American Football With Mei Semones

The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. May 23rd. American Football — the band whose self-titled album arrived in 1999 and spent fifteen years as the best record that nobody remembered buying and everyone remembered owning — playing the Wiltern with Mei Semones.

That album was the soundtrack of something for a specific generation, at a specific age, in a specific emotional register that doesn't have a name. The guitar tone is recognizable in three seconds. The songs feel like they were recorded in the middle of something that hadn't resolved yet, which is why they still sound exactly right for people who were in the middle of something when they heard them. Playing them live in Los Angeles, in a room of people who were all there at the same time — different cities, same feeling — is what the Wiltern does on nights like this.

Tickets at ticketmaster.com. May 23rd. The Wiltern is mid-size and the right size for this — not an arena, not a club, the specific scale where the music can be heard correctly and the room can hold the weight of it. Get your ticket before the floor closes.