Skip to content
Spotlight

Lydia

By: Peter Gaston

Being young is equally exhilarating and excruciating. It’s all wrapped up in late-night conversations among trusted allies, or mulled about all alone under the night sky, maybe behind the wheel, soaking up a record that is Earth’s most important artistic expression at that particular moment. The debut disc from Lydia isn’t that record, but it’s a record written about those moments: a prom night limo ride fraught with sexual tension; a conversation between teenage lovers filled with mixed messages; pipe dreams about shaking off suburban shackles.

Lydia’s hometown of Gilbert, AZ, certainly qualifies as an archetype of present day suburbia. An extension of Phoenix’s gigantic grid, Gilbert counts among its landmarks giant strip malls roofed in faux Spanish tile and filled with Applebee’s, Walgreen’s, or any number of other typical chain outlets. It’s a stark canvas that only amplifies the drama unfolding on Lydia’s This December; It’s One More and I’m Free, seemingly an allusion to that final semester of high school (and, fittingly, the youngest member of the band just graduated this year, freeing them to tour).

This December‘s arrangements are slow and brooding, occasionally peppered with strings and piano that make the record feel more Bright Eyes than Fall Out Boy. It’s a unique niche that Lydia slips into quite deftly, somewhere between neurotic emotional outbursts and Warped Tour histrionics. Album closer “December” is where the built up tension completely unravels: The star-crossed vocals of band members Leighton and Maria ascend to a rousing climax, and the guitars get unleashed after tugging their chains through the nine preceding tracks. On Gilbert’s Chandler Boulevard — and any number of other American thoroughfares — kids are tuning in.

Lydia tour dates:

10/21, Cedar City, UT (Old Boondocks)10/22, Grand Junction, CO (Rock of Ages)10/23, Denver, CO (The Sullivans)10/24, Colorado Springs, CO (The Black Sheep)10/25, Omaha, NE (The Rock)10/27, Wichita, KS (Headway Park)10/29, Dallas, TX (Help!)10/30, San Marcos, TX (Gordos)10/31, San Antonio, TX (The Sanctuary)11/1, Odessa, TX (Earls 2)11/2, El Paso, TX (Surges)11/3, Tucson, AZ (The Living Room)11/5, Tempe, AZ (The Marquee Theater)11/10, Las Cruces, NM (The Bean)11/10, Las Cruces, NM (The Club)11/11, Albuquerque, NM (The Launchpad)11/13, Lake Jackson, TX (Civic Center)11/14, College Station, TX (Coffee Station)11/17, Albuquerque, NM (The Lobo Theater)11/22, St. George, UT (Neverland Presents)