British pop-rock outfit Bastille has been spending the majority of 2023 celebrating the 10th anniversary of their first album, Bad Blood, via the Bad Blood X tour, which just saw its end at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA which doubled as the only North American stop of the celebration.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen Bastille at The Wiltern, with the last being in 2018, so I knew ahead of time what to expect regarding parking, friendliness of staff, and the general surrounding LA area, with all aspects still exceeding expectations.
The band’s Bad Blood X celebration would feature a sold-out crowd, no openers, and an intimate experience between the band and their diehard audience. The line would build up hours ahead of opening time, with fans covered in Bastille merch taking the streets of Los Angeles chatting and growing the overall community aspect the band brings to each city they takeover.
At times, the wait was brutal as the sun began to set, but that’s par for the course regarding the Southern California summer season shows. And while the setting sun brought moments of “blah,” it also meant the time was almost here for us all to head inside for a fantastic Bastille performance.
As previously mentioned, Bastille had no opener for their Los Angeles showcase, which meant a few minutes after 8:30 PM, the band hit the stage for an engaging performance of their monster hit, “Pompeii,” with a phenomenal documentary opening that set the tone for the remainder of the night.
The crowd fired up; Bastille would jump into “Things We Lost in the Fire,” which continued building high energy within The Wiltern’s beautiful walls. Bastille, in between songs, would inject other behind-the-scenes moments from the making of their hit Bad Blood album, creating a beautiful celebration for the band members and the longtime members of the community.
The show’s overall tone was more like a fun get-together between friends, a small experience filled from wall to wall. It was a surreal experience hearing Bad Blood from start to finish in a live setting, as some of these songs aren’t always front and center within the band’s typical setlist.
With that said, Bastille would perform “These Streets,” “Icarus,” “Laura Palmer,” and an amazingly emotional yet fun performance of the album’s hidden track, “Weight of Living, Pt. 1,” just to name a few songs off the band’s exciting 21-song setlist.
During the band’s riveting performance of “Flaws,” Bastille frontman Dan would head into the crowd as he tends to do during their performances for a face-to-face with the theatre’s crowd, running up and down the aisles of The Wiltern handing out high-fives, hugs, and just a complete bubble of positivity and oneness.
The band’s connection from artist to fan was on point throughout the more than an hour-long performance as they would constantly engage with the audience between Dan talking about a watch gifted to him that featured British time rather than American time to telling the story about the creation of “Laura Palmer” and the meeting of David Lynch.
The constant storytime between the inner-docu segments of the show and the band onstage telling stories and showcasing their friendship with each other was pure bliss and a beautiful moment in time that I will never forget.
Once the British rockers were done performing Bad Blood from front to back, they entered what would be considered the “party” portion of the set, which featured “The Draw,” “Happier,” “Of the Night,” and an outstanding performance of the band’s TLC and The xx mashup, “No Angels.”
Each moment of Bastille’s Bad Blood X celebration at The Wiltern was beautiful, sincere, and filled with unforgettable memories centered around bonds that will last a lifetime, grounded by a fantastic catalog of music constantly replaying somewhere in the mindscape.
This was Bastille at their best, most vulnerable, and ultimately in the zone, further showcasing why they are a fantastic band and why we fans keep coming back, whether it’s 10 years or more.
Even though the band’s current Bad Blood X celebrations have ended, you can still catch them with Duran Duran on the Future Past tour.
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