I attended the Cigarettes After Sex concert at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, Texas in September 2022. I blogged about it then, but since I’m re-starting my blog (with commitment this time), I’m revising that entry. It’s important to me to keep it on my blog because I absolutely love CAS.

Before I went to the concert, I read reviews of past Cigarettes After Sex concerts, all of which stated that the group 1) doesn’t interact with the audience much, and 2) performs their songs in a way that matches the studio versions exactly–basically “Spotify in a big room with other people.” The one saving grace it got was that the light show and spectacular effects accompanying the music would be a treat for fans and being in a moody trance with your favorite music performed live would be worth it. (Some reviewers felt this way; others did not.)

So…I went into it knowing what to expect. Two or three months before the concert, I had been on the fence about going, less because of the reviews I read and more because of the reviews in conjunction with the price going from what I first saw, $30, up to $130 after tickets were “sold out” right away on the Stubb’s BBQ website and one had to go to other ticket vendors and pay way more. The concert was also 2.5 hours away from me, which would mean a car rental and an overnight stay.

Also, in July of last year, I was into Cigarettes After Sex, but not quite as much as I am now. Then, I was into maybe three of their songs, but into them a lot. In the past 8 months, I’ve discovered even more of their music and fallen even more in love with it. (Their overall sound is just very aligned with where I’ve been emotionally for a while now.) “Spotify in a big room” or not, as long as a CAS ticket is under $200 and they’re in one of Texas’s big cities, I’m likely to try hard to be there.

About the absence of audience interaction: I’m not that big on this anyway. It’s nice in small amounts, but I am closer to the end of the fan spectrum that gets less out of it. At some other concerts I’ve been to where there’s a lot of it, I’ve even found it downright awkward. Depending on the vibe of the artist(s), it can feel forced and like an obligation for them. I do think it’s just as awkward if the artists don’t engage at all, but keeping it to a certain minimum (maybe 2 to 4 minutes of artist talk after every third song?) seems more natural to me.

As far as groups changing the lyrics or offering an innovative twist on the music in live performances, I like that as long as songs aren’t rendered so different as to not even be familiar anymore. For me, concerts are mainly about listening to the songs back-to-back, live with the artist(s) right in front of me, and in the company of other people who like the music as much as I do. I’m less concerned about getting something different from radio or studio versions.

Basically, I wasn’t “disappointed,” nor did I feel cheated at the Cigarettes After Sex concert. It helped that I knew what to expect. I will say, however, that I had been thinking there’d be more of a light show or other ambiance effects, since the reviews praised that element, but this simply was not there—not at the performance I attended anyway. I took note of it, but the absence of spectacular visuals still did not ruin anything for me. It was not the case that there was no mood-setting; there was an electric purple overtone to everything and the typical ‘smoky haze’ you see at a lot of live music shows. 

If anything, CAS performing the way they do—quietly, with relatively little banter & solicitation, and sounding just like their studio versions, just makes them seem cooler. It also matches their ethereal, mysterious, and elusive ethos, which is a big part of what people love about them—if people are anything like me, that is. A lot of that would be lost if they spent too much time yukking it up with the audience. Greg Gonzalez is a soft-spoken man, after all. Yes, he still could have engaged in his soft-spoken way, and he did…some (it’s been seven months since then; I don’t remember how much). But it wasn’t there as much as with many artists, and I was okay with that.

I wasn’t crazy about the audience singing along to most of the songs. Too often, it sounded like collective yelling rather than singing; it almost ruined the songs. (I do get that this is part of the concert experience for a lot of people: being in the moment, chilling with friends, being drunk or high; feel-good songs filling up one’s headspace; singing comes naturally. Cathartically belting out the words is also an expression of one’s devotion to and familiarity with the music.) I absolutely understand why people do it, and how those feelings may be more important than how it sounds. But…I don’t have to like it (!), especially when it’s what I consider “too much.”

There were also a lot of screaming girls at this concert. Austin is a young college town. My friend Shawn, who attended with me, and I estimated it to be a 95% under-25 crowd, which I don’t think is representative of CAS’s fan demographic, though it might be. Who knows? Anyway, many of the girls, much to my amusement, were swooning and screaming.

Shout-out to Stubb‘s BBQ for accommodating Shawn, who’s disabled, and hooking us up with seating in the VIP area. Shawn was provided a chair while I sat Indian style on a wooden deck floor elevated above and to the right of the main stage. Though I and others sat on the floor, it was spacious and comfortable compared to what I saw in the general admission area, where people were packed like sardines. (I knew that this circumstance exists at concerts, but for some reason, I didn’t think it would be like that for Cigarettes After Sex – I was naive.) Shawn joining me was a last-minute decision; I had been set to attend the concert alone and/or with a different friend who, because he is able-bodied, wouldn’t have gotten us an offer to the VIP area. So…I lucked out with seating and overall comfort.

Also, despite the show being Spotify-in-a-room-with-others, it was nice chit-chatting with the mostly young women who sat around me. We speculated on when the band would come on, shared which songs we loved most, and helped each other get a good vantage point to take pics of the main stage, such as this cool-looking one of the set-list which was on the floor in three different places near the mics and equipment.

Mid-show, a woman next to me, after we’d had some intermittent show-related exchanges and friendly smiles, said to me, “Want to see a picture?” I was like, ”um…of what?” She said again with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, “Want to see a picture?” Eagerly curious, I said, “Yea….” (I mean…I’ll always look at a picture lol). She pulled out of her clutch purse a print photo of Greg Gonzalez, lead vocalist of Cigarettes After Sex, when he was, I would guess, anywhere from 13 to 15.

She said, “I went to middle school with Greg…” 

I excitedly asked her about this. I wanted to know if he was into music back then. “Yes – very,” she said, “always into music.” Did she still talk to him? “No,” she said, “not for years.” 

She let me take a picture of her picture. So…this is pretty cool. Greg Gonzalez as a young man, way before Cigs After Sex. You can see the same face in there.

Dream pop, ambient music artist extraordinaire. I hope he, CAS, & other artists he works with for duets keep putting out music I love. Seeing them live in Austin, TX scratched a major itch I was having. (For a while there, I was infuriated that I only ever saw Cigarettes After Sex tour dates in Europe. They do play in the U.S. too.) $140 well spent.

Oh yes–I have to plug this segment. Cigarettes After Sex–NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. I love this. Happy listening!