Editor’s Picks – Showbams

‘Sessanta’ reboots with V2.0 tour for Maynard James Keenan’s 61st birthday as Primus, Puscifer & A Perfect Circle visit Acrisure Arena

May 1, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

Sessanta: Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle //
Acrisure Arena – Thousand Palms, CA
April 24th, 2025 //

As someone whose music career spans almost 40 years now, Maynard James Keenan has become accustomed to being in the public eye.

The frontman for three successful rock bands — Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer — has sold millions of albums, toured the world and won Grammys, but with that has also come some controversy at times, whether it’s backlash online from Justin Bieber’s wife or a false claim of sexual assault via social media he had to debunk … once he turned his phone on.

The latest came less than two months ago after the inaugural “Tool in the Sand” event in the Dominican Republic to mark the band’s first-ever destination festival. Tool had promised “two unique sets” over the course of three days as Friday’s and Saturday’s headliner, but many fans left disappointed after booing the prog-rock titans for repeating several songs during their second performance.

The news certainly made the rounds all across the internet a day or two later, and a class-action lawsuit was filed against Keenan and his bandmates subsequently. While fans might feel like they have a right to be upset about four songs they had to hear twice and will try to argue they would not have gone had they known that, they don’t have much of a legal case to stand on from our vantage point.

But with Tool wrapping up their first-ever South American tour at the end of March, there was only three weeks’ worth of time for Keenan to focus on his other projects for the 2.0 version of the “Sessanta” tour that features Primus, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle performing every 3-4 songs in those increments for nearly three hours.

Hitting a few secondary U.S. markets on this run, Sessanta’s first stop for its 2025 reboot just happened to be within driving distance for us. Standing 120 miles east of Los Angeles off Interstate 10 in Thousand Palms, the 11,000-person Acrisure Arena opened in 2022 as the home of the Coachella Valley Firebirds that compete in the American Hockey League (AHL) as the NHL affiliate for the Seattle Kraken.

Like any modern establishment though, the multi-purpose indoor space proved to be a suitable setting for celebrating Keenan’s 61st birthday. This wasn’t our first time experiencing Sessanta after watching Keenan ring in the big 6-0 at the Hollywood Bowl a year prior when the other members of Tool made a surprise appearance to perform “Ænema” with Les Claypool of Primus joining them to provide backing vocals (read our show review here). I had also caught one of the two “Cinquanta” gigs in 2014 — with Failure on the bill instead of Primus — for MJK’s 50th at LA’s Greek Theatre and have always enjoyed the rotating format that back then had the drum risers on wheels to facilitate changeovers.

One of the big upgrades in stage production from Cinquanta to Sessanta has been having each band’s equipment — including three drum sets — set up at all times on the platform above and toward the back of the stage, and it’s made the transitions from one act to the other even more seamless than before. A Perfect Circle, much like we witnessed at the Bowl, went first and earned loud cheers from the crowd as they opened with “The Package” off 2003’s Thirteenth Step. Yet, it was hearing them play “Blue” for the first time since 2018 that served as an early highlight and had us replaying the chorus (“Call an optimist, she’s turning blue / Such a lovely color for you / Call an optimist, she’s turning blue / While I just sit and stare at you”) in our head the next day.

When it was time for Primus to take the reins, our eyes were focused squarely on new drummer John Hoffman. The alt-funk metal trio had held open auditions for the throne earlier this year following Tim Alexander’s sudden exit in October, ultimately going with the Louisiana native, and it quickly became clear as they powered through “Here Come the Bastards”, “Groundhog’s Day” and “Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread” for Act 1 that Claypool (lead vocals, bass, double bass) and Larry LaLonde (guitars, backing vocals) unquestionably made an excellent choice amidst some stiff competition i.e. Rory Dolan, Thomas Pridgen, Nikki Glaspie, Thomas Lang and more. Around the midway point, we were gifted the live debut of the trio’s new single “Little Lord Fentanyl” featuring Keenan while Carina Round of Puscifer lent her voice to the mix, too. Clocking in under four minutes long, it’s a slinky little ditty satirizing one of America’s biggest killers that showcases Hoffman’s chops and reminds us why Claypool remains in a league of his own. Primus, after all, have been at it for close to four decades if you can believe it and continue to regularly tour — they are back in LA this August as headliners with support from Ty Segall — but with The Desaturating Seven dropping in 2017 as their ninth and most recent LP, maybe new blood is what’s needed to get the creativity flowing again in the studio.

Speaking of Puscifer, the three-piece consisting of Keenan (vocals), Round (vocals, guitar, percussion, keyboards) and Mat Mitchell (guitar, bass, programming, keyboards, synthesizers, production) offered their own live debut in the form of “The Algorithm” that they released last year for the soundtrack to the “American Psycho” comic book, and seeing all three bands switch things up for Sessanta V2.0 justified our trek out to the desert. Keenan might not be changing up the setlist every night, but you can be sure he isn’t mailing it in. Even if his range isn’t what it used to be when he was in his 20’s with Tool, his tone still leaves an immediate impression. Throw in a bunch of the best rock ‘n’ roll musicians in the game to back him up, and you have a recipe for a very unique and fun concert experience.

What makes Sessanta unlike anything else are the collaborations that occur, and A Perfect Circle took advantage of the extra resources available by inviting Hoffman and Puscifer timekeeper Gunnar Olsen to assist on “The Doomed” while Primus employed a similar strategy for their 1995 single “Southbound Pachyderm” with Olsen as well as APC guitarist Billy Howerdel and drummer Josh Freese getting in on the action after Keenan and Mitchell sat in on “Pablo’s Hippos” from the collaborative Sessanta E.P.P.P.

It’s always difficult when you are only given one song — in this case, the last few minutes when all three bands join forces onstage for Puscifer’s “Grand Canyon” — to photograph and have to miss some of the music in order to do so. My younger self who grew up listening to and admiring Keenan’s work probably would have been jealous of an opportunity to capture a living legend in their element. I suppose after all these years covering live music a lot of the shock value has worn off, but when it’s one of your childhood heroes standing up there, that excitement inside never really goes away.

Setlist:
Act 1: A Perfect Circle
The Package (A Perfect Circle song)
Disillusioned (A Perfect Circle song)
Blue (A Perfect Circle song) (first time since 2018)

Primus
Here Come the Bastards (Primus song)
Groundhog’s Day (Primus song)
Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread (Primus song)

Puscifer
Man Overboard (Puscifer song)
Tiny Monsters (Puscifer song)
Indigo Children (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)

Act 2: Primus
Little Lord Fentanyl (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan) (and Carina Round; live debut)
Welcome to This World (Primus song) (>)
My Name Is Mud (Primus song)
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver (Primus song)

Puscifer
Flippant (Puscifer song)
No Angel (Puscifer song)
Bullet Train to Iowa (Puscifer song)
The Algorithm (Puscifer song) (live debut)

A Perfect Circle
The Contrarian (A Perfect Circle song) (with Carina Round)
The Doomed (A Perfect Circle song) (with John Hoffman) (and Gunnar Olsen; Hoffman on main drums, Freese and Olsen joined at the end; first time since 2018)
Weak and Powerless (A Perfect Circle song)
The Outsider (A Perfect Circle song)

Act 3: Puscifer
The Humbling River (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)
Polar Bear (Puscifer song) (first time since 2017)
The Remedy (Puscifer song)

A Perfect Circle
The Noose (A Perfect Circle song)
Kindred (A Perfect Circle song)
Judith (A Perfect Circle song)

Primus
Pablo’s Hippos (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan) (and Mat Mitchell)
Southbound Pachyderm (Primus song) (with Billy Howerdel) (and Josh Freese and Gunnar Olsen)

Primus, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer
Grand Canyon (Puscifer song)

Sessanta - Primus, Puscifer & A Perfect Circle

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: A Perfect Circle, Acrisure Arena, Failure, Hollywood Bowl, Justin Bieber, Les Claypool, Primus, Puscifer, SESSANTA, SESSANTA 2025, SESSANTA V2.0, Tool, Tool in the Sand, Ty Segall

The Prodigy channel the spirit of Keith Flint by bringing the ruckus to The Warfield for their first North American headline show since 2017

April 18, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

The Prodigy with Nitepunk //
The Warfield – San Francisco
April 13th, 2025 //

As someone who grew up in the 90’s and whose musical taste was shaped largely by the decade’s zeitgeist, my initial interest in electronic music dates back to the first time I ever heard The Prodigy.

