Review: Cigarettes After Sex concert (X’s World Tour)

An hour after the listed start time of 8:00 p.m., the pre-made playlist of random assorted songs fades into a heaven-like soundtrack. The house lights dim, and walls of light beam off the stage, illuminating the smoky atmosphere and serving as the only source of illumination in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.

The crowd erupts as shadows walk into the spotlight; lead singer Greg Gonzalez, drummer Jacob Tomsky and bassist Randy Miller step onto stage. As the soundtrack fades out, there’s a momentary pause. Gonzalez breaks the silence by playing the first few chords of “X’s,” the first track on Cigarettes After Sex’s newest album, “name of album.” 

For the majority of the concert, the band stays in one place, befitting of their music’s calm and entrancing energy. Two large video screens alongside the stage focus on the band members, highlighting how peaceful they look on stage.

Gonzalez roams along the stage, nearing the pit. After a song or two, he drifts onto the catwalk, nearing the fans. The walls of light on the stage part, seemingly to let him through. Later on in the show, he sings “Sweet” surrounded by fans. As a song about the singer loving someone very deeply, this part of the performance felt like Gonzalez was making a tender connection between the band and the audience. 

The band’s stage presence was supplemented by a calming and beautiful light show, from walls of smoky light to slow disco balls. Each song featured a unique video display, enhancing the experience. When the onlookers swayed their phone flashlights, it appeared as a beautiful night sky, lighting up the arena and perfectly suiting “Falling in Love.” 

The band performed tracks from all four of their albums, 17 in total. Despite being the X’s World Tour, only three of the songs played were from the tour’s namesake album. While the crowd was excited for every song, they would erupt into a frenzy whenever the band played songs from their most popular album, “Cigarettes After Sex,” including “Sweet,” “Sunsetz” and “K.” 

Cigarettes After Sex have always played a uniform style of music: gentle and romantic. As a visual, it sounds like how the blown smoke from a cigarette lingers. But their style is so uniform that most of their songs sound the same. Romantic and sad themes, calm tempo and even repeated note patterns. Take “Apocalypse” and “You’re All I Want” as an example. This conformity is good and bad. For some, it’s a comfortable style they truly enjoy; for others, it makes the band bland and unlistenable. 

As only a casual fan, I ended up having to Shazam some of the songs to create an accurate setlist, as I couldn’t tell the difference between the tracks. If they hadn’t paused between songs, I would’ve been in trouble.

Gonzalez interacted with the crowd periodically throughout the show, announcing what his next song was and what album it would be from. Nearing the end of the show, Gonzalez announced  “Apocalypse.” As their most popular song and the one that introduced me to the band, it was amazing to hear in person. While the disco balls slowly spun, it felt as if the entire audience was singing along; the sound of all the voices combined was surprisingly tear jerking. 

Even sitting in the nosebleeds in section 221, the show was enchanting. Although some could complain about a lack of stage presence or lackluster lighting, I found that the combination of the two fit the band’s aesthetic perfectly, their performance bringing me to tears periodically through the show.