UTG PHOTOS: RX Bandits’ ‘The Resignation’ 10-Year Anniversary Tour (7/5/13)

Under The Gun sent Front Page Editor, Brian Lion, to The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, CA on July 5 for the very first stop on RX Bandits’ 10-year anniversary tour for their album, ‘The Resignation.’

There’s always this majestic presence you feel while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and heading down Lombard into The City. The hustle and bustle of big city life mixed with that amazingly crisp ocean air makes for a minor case of culture shock when compared to the life I live of hot Summer monotony in the mountains of Northern California.

The best part about heading into San Francisco for this particular trip is that I’d be once again seeing RX Bandits on stage as they celebrated 10 years of The Resignation, their final Drive-Thru Records release from July of 2003. With only having one band as an opener, I was certain that they’d be playing a longer set than expected with their signature energy and groove that fans have grown to love and expect over their impressive career spanning nearly two decades.

After enjoying a big, refreshing Sierra Nevada Torpedo while talking with RXB vocalist Matt Embree a bit as he danced around to get rid of his hiccups, I headed into the main ballroom as Equal Vision rockers, Northern Faces, took the stage. With some hand claps, foot stomps, and big, folk and indie rock choruses, Northern Faces set the night off with a great start. While most of the crowd may have not been entirely familiar with the band, it certainly looked as though they acquired a slew of new fans on the first date of this incredible tour. They played some tracks from their debut EP, Southern Places, including their rising single, “Under My Skin,” as well as a couple new ones to get us excited for their next effort.

After Northern Faces’ set, some stage prep, and a new wave of fans flooding into the main room, those damn Bandits took the stage and began The Resignation with their materialism bash-piece, “Sell You Beautiful.” From that moment on, RXB completed all 12 tracks seamlessly with the highest energy and precision you could hope for. Every attendee in that building brought their dancing shoes and sang their hearts out along with Embree, Choi, and Troy while C-Gak sat back on his kit and killed it on the drums as usual, sometimes while drinking his beloved Sierra Nevada simultaneously. After completing the intense barrage of sound that is The Resignation‘s closer, “Decrescendo” (also one of their usual encore pieces), RXB took no more than a 2-minute breather before coming back out for an encore to further blow fans away and leave their voices hoarse. Without much chatter throughout their initial set, Matt Embree returns to center stage stating, “It’s great to be back. It’s fucking great to be back. We missed this so much!”

Performing a decent chunk (all of my favorites) from …And the Battle Begun, including an amazing, much longer, re-invented jam version of “Only For The Night,” as well as one track off of Progress, RX Bandits closed the tour’s inaugural outing with a helluva bang, making fans’ July 5, 2013 at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, unforgettable.

You can check out some of my photos from the show below!

Northern Faces

 


RX Bandits
 

Brian Leak
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “UTG PHOTOS: RX Bandits’ ‘The Resignation’ 10-Year Anniversary Tour (7/5/13)”

  1. Leslie Ellis says:

    Thanks so much for a wonderful write-up, Brian, and your pix are fabulous! I wish so much I’d been there; that you share your experience so thoroughly takes the sting out of not going. (Beer with Matt? Sublime!)

  2. dweebsteak says:

    that show was amazing. That picture with steve choi and c. gak is siiiiick

  3. Brian Lion says:

    It was a ton of fun. Such a great show. Thanks! I like how Matt is faintly in the background on the screen, too.

  4. Brian Lion says:

    Thanks, Leslie! I hate that you missed it but I may have not even have gone had you not got me into them so many years ago.

  5. Nate Fuller says:

    Thanks for the write up Brain! How’d the horns and back up vocals come through? A small part of me was hoping Sheets and Borth would sign on for one last hurrah!

  6. Brian Lion says:

    The day they announced the tour, I was praying it’d be Borth and Sheets as well but, alas, it was not. However, the two gentlemen they had on trombone and sax were fantastic, and although they stayed in the back stage right, the horns came through just fine and all was well. Thanks for reading!