The year was 1997 and the UK group’s seminal album The Fat of the Land had exploded into the mainstream, reaching No. 1 on the charts at home and in the states as music videos for hit singles “Breathe” and “Smack My Bitch Up” frequently played on MTV.

But there was something different about the raw, unapologetic sound crafted by producer, keyboardist, songwriter and founding member Liam Howlett that infiltrated the underground rave scene, eventually making The Prodigy one of the most successful electronic acts of all time with an estimated 25 million albums sold worldwide.

The Prodigy, for starters, were the only electronic act at the time to feature not just vocalists, but also dancers as full-time band members. In fact, it wasn’t until Howlett met dancers Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill during one of his early DJ gigs at a nightclub in Braintree that the project came to fruition — with the band’s name being conceived from the Moog Prodigy synthesizer that Howlett used to make some of the music he would originally share with them on a mix tape requested by Flint.

And unlike their fellow Big Beat peers in The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Fatboy Slim that all formed shortly after The Prodigy unveiled their debut EP What Evil Lurks in 1991, incorporating more traditional rock instrumentation in the form of guitars, keyboards and drums with other burgeoning art forms — turntablism, sampling and beatboxing for instance — that were gaining traction across the music industry was what separated them from the rest and continues to be an integral part of the sonic formula they have followed over the past 34 years.

For as long as I have been a fan of The Prodigy and lived in Los Angeles though, it always surprised me that I had never seen them perform live. Even in a city with no shortage of live music and entertainment options every night of the week, there haven’t been many opportunities to catch Howlett and company in the flesh with the band limiting its trips across the pond.

Then in 2019, those prospects suddenly looked much more bleak after Flint was found dead in his North End home at the age of 49. The Prodigy, having just released their seventh album No Tourists less than six months prior, were a couple of months away from touring the U.S. for the first time in a decade, and with the shows — none of them on the West Coast — immediately canceled, no one knew sadly if they would ever get back out there again.

So, when Goldenvoice announced The Prodigy would play a Coachella sideshow in between their two performances at the festival this year, I knew that might be my only chance to finally cross them off my bucket list. That meant driving almost 400 miles north to SF for their first North American headline date since 2017, but after snagging tickets to the first show at The Warfield that quickly sold out as well as a second performance they added subsequently for the previous night, it felt like the odds were stacking up in my favor.

When I arrived at the 102-year-old vaudeville theater before the doors had opened, there were already two lines of people going down Market St. in either direction. This was technically the add-on gig, and while there were tickets available for those who wanted to purchase a seat in the balcony section, the floor area downstairs had filled up by 8 p.m. when Nitepunk hit the decks to kick off the evening.

An hour later, and it’s fair to say the place was completely packed to the gills with the clock nearing 9 p.m. The roar of the crowd that greeted The Prodigy as they walked out provided us with a pretty good indication things were about to go off, and it didn’t take longer than a minute for such to transpire. The opening notes to “Breathe” sent the pit into an absolute frenzy that didn’t let up for the next 75 minutes as Howlett and Maxim (vocals, beatboxing) plus touring members Rob Holliday (guitars, bass) and Leo Crabtree (drums, percussion) powered through a setlist that covered most of the project’s catalog. We do wonder why no material from 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned made the cut by the end of the set, but the ensuing “Voodoo People” on 1994’s Music for the Jilted Generation was still a treat to hear live. Other highlights included a melody of older tracks — which began with “Climbatize” before transitioning to “Everybody in the Place” and “Warrior’s Dance” — along with a tribute to Flint during “Firestarter” that earned loud cheers from the audience at the outset.

Stadium anthems “Light Up the Sky” and “Invaders Must Die” offered visceral moments for everyone to sing along to when it came time for the chorus in each song, but the energy never waned regardless of the brief encore break that put a pause on the party. Returning with “Smack My Bitch Up” is one way to ensure that doesn’t happen and the final stretch that saw “Take Me to the Hospital”, “We Live Forever” and “Out of Space” was another, leaving us mostly out of breath when we exited the building.

Was it everything we could have asked for? Maybe if they had dropped “Diesel Power” we could say yes unequivocally, but knowing that the original date at The Warfield ended up being canceled the following night after Howlett spent the next day in the hospital on an IV drip, we feel fortunate to have gotten any taste of The Prodigy while they were here in California. Because with a record-breaking streak of seven straight No. 1 albums back home and new tunes currently being worked on, there remains hope among us “party people” it might not be too long before their return to the U.S. and you can bet we will be ready whenever and wherever that is.

Setlist:
Breathe
Voodoo People
Omen
Climbatize / Everybody in the Place / Warrior’s Dance
Beyond the Deathray
Firestarter
Light Up the Sky
Roadblox
Poison
No Good (Start the Dance)
Get Your Fight On
Invaders Must Die

Encore:
Smack My Bitch Up
Take Me to the Hospital
We Live Forever
Out of Space

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella 2025, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2025, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2025, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2025, Fatboy Slim, Keith Flint, Nitepunk, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, The Prodigy, The Warfield

Phantogram prove they are more than just headlining material at a sold-out Hollywood Palladium to wrap up their North American tour

March 7, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Phantogram with Sunday (1994), Ginger and the Peppers //
Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles
February 28th, 2025 //

Even prior to catching Phantogram open for Kings of Leon at the always-beautiful Santa Barbara Bowl last summer (see our photos from their performance here), we knew that it wouldn’t be long before the street-beat/psych-pop duo embarked on its own proper headlining tour.

After all, Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers, guitars, production) and Josh Carter (vocals, guitars, programming, synthesizers, drums, percussion, production) a week earlier had just announced that their fifth LP Memory of a Day would be dropping in less than two months after unleashing “All a Mystery” and “Happy Again” as its initial two offerings.

The 12-track album arrived in October, more than four years after 2020’s Ceremony came at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when things felt very uncertain around the world — and in many ways, they still feel quite similar with an unhinged, autocratic demagogue running the free world again.

Despite having five singles issued ahead of its release after working with three-time Grammy-winning producer Andrew Dawson and the Grammy-nominated BOOTS in the studio though, Ceremony didn’t receive the same sort of fanfare as 2014’s Voices and 2016’s Three that boast some of Phantogram’s biggest hits in their catalog. While the record’s timing with the coronavirus raging out of control could have played a huge role in how it was received, you can hear Barthel and Carter chartering a different path sonically from where they started 10 years earlier on their debut full length Eyelid Movies as well.

It could be one of several reasons why at times only two songs (“Pedestal” and “Glowing”) off Ceremony made it onto the setlist during their recent “Running Through Colors” tour that spanned 28 cities across North America before a third tune (“Let Me Down”) was added back for the final three dates, culminating on a Friday night at a sold-out Hollywood Palladium with LA dream-pop act Sunday (1994) and Brazilian rockers Ginger and the Peppers serving as support.

Either way, Barthel and Carter have moved on with the spotlight squarely on their latest material now. There are moments on Memory of a Day that sonically evoke the spirit of the New York group’s early discography as Carter’s scintillating synths and bombastic beats collide with Barthel’s breathy, vibrant vocals — a recipe for success that has ultimately propelled them to pack rooms as large as the 4,000-person Palladium to the gills for more than a decade (here’s our proof in case you don’t believe us).

