Angels and Airwaves

6:30 p.m. Sunday, December 17. Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard).

Comments (0) By Annie Zaleski Wednesday, Dec 13 2006

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$35. 314-726-6161.

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By now, it's rather obvious that the Great blink-182 Schism was anything but amicable; the tight-lipped silences and thinly veiled digs from the two opposing camps speak volumes. But Angels and Airwaves founder/ frontman Tom DeLonge — whose boastful comments about his new band's debut, We Don't Need to Whisper, have made him seem conceited — insists that he's misunderstood. "People think that we're all really confident and probably pretty egotistical based on a lot of statements that I made, saying it's the best rock record in twenty years," he says. "The funny thing is, I spent thirteen years running around saying, 'I fucked my friend's mom' and this and that, and no one listened to me. Then I come out and say one thing and everyone's listening." Everyone also appears to be listening to AVA's music, a mix of spacey keyboards and grandiose guitars so expansive that U2 feels anemic by comparison. "The idea was to create something that was very pleasing to the ear, but full of energy and that wasn't a slow pop album," DeLonge says. "It made you feel like you're flying, but in the best possible way. We're very fortunate to be where we are, we're very lucky, we have a lot of hard work to do. Me more than anybody, I know how much work it takes to get to that level — and I'm not taking it lightly."