“Now we’re going to play a song that was written before you all were born,” said Mike Kinsella, as the band launched into “Honestly?”, the second song off their 1999, self-titled debut album. American Football, the seminal Midwest Emo band, stopped by San Diego, CA this Memorial Day weekend while on tour supporting their new record, the self-titled, LP4. 

Released almost 27 years after their debut, what seemed like a joke by Kinsella was really just an honest observation, as the room was primarily filled by younger, Gen-Z looking people. Although the house lights revealed a smattering of Millennial attendees, betrayed by their worn out flannel shirts and greying hair, they stood generally at the back of the venue, or against the walls. 

Although the audience was young, so was Mei Semones, the 26-year-old opener who regaled the crowd with her intricate melodies, virtuosic guitar playing, and luscious Bossa Nova-inspired sound. Semones’s songs combined soft jazz with indie rock sensibilities, sliding back and forth between lush, Astrud Gilberto-inspired verses, to somber, Snail Mail-sounding bridges and choruses.    

The wide influences of French, Brazilian, and Japanese soft jazz were refreshing, but the lack of diversity in song structures made the sound stale, and wore out its welcome by the end of the set. Semones was impressive on guitar and vocals, even singing in several languages, but her consistently sleepy demeanor was painfully lethargic, and although she was a talented guitar player, her intonation was severely lacking in finesse, which might sound nitpicky, but matters when playing such a refined sound like Bossa Nova, where the timbre of the instruments is critical to achieving the right tone for the genre.  

Semones’s band was exceptional, playing with great technical ability, but also wonderful taste, especially the viola and violin, whose arrangements and counter-melodies elevated the soundscape from pastiche to authentically teleportative: standing in that sweaty, crowded room, they delivered the cool breeze off a Japanese coast line and the warm smell of coffee from a Parisian café. 

With only a short break in between sets, a hush fell over the crowd as the lights dimmed and American Football made their way onto the stage. The band opened with new material, starting with the space-y, synth-heavy “Man Overboard,” the opening track of LP4. Although the live mix began a bit bottom heavy, the sound evened out and the layers of guitar, bass, and vibraphone blended together above the drums into a tantric, immersive, and enveloping richness.

Kinsella sounded noticeably better on vocals than he did on the band’s live album, recorded and released in 2025. His voice still had the residual grit of a throat lacquered in tar and whiskey, but his leads were soaring, in-tune, and delivered passionately. He was also much friendlier than at the 2025 live recordings (the only time he spoke to us then was to tell us to “shut the fuck up”), engaging frequently with the crowd and thanking them for their attendance. “We started making new music two years ago, so it feels great to be here,” Kinsella said. “We get excited by your excitement. Thank you for being here.”

Although the band mainly played songs off their new record, they slipped in a few songs from their previous albums, such as “Uncomfortably Numb” from LP3 and “Home Is Where the Haunt Is” from LP2. This blend of songs from across different epochs of their discography highlighted what made LP4 such a strong album: relying on the polyrhythmic structures of LP1, the mature lyrics of LP2, and the explorative textures of LP3, their new record was able to refine the elements of all three into one cohesive and concentrated sound. 

Massive credit to Steve Lamos on drums and trumpet, who looked to be having the time of his life every second he sat on stage. Sitting unnaturally high above his drum set, even in the dark you could see him grinning ear-to-ear as he put together incredibly technical drum rhythms that form the backbone to the noodling and pitch harmonics of the stringed instruments. Although the crowd erupted into applause every time he picked up the trumpet, his proficiency behind the set was almost at a Stewart Copeland quality in its excellence and under-appreciation. 

As the show progressed, there was a natural build-up to the most anticipated song of the night: the initially underground, later memed to death, and now fully-appreciated “Never Meant,” from their debut album. “We sing our little notes and play our little feelings,” Kinsella said before asking, “are we ready?” Most of their set up to this point had been accompanied by receptive head-bobbing from the audience, but the crowd turned into a choir as everyone shouted the opening lines at the top of their lungs. 

At the conclusion of “Never Meant” the band had only an instant to walk off stage before the crowd pleaded for one more song. After the shortest break between the main set and encore, the band returned to play “No Feeling,” “Patron Saint of Pale,” and LP4’s lead single, “Bad Moon.” 

With a smile and a group hug, the band bid the crowd farewell and retreated off stage as the house lights came on. 

The band continues their tour in Europe starting June 19, and return to the US through July and August, appropriately, before the summer ends.