The hard-hitting trip-hop of “Jealousy” strikes that tone right from the onset as Barthel comes out guns blazing, leaving nothing up to interpretation with a candid inner monologue that quickly has us nodding along to her confessions of “Burning on the inside / It’s cool, I’ll kill you with a smile / Congratulations / But really ‘fuck you’ in my mind” in the opening verse. You know, because haven’t we all had some of these thoughts before?

Barthel’s lyrics have always been accessible and often relatable, but with this show being livestreamed for a modest price, she made sure to bring her “A” game for an evening that you could have unofficially labeled as “Date Night in LA: Phantogram edition” based on the sheer number of couples in attendance. The reward would be not only getting to hear Phantogram dust off gems like “Don’t Move” on their 2011 EP Nightlife and employ a full spectrum of colors to light up the stage over the course of 90 minutes, but also dig into more than half of Memory of a Day. What was somewhat curious is that Barthel and Carter didn’t perform “Running Through Colors” at any point on the tour given the name they chose — and the same could be said for the title track being skipped — yet the band did make the capacity crowd “Come Alive” via a rousing applause before exiting stage left for its brief encore break.

Since reconnecting in 2007 after returning home to the Saratoga Springs area, Barthel and Carter have turned their childhood friendship into a creative partnership that has earned them appearances at major music festivals around the world as well as unique collaborations with household names such as Big Boi and Tom Morello, the latter of which we actually covered a few weeks ago at the House of Blues down in Anaheim (read our show review here). Amidst all of the fame and fortune however, it only seems natural that a cross-country move to LA would eventually be in the cards for Phantogram considering this city’s penchant for attracting creatives and its undying love for live music.

And as much as they have fit right into their adopted hometown, Barthel and Carter know how to save their best for last when they are onstage. It’s hard to believe almost 10 years have passed since “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” first entered our earholes, and in that span, the lead single on Three has not lost any of its staying power. In fact, we haven’t been able to stop replaying its catchy chorus in our head after being sandwiched in the middle of Phantogram’s three-song encore. That’s what any artist should hope for when it comes to telling their story, with the cream of the crop making music that can stand the test of time. Of course, only time will tell if Memory of a Day makes a lasting impression like most of their previous efforts have, and as Phantogram brought us back to the late aughts with “When I’m Small” tying a bow on the show and a six-week tour, we took a deep breath and remembered that the memory they have already left will live inside of us for more than a day but rather a lifetime.

PHANTOGRAM

Setlist:
Jealousy
Don’t Move
Fall in Love
Feedback Invisible
Pedestal
It Wasn’t Meant to Be
Mouthful of Diamonds
Run Run Blood
Attaway
You Are the Ocean
Answer
All a Mystery
Happy Again
Black Out Days
Let Me Down
Come Alive

Encore:
Glowing
You Don’t Get Me High Anymore
When I’m Small

SUNDAY (1994)

Setlist:
Blonde
Stained Glass Window
TV Car Chase
Mascara
Our Troubles
Blossom
Tired Boy

GINGER AND THE PEPPERS

Setlist:
Intro
Nails
Pinch
The Ocean
Alê solo
Stolen Crown
Neighborhood
Spirals of Time

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Andrew Dawson, Big Boi, BOOTS, Ginger and the Peppers, Hollywood Palladium, Kings of Leon, Phantogram, Santa Barbara Bowl, Sunday 1994, Tom Morello

First Times: Discovering what makes The Ventura Theater ‘majestic’ with DIIV closing their California tour in the wake of the Eaton Fire

February 28, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

DIIV with Kraus //
The Ventura Theater – Ventura, CA
February 24th, 2025 //

With the way the music industry has changed over the past two decades, it’s no secret that live music venues all around the world remain the lifeblood for most artists and musicians to survive in the ever-challenging streaming era.

Unfortunately the long-lasting economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to put many of these sacred spaces at risk, which is another reason, among others, why it’s essential to support live music when touring costs have spiked and so much of life is spent behind a screen now.

But for as many concerts as I attend due in large part to the “work” that ends up being published here on this website, it’s not very often I get to take in one at a music venue I have never been to before. Visiting different rooms — whether it’s a small club or large arena — has always been part of the fun that comes with going to shows and became even more of a personal interest when I took up writing about music.

More specifically, I have always been fascinated by historic theaters and growing up in an entertainment capital like Los Angeles certainly exposed me to a number of them — from Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA to the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. — as well as the plethora of other options spread out across the Southland.

More than 65 miles north of LA though, The Ventura Theater is one that has been on my radar for quite a while. As the only luxury theater built in Ventura County to fit the style of the great movie palaces from the 1920s, you won’t find architecture like this anymore at a modern music venue. Designed back when architects such as Lewis Arthur Smith were influenced by the Spanish Colonial Revival movement while they developed these establishments for a burgeoning motion-picture business, its triple-arched balcony that’s recessed and divided by double Corinthian columns provides a strong indication the building was constructed a long time ago.

How long ago you ask? Well, don’t let the rather unassuming façade below the marquee fool you. At first glance you might not think the 1,200-person theater could be celebrating its centennial birthday in 2028, but once you walk past the main foyer, you can immediately understand why it proclaims to be “the best venue between LA and San Francisco” even if the Santa Barbara Bowl would rightfully have something to say about that.

What makes The Majestic Ventura Theater, as its more commonly referred to, so special is what stands out right away: the Spanish Mission style art, gilt-laden walls, intricate lighting fixtures and of course the handmade sunburst chandelier that burns bright during intermissions and accentuates the auditorium’s lavish opulence. Meanwhile, the funky, wide-reaching murals of rainbows, flowers, music and sunshine as you head upstairs to the balcony section transport you to the 60’s when the counterculture started to gain momentum. As one of the defining structures in Ventura’s downtown district, it’s no surprise nearly 50 years have passed since the elegant theater was declared a landmark by the city before later being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Regardless of the fact that Ventura remains better known for its beaches and craft beer than any sort of live music scene at this point, there’s no question the Majestic has maintained a rich and vibrant history dedicated to showcasing all genres. And after almost 100 years, it continues to book shows throughout the calendar year featuring a wide variety of talent that don’t venture for the smaller Ventura Music Hall we checked out less than two months after officially opening its doors in 2022 to watch Royal Blood do their thing (read our show review here).

For us, it took an act that we just covered in June at one of LA’s most renowned theaters to convince us the moment had come for our initial trip to the Majestic. Seven months earlier DIIV made us feel hopeful at The Wiltern that there’s a future for indie rock (read our show review here), and something about The Ventura Theater’s tiered layout reminded us of the Art Deco beauty in Koreatown despite being finished three years prior. But sadly Zachary Cole Smith (lead vocals, guitar) and his sideways — one of which being the always animated, yet currently sedentary Andrew Bailey (guitar) due to a recent injury along with Colin Caulfield (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Ben Newman (drums) — have had more on their minds recently than solely music after the Eaton Fire destroyed Smith’s house in Altadena and a bunch of the band’s gear.

Somehow tragedy and trauma haven’t stopped the quartet from hitting the road this year in support of 2024’s Frog in Boiling Water however, with the Majestic serving as the fourth and final date of a brief California tour that began in Pomona where another shoegaze outfit captivated us last year thanks to their own brand of distorted guitars and dreamy vocals (read our First Times coverage here).

DIIV may lazily get lumped in with slowdive when you search online for popular shoegaze bands, but their performances have a distinct vibe and tone. On the surface, the crowd leans younger given that they have yet to reach the 15-year mark since Smith created the project as a solo endeavor, and on a deeper level, there’s a consistent stream of sociopolitical commentary that their UK counterparts have strayed away from. Because if you don’t come away with any sense of dystopian despair after seeing DIIV take the stage, then you weren’t paying close enough attention that night.

This also wasn’t the first time we have caught supporting act Kraus after witnessing their opening set at The Wiltern for Explosions in the Sky (read our show review here) and the trio led by Will Kraus (vocals, guitar) did their best to engage those of us who showed up by 8 p.m. with their noisy take on shoegaze. Had it not been a Monday, there might have been more than a few hundred people in attendance when the evening’s main act arrived onstage. In the grand scheme of things, none of that mattered for us. We were there to discover what exactly makes The Ventura Theater “majestic,” and by all accounts, we can say after this latest experience at one of Southern California’s most treasured and storied music venues that mission was accomplished.

