What it was like
A Tuesday in July that will feel like something you planned for weeks. Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre sits on the SDSU campus with nothing above you but sky, and on July 15, Young the Giant and Cold War Kids bring a lineup that reads like the playlist you built in high school and never deleted.
Young the Giant has spent a decade making indie rock anthems that soundtrack the transition from who you were to who you are becoming — "Cough Syrup" still hits different at 30 than it did at 20, and that is the point. Their Victory Garden Tour brings new material alongside the catalog that raised a generation of alternative radio kids. Cold War Kids opens with that unmistakable piano-driven intensity — "First" and "Hang Me Up to Dry" live, outside, under open sky.
KennyHoopla rounds out the bill with a punk energy that bridges the gap between the headliners and whatever genre comes next. Gates open at 6:00 PM. The venue is cashless with a clear bag policy. San Diego's best open-air stage, three bands that grew up alongside their audience, and a summer night that smells like eucalyptus.