There’s no better way to end a 32-date tour than in a sold-out Los Angeles venue. A double-headlining tour from Last Dinosaurs and Vacations was just what LA needed on this Sunday night. Tourzilla, as its aptly named, smashed into the Novo in Los Angeles, on a busy night in the L.A. Live area, with professional sports events happening throughout the day, this created a nice buzz in the city. With the weather cooling down outside, it was the total opposite inside the 2300+ capacity venue; you could feel the electricity building from the start. The line to get in wrapped around the corner all the way to crypto.com arena, with every single person just itching to get upstairs into the venue.
Bathe Alone started off the night with a dream-pop set that was setting the stage for the energy to build. Multi-instrumentalist Bailey Crone and her band knew just how to put on a show for those that had shown up early and ready to catch a vibe.
As the crowd awaited the arrival of Last Dinosaurs, the lights all went dim and on their custom 8 panel LCD screens, a nostalgic icon appeared; the DVD icon. It bounced around like the old screen savers from the past and the crowd was already fully into it, just waiting for it to hit any of the elusive corners. After about 5 minutes of hoping it would, it finally hit that top left corner only to have the screens go completely black and that was the cue for Last Dinosaurs to walk out on stage, complete in dapper suits.
They started off with “Afterlife” and flowed through hits like “Sense” and “Italo Disco.” After a few songs in, the Brisbane natives were showing their gratitude to the crew of this amazing tour, which couldn’t have been possible without them. The sold out crowd cheered as loud as they could and this lead to a clever medley of covers that included “Breathe” by the Prodigy, Modjo’s “Lady”, and Stardust’s “Music sounds better with you. “ Right after this carefully blended mix, the band mentioned that their song “Apollo” was made for sweating which the LA crowd ate up one chorus at a time. This song alone has amassed over 13 million streams on Spotify. It’s catchy and upbeat personality had the crowd jumping and moving for the entire 3 and a half minutes. You could feel the Novo literally bounce to the beat. They capped off the memorable set with another hit that has over 21 million Spotify streams; their hit “Zoom.”
Vacations was gearing up to close out the night and the crowd was easily already in a vibe to have a good time. They began their set with “Next Exit” a song off their upcoming album “No Place Like Home,” releasing in January of 2024. Even the the people in balcony were jumping up and down within the first few minutes of the set starting. Kacy Hill even joined them on stage and effortlessly played saxophone on a few songs which made the buzz even more electric early into the set. “Close Quarters” was another song off their upcoming album which gave a feeling of a breath of fresh air but with the familiarity of that distinct Vacation’s sound. Jake Johnson, the bands bassist took some time in between songs to make sure that he captured his BeReal for the night which included the rest of the band and 2300+ Los Angelenos in attendance. He mentioned that his friends and family back home in Australian wouldn’t believe this and when you’re playing a sold out show in Los Angeles this is true; not many get to experience the type of synergy that was in the Novo that night. They had a few throwback tunes in the set including “Day Dreamin” from their first ever EP “Days.” They were getting close to the end of the set and when mentioning they had only 2 songs left, the crowd began to declare 3 or 4 more, not wanting it to end. As they closed out on the hit “Midwest,” Last Dinosaurs, Bathe Alone and friends came out to rock out one last time and it was a party on stage. They walked off to an uproar of cheers…which set up for a great Encore set of their hit “Lavender.” It was a perfect way to end the night, on such a catchy hook. Just like the song says “ There’s no chance I’d trade this for anything else at all, “ and the sentiment was felt amongst everyone in attendance; they did not want to be anywhere else that night.
This almost two month special edition double feature tour was one for the books and one that will be hard to top in the future. We can’t wait until both bands return back to the US.
Photos and Review by Vince Collyer