Setlist:
In Amber
Like Before You Were Born
Brown Paper Bag
Under the Sun
Sometime
Soul-net
Frog in Boiling Water
Take Your Time
Taker
Everyone Out
Reflected
Somber the Drums
Between Tides
Blankenship
Acheron
Raining on Your Pillow

Encore:
Raining on Your Pillow
Horsehead
Doused

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Show Experience Tagged With: DIIV, Eaton Fire, Explosions in the Sky, Hollywood Pantages Theatre, Kraus, Pantages Theatre, Royal Blood, Royce Hall, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Majestic Ventura Theater, The Mayan, The Pantages, The Regent Theater, The Regent Theater DTLA, The Ventura Theater, The Wiltern, Ventura Music Hall

Rage Against the Machine might not ever tour or perform again, but the next best thing fans can witness live is a Tom Morello show

February 14, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Tom Morello + special guests with Seven Hours After Violet //
House of Blues – Anaheim, CA
February 6th, 2025 //

When I first started listening to Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut LP during the early 90’s, you couldn’t help but feel the energy and passion that was blasting out of those speakers in my bedroom.

Even if I hadn’t heard a lot of music by that point in my life, I could already tell it was like nothing anyone had ever experienced either. Their fusion of rap, metal, funk and punk as a vehicle for lead vocalist Zack de la Rocha’s politically charged lyrics was unlike anything that had come before it and blazed a trail for many imitators to follow sonically despite them not achieving the same kind of commercial success and worldwide appeal RATM received.

But the last album Rage released — of strictly cover songs mind you — is almost 25 years old, and the chances of the four-piece putting out new material is slim to none since they canceled the remainder of their European and North American tour dates in 2022 and 2023 after de la Rocha suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon onstage.

It wasn’t until drummer Brad Wilk issued a statement on Instagram at the beginning of last year that any hope for a reunion to continue ahead of the 2024 presidential election was lost, as he made it clear they “will not be touring or playing live again.”

I remember reading Wilk’s words shortly after they were posted and being bummed that the possibility of seeing one of my favorite acts in the flesh again was gone. With the COVID-19 pandemic canceling their 2020 headlining set at Coachella, there was still a belief among RATM fans they would be there after the Los Angeles Times reported in an exclusive interview with Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett as much. While that never materialized by the time most of the coronavirus restrictions across North America were being lifted and the renowned California festival’s 2022 lineup had finally been revealed, the LA group did get its “Public Service Announcement Tour” — with Run the Jewels signing on as support — off the ground a few months later before de la Rocha’s eventual injury on the tour’s second stop.

Rage, nevertheless, pressed on for 17 more shows with de la Rocha unable to walk and affixed to a chair that culminated in NYC over five nights at Madison Square Garden and stand as the LA outfit’s final performances currently.

“I hate cancelling shows,” de la Rocha wrote more than three months after his setback in Chicago. “I hate disappointing our fans. You have all waited so patiently to see us and that is never lost on me. I never take that for granted. For you I have the ultimate gratitude and respect.”

Tom Morello with special guests - Roman Morello

Roman Morello (middle) & Tom Morello (right)

These weren’t just any shows, however. After all, they marked RATM’s first in 11 years amid a full-length tour that hadn’t happened in twice as long. When you consider such, it’s hard to not regret missing them or think about how I should have traveled out of state to attend at least one considering an LA date was not listed when the tour was announced.

“If there ever was a band we need back, it’s Rage,” I have often said to myself.

RATM, sadly, have been a thing of the past well prior to their 2023 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but that hasn’t kept guitarist Tom Morello at the age of 60 from fighting the good fight and proving there’s always a place for protest music.

Our latest opportunity to join him in solidarity came on a wet winter evening at the House of Blues Anaheim, which I had not visited in more than a decade and was unaware of its newer digs since renovations were completed. From a political standpoint, it was slightly surprising to see Morello hit Orange County for one of two scheduled shows in the greater LA area. The long drive in rush-hour traffic didn’t keep us from reaching the 2,200-person music hall, though, where we found a packed crowd awaiting the 8 p.m. arrival of Seven Hours After Violet. Formed by System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian less than two years ago, the metalcore project delivers its songs hard and fast (no tracks on the quintet’s debut LP reach four minutes). It didn’t sound like anything that Morello would unleash subsequently, but the mostly male audience ate everything SHAV cooked up over their 45-minute opening set and probably would have come back for more if there wasn’t a main act to catch.

Morello was who we came to see of course, and as we anticipated, the setlist proved to be a mixture of his solo material, covers of RATM as well as other notable artists, and songs from The Nightwatchman project he started in 2003 as a way to express himself politically outside of his work with Audioslave.

Bursting onto the stage armed with a guitar and fist in the air, Morello and his son Roman immediately blew the roof off the house, diving right into their 2024 collaborative single entitled “Soldier in the Army of Love” and then transitioning to “One Last Dance” that they also unveiled last year with grandson for the superhero film “Venom: The Last Dance” starring Tom Hardy. Other surprise guests were Måneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi and The Struts lead vocalist Luke Spiller, each assisting separately on spirited renditions of MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” and AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” back to back.

Yet, it was a couple of RATM medleys that ultimately drew the loudest and most passionate response from the sold-out room. A tribute to Chris Cornell that played on the video screen during Audioslave’s “Like a Stone” served as a poignant moment to honor the late singer, although a Tom Morello concert wouldn’t be entirely complete without him paying respect to “the Boss,” too. I have always loved Rage’s version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen and seeing Morello take a crack at it instantly brought back fond memories. Did the decibel levels (and profanity) rise as much as they did for RATM’s “Killing in the Name” soon afterward? No, not quite. Did folks in LA get more surprise guests? Yes, they most certainly did with Slash and RZA both dropping by The Fonda Theatre a day later. It would be easy to presume, with that in mind, that we picked the wrong show of the two. We could live in more regret or feel gratitude seeing Morello do what his does best by uniting us through the power of music. And as we jumped to John Lennon’s “Power to the People” at Morello’s request down the homestretch, I knew this outing might not have lived up to that time I saw Rage rock The Forum in high school, but it sure is the next best thing we can witness now.

TOM MORELLO WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

Setlist:
Soldier in the Army of Love (with Roman Morello)
One Last Dance (with Roman Morello)
Testify / Take the Power Back / Freedom / Snakecharmer (Rage Against the Machine song)
GOSSIP (Måneskin cover) (with Luke Spiller on lead vocals and Thomas Raggi on guitar)
Lightning Over Mexico
One Man Revolution (Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman song)
Union Power
Hold the Line
Let’s Get the Party Started
Secretariat
Cato Stedman & Neptune Frost
Keep Going
House Gone Up in Flames (Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman song)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover)
Kick Out the Jams (MC5 cover) (with Thomas Raggi)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC cover) (with Luke Spiller on lead vocals and Shavo Odadjian on bass)
Bombtrack / Know Your Enemy / Bulls on Parade / Guerilla Radio / Sleep Now in the Fire / Bullet in the Head (Rage Against the Machine song)
Cochise / Like a Stone (Audioslave song)
The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine song) (with Roman Morello)
Power to the People (John Lennon cover)

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET

Setlist:
Gloom
Cry…
Paradise
Radiance
Abandon
Go!
Float
Alive
Sunrise

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: AC/DC, Audioslave, Bruce Springsteen, Coachella, Coachella 2020, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2020, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2020, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2020, Grandson, Guns N' Roses, House of Blues, House of Blues Anaheim, John Lennon, Kia Forum, Luke Spiller, Madison Square Garden, Måneskin, MC5, Rage Against the Machine, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Roman Morello, Run The Jewels, RZA, Seven Hours After Violet, Shavo Odadjian, Slash, System of a Down, The Fonda Theatre, The Forum, The Nightwatchman, The Struts, Thomas Raggi, Tom Morello, Woody Guthrie, Wu Tang Clan, Zack de la Rocha

The Bam Team’s 5 Favorite Shows, Albums & Songs of 2024

December 30, 2024 by The Bam Team 2 Comments

2024 was a BIG year for music. With a continued return to normalcy playing out following the first global pandemic in more than a century, the past 12 months produced plenty of great moments onstage and in the studio — from record-breaking world tours to surprise releases and everything in between.

