Making his way to The El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California for an absolute night to remember, we witnessed greatness as Kishi Bashi and his wonderful band took to the stage to play 151a in its entirety from start to finish. Celebrating the record’s 10th anniversary, the crowd was eager and as energetic as ever, especially for a Sunday night! We were there front and center, so please check out our full review, as well as an in-depth photo gallery below.

Opening up the night was the psychedelic banjo stylings of Tall Tall Trees, who for lack of a better description, completely melted our minds in the best way possible. We weren’t overly familiar with his music prior to the show, but will 100% be doing a deep dive into his discography as soon as possible. It set the tone for the show and you could tell all the other uninitiated listeners were into the set too. In fact, Mike Savino acted as a multi-instrumentalist once Kishi Bashi and the rest of the band hit the stage.

As for the headlining set, it was a total dream come true to hear these songs we hold so dearly played in full from top to bottom. If you’re familiar with the record, you could probably guess the setlist, but witnessing “Intro / Pathos, Pathos” live was a moment we’ll remember forever. Obviously the run of “Manchester” to “It All Began With a Burst” is monumental as well, but it’s really the lesser played songs in the record that we were looking forward to the most. With tons of improvisation included, on top of beatboxing, and a killer light show, there was no other place to be in Los Angeles then as close as possible to see it all go down.

Thankfully though as 151a finished up, that wasn’t the end of the show! The fans were treated to his infamous cover of Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) and even a cover of Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That”. He also busted out the other hits like “The Ballad of Mr. Steak” and of course Mr. Steak themselves hit the stage for a wild performance. All in all, it was one of the best nights!

Interviewing him last year for Emigrant EP was also a total treat, so if you haven’t watched our interview, don’t miss it!

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Kishi Bashi Celebrates "151a" Anniversary at LA's The El Rey Theatre