a strong relationship with his father, attended Stanford University, began writing music, formed TATE, lost his father, and started his own family.
Originally scheduled for May 2020 -the band’s first tour in 5 years- the tour was continually postponed until March 2022 at The Van Buren in Phoenix. Fan club members entered a special queue, entered before everyone else, and met with Jollett who spent quite a bit of time talking to the fan club members before the show. At that time, he hinted at a string of “secret shows” that included a return trip to Phoenix in July 2022.
A few short months later, TATE made good on just that. On July 30, 2022 The Airborne Toxic Event with Steven Chen (guitar, keys) Mimi Peschet (violin, keys, vox), and Adrian Rodriguez (bass) made good on this concept of secret, fan club only shows and returned to Phoenix where they played at The Crescent Ballroom. With just over 150 fans in attendance and tickets a mere $10, the intimacy of the evening was something special. Prior to the band taking the stage, their assistant tour manager, Meghan, stepped up to the mic to do half an hour band trivia with us. Even the hardcore fans were stumped on some of the more esoteric questions but everyone seemed to have fun playing along.
Once TATE took the stage, the energy crackled as they thanked us all for attending and seemed giddy with excitement. The band, in true TATE fashion, had asked us what we wanted to hear that evening and pulled out some older songs, including ”Wishing Well”, which was the demo Jollett had given to Taylor when they first met. Taylor fell in love with the song and immediately the two formed The Airborne Toxic Event (a name taken from a line from Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise”).
Over the course of the next two hours, TATE played through the most requested songs of the evening and several fan favorites. Notoriously absent was the titular “Hollywood Park”, but they reached back into the archives on a few numbers. Following the show and their trademark medley encores (I was stoked to hear a verse of “Head On” by The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Van Buren show), the band lingered near the Green Room where Jollett stepped out to greet fans. We lined up. We took selfies. Jollett signed books, LPs, and the like. In true TATE fashion, he thanked us for joining The Airborne Toxic Event on this journey, and we assured him that we can’t wait until TATE plays again in The Valley of the Sun.
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