Every year we get to do this we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do something that we love — witness live music. Yet, each one feels a little different than the last and this year certainly had its own unique collection of highlights. We saw Explosions in the Sky make a statement as one of post-rock’s most essential acts, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan ring in his 60th birthday on the “Sessanta” tour, My Morning Jacket back at The Fillmore for a four-night run of no repeats, DIIV assure us there’s still a future for indie rock and Dawes celebrate the holidays with a brand-new album and star-studded cast of special guests. We also covered our first shows at the state-of-the-art Fox Theater Pomona and legendary Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown much to our delight, with those sort of visceral experiences amounting to more than merely the music we heard there.

But with another year wrapping up and 2025 here very soon, it’s time for us to reveal our annual “Best of” lists as we have done since this blog started more than a decade ago (see our 2023 picks here). As we always say, we will be the first to confess we didn’t attend every show or spin every album that was issued in 2024, but looking in the rearview mirror can be nearly as fun and challenging as when we first started doing this yearly exercise.

So, without further ado, Showbams presents The Bam Team’s five favorite shows, albums and songs from 2024.

Listen to The Bam Team’s favorite songs of 2024:

Sting at BeachLife Festival // Photo by Josh Herwitt

Josh Herwitt // Los Angeles

Top 5 Shows of 2024
1. Pearl Jam at Kia Forum – Los Angeles, CA – May 21st-22nd
What a year it was for one of our all-time favorites acts. The release of Pearl Jam’s 12th studio album Dark Matter in April gave us more than a month to acquaint ourselves with their latest effort before we would see them blow the roof off a sold-out Kia Forum over two consecutive nights. By the end of the second, we were well-satiated thanks to Eddie Vedder and the Hall of Fame band delivering one tour debut after another while also seamlessly mixing in their new material. But the most poignant memory for us came on Night 1 when Vedder broke into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” at the end of “Daughter” with the crowd seemingly in the palm of his hand. Not only hearing the entire arena sing along to “We don’t need no education / We don’t need no thought control” but also seeing Vedder still command an audience like that at his age gave me chills — the good kind — down my spine that I don’t think I will never forget. All we can say is the power of live music felt very alive (no pun intended) and well in that moment.

2. My Morning Jacket at The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA – May 30th-31st
3. Queens of the Stone Age at Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA – May 24th
4. LCD Soundsystem at Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles, CA – November 8th
5. Sting at BeachLife Festival – Redondo Beach, CA – May 3rd

Honorable Mention: slowdive at Fox Theater Pomona – Pomona, CA – April 26th

Top 5 Albums of 2024
1. Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
It has been a long time since PJ uncorked a full length as strong from start to finish as their newest, but when I first heard its lead single that would also serve as the LP’s title track, I could sense something was different this time. Maybe it was Matt Cameron’s drums sitting front and center in the mix or Mike McCready’s electrifying, Hendrix-like guitar solo down the song’s final stretch. Except the more time I spent with Dark Matter, the more I loved not just the singles but all 11 songs. “Waiting For Stevie” has become an instant fan favorite in its relatively short time while others like “Scared of Fear”, Won’t Tell”, “Upper Hand” and “Setting Sun” have been the glue, giving depth to an album that sees Vedder and company not resting on their laurels after more than three decades together. Whether it was working with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt or the addition of former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer to the songwriting process, Dark Matter sees one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands in the business continuing to push itself creatively and that has carried over to the stage where Pearl Jam’s epic live shows remain full of raw energy and emotion (see above for more on that).

2. Kendrick Lamar – GNX
3. Jack White – No Name
4. The Smile – Wall of Eyes
5. The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Mei

Favorite Live Album of 2024: The War on Drugs – Live Drugs Again

Top 5 Songs of 2024
1. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
After a year in which the Dodgers finally won the World Series fair and square, this only seemed like the right choice for any self-respecting Angeleno like myself. “Not Like Us” compliments of Compton’s finest rapper would not just end up becoming a new anthem for my hometown of LA but the entire West Coast. As he goes down the “rabbit hole” with shrewd and clever wordplay, it’s clear why King Kendrick has sat atop hip-hop’s unofficial throne for a while now and has already cemented himself before the young age of 40 on its Mount Rushmore. What was released as a diss track in a series of them aimed at Drake has turned into so much more six months later, and the Mustard-produced gem continues to resonate for us no matter which side won the highly publicized feud. Because in our minds, it never was really close.

2. Pearl Jam – “Setting Sun”
3. LCD Soundsystem – “x-ray eyes”
4. Jack White – “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)”
5. The Smashing Pumpkins – “Edin”

Favorite Soundtrack of 2024: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers (Original Score)

Andrew Pohl // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2024
1. Idles with Protomartyr at Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland, CA – May 10th
My anticipation of seeing Idles for the second time was palpable as I made my way into the Fox. The first time I saw them was at The Fillmore a few years earlier, and it was easily one of the best shows I had EVER seen (and I have been to hundreds of concerts). Once again, they delivered a performance that was not only interactive, but also filled with heart, raw energy and the kind of joy you don’t always see from road dogs like them. Every note seemed to be played with total satisfaction, which you could see on every member’s face throughout the 25-song set.

2. Green Day with The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, The Linda Lindas at Oracle Park – San Francisco, CA – September 20th
3. Black Pumas at Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland, CA – February 8th
4. Home Front with Neighborhood Brats, Build Us Airplanes at Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA – December 14th
5. Rich Kids on LSD (RKL) at Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA – May 1st

Top 5 Albums of 2024
1. The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Meiwo
This is the Pumpkins album that I have been wanting to hear since Zeitgeist came out in 2007. Some critics have said in recent years that guitar-focused rock music is “dead” … well, the band’s 13th studio effort has a bone to pick with that sentiment. After several releases that have varied from “questionable” to “just OK,” founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin went back to the basics and laid down a proper LP that every SP fan knew they were capable of making. After all, I always love a good comeback story.

2. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
3. Alkaline Trio – Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs
4. NØ MAN – Glitter and Spit
5. The Jesus Lizard – Rack

Top 5 Songs of 2024
1. Yard Act – “Dream Job”
With how turbulent the world has been over the past few years, I have been finding myself gravitating toward music that’s a bit more upbeat musically — and this song is a certified infectious banger. Yard Act have this cool way of incorporating clever, oft-dark social commentary into what would otherwise be a tasty dance number, which is part of their charm and why they have blown up since forming in 2019. I kept coming back to this album during 2024, and this was definitely the track that kept my foot tapping.

2. Sammy Kay – “Love Song”
3. The Jukebox Romantics – “Packing Up My Knives”
4. Idles feat. LCD Soundsystem – “Dancer”
5. Jack White – “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)”

Rochelle Shipman // Los Angeles

Top 5 Shows of 2024
1. Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals at Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA – September 24th
Anderson .Paak pulled out all the stops for a performance of his seminal and (arguably) best album Malibu, bringing out every featured guest from BJ the Chicago Kid and ScHoolboy Q to Rapsody and Talib Kweli. As if that wasn’t enough, he got some help from the GOAT — Dr. Dre himself performing 2001 hits “The Next Episode” and “Still D.R.E.” — to jump start the second set and kept the surprises coming. Plus, the iconic Hollywood Bowl proved to be a stunning setting for the most ethereal evening.

