You could forgive Actors if they drove into Las Vegas running on fumes after a massive gig in Mexico City and a featured slot in Los Angeles at the Substance festival. A Sunday night in Las Vegas left them facing a smaller audience than they will probably see all year. Had they played a solid one-hour set and saved some energy for the long drive up the California coast which awaited them, nobody would have thought twice about it. Actors, however, are not that type of band. In a show that rivals anything I’ve seen in decades, the band played a beautiful set full of darkness and light and ran through, as singer Jason Corbett noted in lieu of an encore, all the songs they have to play two albums into their career.
Any band that trades in post-punk and dark wave opens themselves up to countless comparisons but Actors are not easy to pin down. They are unapologetically modern and the melodic hooks can arrive from all directions with guitarist Corbett, Kendall Wooding (bass), and Shannon Hemmett (synth) all contributing in equal measure thanks to the rock-solid foundation of Adam Fink (drums). The icy ether of songs like “Only Lonely” and “Post Traumatic Love” felt even more grounded by a human heartbeat in a live setting. In many ways, this is the secret alchemy of Actors. The songs resonate with a humanity at their core which explains the passion with which their fans have attached themselves to the band. This isn’t black leather, smoke, and artifice for the sake of being cool. There is a connection happening.
Set highlights included “We Don’t Have To Dance” (but we did) and set-closer “How Deep Is the Hole” which left the audience wanting so much more. Returning to stage, Corbett thanked everyone and invited the crowd to hang-out with them before walking straight to the bar and making time to meet everyone. There is an unguarded generosity of spirit with Actors that feels so damn refreshing in 2023. The same could be said for local support Close To Modern who played a set of post-punk songs as if their lives depended on it. Peter Hook would have raised a glass and toasted them from the bar had he snuck into the show. It was a night of amazing music that makes you forget exactly where you are, and even what year it might be. You just know that everyone in the small club is feeling the same energy as you and that Actors are the greatest band in the world at that very moment.
