Cold War Kids to Play The Regent

Sandra Miska

Cold War Kids, an indie rock group based in Long Beach, will be performing at The Regent Theater on Nov. 18. Having started in 2004 in downtown Fullerton, Cold War Kids’ original members Nathan Willett, Matt Maust and Matt Aveiro met regularly in Jonnie Russell’s apartment above a restaurant called Mulberry Street. Soon after the band relocated to Whittier, California and began recording their first demo, which Monarchy Music released as the EP, “Mulberry Street,” in spring 2005.  The following summer, Cold War Kids signed with Downtown Records and started working on debut album “Robbers & Cowards,” which was released in Oct. 2006.  After two years of touring all over the word, the band settle in Long Beach, now their current home.

Although the band had only been together since 2004, bassist Matt Maust recently told Spin that the idea for their band name was already bouncing around in his head as early as 1997. “I was traveling in Eastern Europe with my brother. There’s this big park in Budapest where they dumped all these statues that had been removed after Communism fell. So being in that environment just made the phrase ‘Cold War Kids’ pop into my head. I may have heard it before. I’m a cold war kid too, I was born in 1979. When I started playing music with the guys, they thought it would be a good name for the band too.”

Cold War Kids released fifth studio album “Hold My Home” on Oct. 21. The first song, “All This Could be Yours,” comes with a stylish video that features model Polina Barbasova roaming the streets of London at night. The title “Hold My Home” is appropriate for a band that has been all over the world and back.

Frontman Nathan Willet recently explained to Glide Magazine, “You’ve moved every year or two since you were 18. Home is no longer an actual place you return to. It’s ephemeral; it’s where you go in your memory to recall friends, your identity, your version of family. You can’t touch or hold on to it, but you can feel home anywhere.  But where are your roots now? Sometimes I wish that I could stop time and hold my home where the seasons never change.” Cold War Kids currently consists of Willet, Maust, and former Modest Mouse members Dann Gallucci and Joe Plummer, and Matthew Schwartz.

Cold War Kids will perform at The Regent Theater on Nov. 20.  A limited quantity of tickets are available for purchase here.