2. Conor Oberst at Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA – March 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th
3. Something Corporate at Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles, CA – October 11th
4. Stars at The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – October 18th
5. Kate Nash at Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA – November 2nd

Top 5 Albums of 2024
1. Kendrick Lamar – GNX
For an album that dropped six weeks prior to the end of the year, GNX has been embedded in the fabric of K-Dot fans since Q2. Artfully teasing snippets like lead single “Squabble Up” months before its official release, Kendrick effortlessly reminded the world why “King” fits so naturally into some of his nicknames. Not that he needs any more, but blessing us with a surprise LP full of fiery tracks that keep breaking and setting new records gives him one more lick of proof that no one else is in his lane.

2. Little Simz – Drop 7
3. Yaya Bey – Ten Fold
4. Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
5. Channel Tres – Head Rush

Top 5 Songs of 2024
1. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
It feels disingenuous to pick any other song but “Not Like Us” in 2024. Kendrick’s meticulous takedown of Drake was the perfect evil antidote to an industry choking on espresso. “Not Like Us” was the golden middle finger with Lamar penning an impeccable balance between professor and troll, destroying Drake in a way that only a Pulitzer Prize winner could.

2. Little Simz – “Torch”
3. Desert Mambas – “Hot George Costanza”
4. Yaya Bey – “slow dancing in the kitchen”
5. Megan Thee Stallion – “Hiss”

Filed Under: Best of, Best of 2024, Editor's Picks, Featured Tagged With: Alkaline Trio, Anderson .Paak, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, BeachLife Festival, BeachLife Festival 2024, BJ the Chicago Kid, Black Pumas, Bottom of the Hill, Build Us Airplanes, Channel Tres, Conor Oberst, Desert Mambas, DJ Mustard, Doechii, Dr. Dre, Drake, Fox Theater Oakland, Green Day, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Palladium, Home Front, IDLES, Jack White, Kate Nash, Kendrick Lamar, Kia Forum, LCD Soundsystem, Little Simz, Megan Thee Stallion, Mustard, My Morning Jacket, NØ MAN, Neighborhood Brats, Oracle Park, Pearl Jam, Protomartyr, Queens of the Stone Age, Rancid, Rapsody, Rich Kids on LSD (RKL), Sammy Kay, Santa Barbara Bowl, Schoolboy Q, Something Corporate, Stars, Sting, Talib Kweli, Teragram Ballroom, The Cure, The Fillmore, The Fonda Theatre, The Jesus Lizard, The Jukebox Romantics, The Linda Lindas, The Police, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smile, The Teragram Ballroom, Yard Act, Yaya Bey

On tour for their new album, Dawes celebrate ‘Christmas in LA’ with Eric Krasno, John C. Reilly, Mike Campbell & more at The Bellwether

December 13, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Christmas in LA: Dawes & Friends //
The Bellwether – Los Angeles
December 7th, 2024 //

When it comes to musicians and LA, it’s hard not to think of them like any 7-Eleven or Starbucks that you come across here — you can’t go very far before running into one. From amateur players all the way up to global superstars, so many have called California’s largest city home no matter where they have come from or how many miles it took them to reach Tinseltown.

But for as many as there are now and have been over the years, not nearly the same number are born and raised in LA. One of the world’s major entertainment capitals has always been a transient town for artists and creative types, and the proliferation of music makers who have moved to the City of Angels from other major U.S. markets in the past two decades has been particularly noticeable.

So when a homegrown talent comes along and climbs the ladder to book bigger venues, there’s always something special about watching a native Angeleno thrive in one of the most competitive music scenes you will find anywhere around (and with no signs of that changing soon).

Taylor Goldsmith is certainly one of them. Growing up in Southern California and attending Malibu High School, he was exposed to music during his earliest years. His father Lenny Goldsmith was a longtime singer-songwriter whose fascination with James Brown and soul music inspired him to perform at local clubs throughout the Bay Area and eventually tour with Oakland R&B and funk band Tower of Power in the 80’s as its lead singer. And although Lenny has recently retired from the stage after leading Malibu’s 12-piece New Old Band for more than a decade, his sons Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith have followed in his footsteps admirably.

John C. Reilly

The elder Taylor began his music career in high school, where he met guitarist/producer Blake Mills and formed the post-punk outfit Simon Dawes that drew from each of their middle names. Over the next five years they would play with a number of bassists and drummers, including Taylor’s brother Griffin, before breaking up in 2007 when Mills left the band and joined Jenny Lewis on tour. While Mills ended up also going on the road with Band of Horses, Cass McCombs, Julian Casablancas and Lucinda Williams prior to settling in as a session musician and producer who worked on projects like My Morning Jacket leader Jim James’ second solo album Eternally Even in 2016 and John Legend’s sixth Darkness and Light that same year, Goldsmith teamed up with former Simon Dawes bassist Wylie Gelber and once again Griffin on drums in his new project he was calling Dawes. This time, though, he would go in a different direction sonically, one that embraced the Americana and folk-rock sensibilities of the Laurel Canyon sound that legendary acts like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, and The Mamas & the Papas popularized in the late 60’s and other icons such as Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles helped usher through the 70’s.

For Dawes, the association with LA’s celebrated Laurel Canyon isn’t just some contrived or pretentious PR strategy to turn consumers onto their product. It all started when Grammy-nominated producer and Father John Misty collaborator Jonathan Wilson invited the band to jam with a crew that included Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Those informal sessions are what ultimately influenced and informed Dawes’ debut LP North Hills, which Wilson produced and recorded live directly to analog tape in … yeah, you guessed it: Laurel Canyon.

Yet, that was more than 15 years ago now and a lot has happened in the studio for Dawes since then. Putting out an album at a prolific rate of every two years (or less), their ninth and most recent effort Oh Brother dropped in October ahead of another headlining gig at The Bellwether for the group’s second annual “Christmas in LA” date. And like the inaugural event that saw Sam Nelson of X Ambassadors, Matt Koma of Winnetka Bowling League and Taylor’s own wife Mandy Moore, among others, take the stage in addition to a brief Simon Dawes reunion with Mills, it was a night filled with special guests as advertised when it was announced.

That said, a new year meant a new supporting cast for Dawes and as we found out over the course of two hours, there would be only one repeat appearance from 2023. The evening’s format had changed as well, with Dawes digging into some of their latest material at the onset and adding a new wrinkle to songs such as “Didn’t Fix Me” from 2020’s Good Luck with Whatever with Radiohead’s “High & Dry” as its intro. Montana alt-country artist Jonny Fritz, whom some might remember as Jonny Corndawg, was the first “friend” to arrive onstage, followed by Eric Krasno, who captivated the audience’s attention with his soulful singing and playful guitar work. This wasn’t the first time we had seen “Kras” in the flesh after many Soulive and Lettuce shows, but it had been a while and the three-time Grammy winner treated us to a sweet cover of Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree” (watch below and h/t to Jen Cox for the footage) that came sandwiched between two Dawes cuts, including the tour debut of “If You Let Me Be Your Anchor”.

Christmas in LA 2024 - Dawes & Friends - Taylor Goldsmith & Mike Campbell

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes (left) & Mike Campbell (right)

You know that one special guest we mentioned who was back this year? That would be Koma, who joined both Goldsmith brothers for a stripped-down, acoustic version of their new collaborative single “This Is Life” featuring Medium Build and Dawes that has already amassed almost 1.4 million Spotify listens since being released in June.

Of course, those weren’t the only tricks Dawes had up their sleeves and they made sure to save the biggest ones for last. It wasn’t a surprise that actor John C. Reilly would be in the building — we just weren’t sure how exactly he would be involved. The loud applause he immediately received when he walked out dressed in all white made him feel welcome nevertheless, as he dusted off his 2007 single entitled “(For Christmas) The People Want Cox” in a tribute to his leading role as Dewey Cox for “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and then duetted with Taylor on a cover of Gilbert Bécaud’s “Let It Be Me” that became a Top 10 hit in the states for The Everly Brothers.

