After joining Angels & Airwaves in late 2019, having his first run of touring with the band cancelled due to COVID, writing and recording their anticipated sixth album amid lockdown, and not being able to step foot onstage in nearly two years, Matt Rubano finally got to experience the euphoric sensation of performing again with a headlining set at Lollapalooza. “I’m not gonna lie, I got a little choked up just walking out there and hearing people cheering and seeing their faces light up again,” he says. “It was zero to 60 really fast, with not playing shows in a while, and then taking on a big festival with 80,000 people. But the feeling was unreal.” Touring wasn’t the only thing that impacted in his life due to the pandemic. The native Long Islander had made the move out west to Los Angeles not long before lockdown hit, which made immersing himself into the scene all the more difficult. “Luckily I have enough of a pre-existing community of friends out here, but be