CITIZEN BRINGS THE HALCYON BLUES WORLD TOUR TO THE HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM
On a breezy September 17 evening, the Hollywood Palladium filled with longtime fans, newcomers, and diehards ready for Citizen.
The Halcyon Blues World Tour celebrates the release of Citizen’s new album, Halcyon Blues, with Cryogeyser, Hotline TNT, and Anxious warming up the room.
The evening started relatively chill. Cryogeyser got things moving, but the room still felt like it was waiting for something more. Then Hotline TNT came out and gave the crowd a much-needed slap to the face. It was like someone hooked the Palladium up to a defibrillator.
Then came Anxious.
If Hotline TNT was the defibrillator, Anxious was the adrenaline shot. Whatever energy had been missing disappeared fast. The crowd was moving, the room was getting louder, and the Palladium was officially ready for Citizen.
Citizen eventually appeared through a massive wall of fog, reduced almost entirely to silhouettes.
Then they played.
Citizen didn’t need to spend the night talking and yapping to the crowd or constantly telling everyone to get louder. Their performance was enough. Singing, dancing, moshing, and crowd surfing filled the Palladium while everyone seemed caught in their own little world.
And Citizen was the sun everyone was orbiting around.
Newer songs like “I Can See You From Here” and “Halcyon Blues” fit naturally alongside the older material, but my favorite moment came when Citizen played “The Summer.”
When “AND I WATCHED YOU RUN” hit, everyone completely lost their shit.
Bodies moved across the Palladium as the entire room screamed along. It was loud, chaotic, and beautiful. I’ve been listening to Citizen since high school, and now, at 30, I'm standing in front of them with a camera in my hands.
After all these years, I finally got to photograph a band that had been part of my life for so long. That felt pretty damn special.
And that atmospheric fog? Great for the crowd. For a photographer, my first thought was basically, “Ah shit. We’re fucked.” But somehow, the haze ended up adding to the intimacy and cinematic feel of the night.
For such a massive venue, the show never felt distant. It was just a room full of people singing the same songs and enjoying being there.
A room full of sad and happy emos.
An oxymoron of a show.
It was sick.