When it came time to dial the energy back up a notch, it was Theo Katzman’s turn to bring the heat and the Vulfpeck guitarist proved to be all smiles in uncorking a searing solo on the Dawes single “Roll with the Punches” from 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die and subsequently showcasing his golden pipes during “Plain Jane Heroin” off his 2017 solo release Heartbreak Hits.

Some folks might be disappointed to learn that Dawes’ unequivocally most popular tune “When My Time Comes” wasn’t played like it was at The Fillmore in San Francisco and Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. What we got instead was something no other fans on this tour will get to witness, and I’m not just talking about all of the aforementioned special guests. Because it’s not every day that you get to watch the guy who co-wrote many of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ greatest contributions to music plug in and rock out. When the crowd heard Mike Campbell deliver the opening chords to “You Wreck Me” however, most of us, if not everyone in that room, knew what we were about to get. Or at least we thought we did until Campbell took over midway through and brought Taylor in for a call-and-response section that had their guitars squealing by the time they had reached the summit. It was those gripping moments — whether they were with Krasno, Katzman or Campbell — that made this particular concertgoing experience feel unique, and as Dawes wrapped with the title track from 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands while a smaller collection of special guests from earlier in the night assisted, you remember that you never quite know what’s going to happen when you see live music in LA. That’s the absolute beauty of it.

Setlist:
Front Row Seat
If I Wanted Someone
Didn’t Fix Me (with Radiohead’s “High & Dry” as intro)
Mister Los Angeles
From a Window Seat
House Parties
Trash Day (Jonny Fritz cover) (with Jonny Fritz)
Middle Brother (Middle Brother cover) (with Jonny Fritz)
Raise the Dead
Somewhere Along the Way (with Eric Krasno)
Sugaree (Jerry Garcia cover) (with Eric Krasno)
If You Let Me Be Your Anchor (tour debut) (with Eric Krasno)
Christmas Tree in the Window (live debut)
This Is Life (Winnetka Bowling League cover) (with Matthew Koma)
(For Christmas) The People Want Cox (John C. Reilly cover) (with John C. Reilly)
Let It Be Me (Gilbert Bécaud cover) (with John C. Reilly)
Roll with the Punches (with Theo Katzman)
Plain Jane Heroin (Theo Katzman cover) (with Theo Katzman)
You Wreck Me (Tom Petty cover) (with Mike Campbell)
All Your Favorite Bands

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Band of Horses, Belly Up, Belly Up Tavern, Benmont Tench, Blake Mills, Bright Eyes, Buffalo Springfield, Cass McCombs, Chris Robinson, Conor Oberst, Crosby, Crosby Stills & Nash, Dawes, Dawes & Friends, Dawes & Friends: Christmas in LA, Eric Krasno, Father John Misty, Gilbert Bécaud, grateful dead, Jackson Browne, James Brown, Jenny Lewis, Jerry Garcia, Jim James, John C. Reilly, John Legend, Jonathan Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Jonny Corndawg, Jonny Fritz, Julian Casablancas, Laurel Canyon, Lettuce, Linda Ronstadt, Lucinda Williams, Mandy Moore, Matthew Koma, Medium Build, Middle Brother, Mike Campbell, My Morning Jacket, New Old Band, Radiohead, Simon Dawes, Soulive, Stills and Nash, The Bellwether, The Black Crowes, The Byrds, The Eagles, The Everly Brothers, The Fillmore, The Mamas & the Papas, Theo Katzman, Tom Petty, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Tower of Power, Vulfpeck, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Winnetka Bowling League, X Ambassadors

After forming last year, Better Lovers bring the fire to The Regent Theater & prove why they’re one of today’s hottest hardcore acts

December 6, 2024 by Zach Bourque Leave a Comment

By Zach Bourque //

Better Lovers with Full of Hell, SPY, Cloakroom //
The Regent Theater – Los Angeles
December 1st, 2024 //

A post-Thanksgiving concert slot on a Sunday is enough to give most bands the willies. How do you get a group of people moving who have spent the last three days gorging themselves on carbs and Coors?

Just ask Better Lovers.

The supergroup made up by Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Jordan Buckley, Clayton “Goose” Holyoak and Mitch Micciche of newly defunct Every Time I Die, and producer/guitarist Will Putney of End fame brought the heat — literally — to The Regent Theater in downtown LA with an explosive performance that left the crowd’s collective jaw on the floor.

The sluggish and bloated energy was most evident once Bay Area’s hardcore heroes SPY had taken the stage, powering through a riotous set without skipping a beat. But despite repeated attempts by the band, people just weren’t giving it a whole lot to work with. At the very least, the eardrums of everyone who was in attendance were getting primed for the pummeling to come for the rest of the night.

Full of Hell

Full of Hell have always been a bit of an outlier but opening for the motley crew that’s Better Lovers proved to be an unexpected treat with a set nothing short of monstrous. These guys are just a wall of noise in the best possible way, with Dylan Walker’s mixed-down vocals letting the rest of the group’s instrumentation cut through. Their variety of instrumentation, which includes electronic elements from Walker, proved to be the special sauce that elevated the set. Even with an equally tepid crowd, Full of Hell certainly got people’s attention before it was time for Better Lovers.

If you’re going to name your debut album Highly Irresponsible, you better have the balls to back it up onstage. Needless to say, when your vocalist is blowing fireballs by the end of the evening, you have officially earned the moniker. From the second the band jumped into the opening riffs of “Lie Between the Lines”, the crowd’s previously dormant energy was nowhere to be found. Buckley’s powerful and creative guitar work always set Every Time I Die apart from the rest of the pack, and ever since Better Lovers formed last year he has turned everything up to 11. When you factor in a god-tier guitarist like Putney however, the result is truly something special. And with a frontman as maniacally talented as Puciato, you’ve got lightning in a bottle.

Better Lovers

Puciato’s energy has always been the stuff of legends, and he was in full force at The Regent. What’s even more impressive is the vocal range he brings, though. From grunge-inspired singing that would make the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains blush to his trademark screams, he’s a one-of-a-kind talent and Better Lovers couldn’t have found a better person for the job. While the five-piece played most of an admittedly limited discography (for now), it also dipped into a fun cover of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage” off 1991’s Badmotorfinger that really highlighted Puciato’s vocal range.

Then came the fire. We had seen Puciato pull this stunt before at Furnace Fest a couple months ago, but to see flamethrower-rivaling plumes of fire as the backdrop to Better Lovers’ stunning debut single “30 Under 13” was a memory I don’t think anyone will soon forget.

That said, there isn’t a band out there that does it like Better Lovers and by that alone we can’t wait to see what comes next for them.

Setlist:
Lie Between the Lines
Sacrificial Participant
Your Misplaced Self
Become So Small
Superman Died Paralyzed
A White Horse Covered in Blood
Drowning in a Burning World
The Flowering
Two Alive Amongst the Dead
Future Myopia
At All Times
God Made Me an Animal
Love as an Act of Rebellion
Rusty Cage (Soundgarden cover)
30 Under 13

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Alice in Chains, Better Lovers, Cloakroom, End, Every Time I Die, Full of Hell, Furnace Fest, Soundgarden, Spinal Tap, SPY, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Regent Theater

Manchester Orchestra & Thrice duke it out at Hollywood Palladium on their co-headlining tour

November 18, 2024 by Zach Bourque 1 Comment

Manchester Orchestra

By Zach Bourque //

Manchester Orchestra & Thrice //
Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles
November 13th, 2024 //

When your tour poster teases a boxing match between two seasoned bands worthy of headlining their own show in LA, the pressure is on. In one corner of the “ring” stood Southern California post-hardcore heavyweights Thrice. In the other, Atlanta’s uniquely eccentric indie rockers Manchester Orchestra. An evening of “noise and fury” was what the aforementioned promotion promised us, except the end result was anything but — for better or worse.

