Review: Vacations Bring the Wild West to Los Angeles

Q&AMusic

Oct 30

☆ By Britt Jacobson ☆

AS I WALKED INTO THE FONDA TWO THINGS WERE APPARENT: the first was it was a sold-out show, with a line to get in that went around the corner - even as the openers set was ending. The second was that there were a LOT of cowboy hats around me. As I ventured in further I noticed a little saloon that Vacations had set up in the entrance. The stage was decorated with two large cacti statues and a western style wagon. A massive banner with red canyons and “VACATIONS” written on it was the focal point of the stage.

It took me until the end of the second song when the lead singer Campbell Burns spoke for the first time to realize that Vacations had come all the way from Newcastle, Australia to perform. These Aussie cowboys were getting a ton of love from the crowd, and really leaned into the western bit, throwing “yee-haws” and “howdy’s” in almost every time they addressed the crowd. The entire band was decked out in western shirts and bandanas and Burns was wearing a cowboy hat for the full experience. At one point he asked everyone wearing a cowboy hat to raise them up in the air, and there was simply a sea of hats in the crowd. As far as themed tours, “Return to the Wild West” was an absolute success in my opinion.

One very wholesome moment was when Burns shouted out his parents who were at the show. When they asked the crowd whose first time it was seeing them, the majority of the crowd raised their hands (myself included). There was an incredible energy in the venue the entire length of the show and I loved the combination of them saying “yeehaw” but then also “g’day mate”.

The stage, aside from all of the props and banner, had really nice warm toned lights with lots of yellow, orange and red which really worked for their Western Americana aesthetic. It’s been a while since I saw fans that were this committed at a show and it seemed pretty evident that a lot of people in the crowd had been waiting for a while to see them and there was scarcely a song that didn’t have people yelling along to each and every lyric.

One of the funniest moments of the show was when they sang a song dedicated to anyone still living at home. They asked the crowd who was still living at home and after people cheered they joked “well that was a considerable amount of you.” Everyone laughed and really took it in stride and after that introduction the lyrics in “Moving Out” really resonated that much more.

There was another song intro that I loved- the quasi meditation with the crowd where they asked people to close their eyes and pretend it was a lazy weekend morning. The lyrics about “nowhere to be but home” were lovely, and that much lovelier after a thoughtful introduction.

Seeing these Australians live was truly an experience of its own. It was a thoughtfully designed and executed production that left me a bigger fan than I was walking into the venue.

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We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