Thrice have taken an interesting trajectory since their formation in the late 90’s. Starting off with a fairly aggressive, post-hardcore approach early in their career, they’ve grown into a much more mature and complex sound over the years (fans have mixed opinions about this). However, performing their 2009 LP Beggars in its entirety was a unique proposition that ultimately left a lot of the crowd feeling rather underwhelmed. While we can say that the critically acclaimed album is objectively great, it’s certainly light on energy and you could tell those who showed up at the Hollywood Palladium last Wednesday were waiting for Dustin Kensrue (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion), Teppei Teranishi (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Eddie Breckenridge (bass, synthesizer, backing vocals, guitars) and Riley Breckenridge (drums, percussion) to dig a bit deeper into its arsenal. Unfortunately this never occurred, as the ensuing songs were mostly deep cuts besides “Black Honey”, which surprisingly seems to have garnered quite a liking with more than 75 million listens on Spotify.

Thrice

With each co-headliner duking it out, there had to be a winner before it was all over and that winner came in the form of Manchester Orchestra undoubtedly knocking Thrice out. Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its seminal album COPE, the five-piece — consisting of Andy Hull (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano), Robert McDowell (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Tim Very (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Andy Prince (bass) and touring member Brooks Tipton (piano, keyboards) — sounded triumphant as ever with Hull’s inimitable voice bellowing throughout the venue. There is simply no other act that sounds like Manchester Orchestra and you could sense the energy in the room as they took the stage. Described by one person in attendance as “emo Mumford & Sons” and in largely living up to that billing, Hull and company sailed through a lengthy, career-spanning set that made Thrice fans wish they had gotten the same.

Of course, had Thrice mixed it up a touch more and strayed further from their tepid indie rock, things might have been different in the end. But after going toe to toe for one night in the City of Angels, the winner by TKO was Manchester Orchestra.

MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA

Setlist:
Top Notch
Choose You
Girl Harbor
The Mansion
The Ocean
Every Stone
All That I Really Wanted (Acoustic)
Trees
Indentions
See It Again (with “I Can Feel Your Pain” intro)
Cope
After the Scripture
The Maze
The Gold
Bed Head

THRICE

Setlist:
All the World Is Mad
The Weight
Circles
Doublespeak
In Exile
At the Last
Wood and Wire
Talking Through Glass / We Move Like Swing Sets
The Great Exchange
Beggars

Red Telephone
Black Honey
Robot Soft Exorcism
Beyond the Pines

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: Hollywood Palladium, Manchester Orchestra, Mumford & Sons, Mumford and Sons, Thrice

First Times: Covering a show at Pappy and Harriet’s as Death from Above 1979 celebrate 20 years of ‘You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine’

October 18, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Death from Above 1979 //
Pappy and Harriet’s – Pioneertown, CA
October 11th, 2024 //

It’s easy to be spoiled by all of the opportunities to experience live music when you grow up in a city like Los Angeles. So much so, in fact, that it can often be difficult to find a good reason to venture outside of LA County for a show or festival.

Even though one of the world’s major entertainment capitals can provide endless options for fans from January to December, there’s something special about escaping the hustle and bustle of my hometown once in a while to catch a concert out in the wild.

Over the years Southern California’s Hi-Desert region has become one of those places for me that has served as a rather quick and easy getaway. Of course, sharing the same first name as the one-of-a-kind Yucca brevifolia — more commonly known as the Joshua tree — that dominates much of the landscape throughout the region might seem like the obvious reason for yours truly, but it’s no secret that interest in the area has skyrocketed globally since the invention of social media. Just look at how much an average Airbnb rental in Yucca Valley costs these days if you don’t believe me.

But ever since that first backpacking trip during my freshman year of high school, I have always held a deep connection to Joshua Tree National Park. The otherworldly feel of its rock formations and unique vegetation set against the backdrop of a stunning desert sunset is unmatched and something you can’t find anywhere else on the planet. The park, however, is only one of the Hi-Desert’s multiple attractions these days. Whether it’s a visit to The Integratron for a sound bath, Noah Purifoy’s outdoor museum or the seven-story Giant Rock that’s the largest freestanding boulder in North America and purportedly on Earth, there’s plenty to see and even more to do than one might think.

Pioneertown

What we would be remiss to not have on that to-do list is a trip to Pioneertown where actor Dick Curtis built things from the ground up in 1946. Constructing a movie set for Westerns like “The Cisco Kid” and early TV shows, it would also become a regular filming location for the late Gene Autry until 1955. Both commercial production and photography are still allowed although only by permit, but many locals and visitors who turn onto Pioneertown Road from California State Route 62 and make the four-mile drive have one destination in mind: Pappy and Harriet’s.

The honky-tonk, California-style barbecue restaurant (think trip-tip sandwiches, ribs, burgers and more) where a cantina set was originally conceived during the town’s inception was ranked several years ago as one of the 100 greatest American music venues, ahead of other legendary rooms such as Radio City Music Hall and the Troubadour. Initially it was purchased in 1972 by Francis Aleba and became a biker bar serving Mexican fare that was named The Cantina before closing after a decade. In fact, it was not until Aleba’s daughter Harriet secured ownership of the building with her husband Claude “Pappy” Allen about 10 years later that Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace as we know it today was officially born. While it continued to be a favorite watering hole for two-wheel riders with a menu featuring family-size Tex-Mex cuisine, it did not take long for fans of live music to also fall in love with different acts gracing their stage every week. It’s why top-notch artists and bands across the spectrum — Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age, Lorde, Robert Plant, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Eagles of Death Metal, Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear, Rufus Wainwright and Alvvays to name a few — have shown up there to perform no matter how many times Pappy’s, as it’s commonly referred to now, has changed hands and who is currently running operations. That trend hasn’t slowed down either, with Phoenix, Slipknot, Modest Mouse, Patti Smith, Coheed and Cambria, Belle & Sebastian, Built to Spill, Orville Peck, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Pete Yorn, Wynona Judd, Violent Femmes, Sylvan Esso and more all dropping by over the past few years and earning the roadhouse stop a spot on the Los Angeles Times list for the 101 best California experiences in 2022.

After making visits on my own for food and drinks but having never previously taken in a concert, I can understand the appeal and how Pappy’s has turned into a well-oiled machine after more than 40 years. There’s something to be said about feeling like you have teleported back in time, and you get that sense as soon as you drive past the Pioneertown sign, pull into Pappy’s dusty parking lot and take in the smell of smoked meat. But it’s more than just aesthetics that creates the old-timey vibes at Pappy’s. On some days — usually weekends — you can find more than one show booked, and when that happens, it can certainly create for an interesting scene as fan bases collide outside at the bar and merch stand. And if one performance runs behind schedule, you can be assured that any ensuing events won’t be starting on time either. If you ever went to see a friend’s band play a local bar in high school or college, Pappy’s is not removed much from that sort of situation besides its saloon-like setting.

In addition to its diminutive indoor stage with a 350-person maximum, Pappy’s has expanded to include an outdoor stage that can host bigger names and accommodate as many as 850 folks when it’s not too cold at night. Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure that my first show was inside those wooden doors to get the true Pappy’s experience.

Death from Above 1979

So when a band I have followed for more than a dozen years announced that it would be playing a gig inside Pappy’s to make up for the 2024 edition of Desert Daze being canceled, I finally felt moved to hit the open road and travel 140 miles east regardless of the small investment in time and resources that I knew came with my decision.

After all, this was not any performance. The first time I ever saw Death from Above 1979 in the flesh was not that far from Pappy’s. At the time, the dance-punk duo from Toronto was reuniting on the main stage at Coachella more than five years after breaking up despite the positive reception its debut LP You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine received in 2004. Jesse F. Keeler (bass, synthesizer, keyboards, backing vocals) and Sebastien Grainger (drums, vocals) have gone on to release three more full lengths since then, but this year has been dedicated to celebrating the album that gave them the chance to tour with Nine Inch Nails and QOTSA back then.

Based on the way things were unfolding at Pappy’s that evening with the preceding show not starting on time, the special midnight performance DFA 1979 booked had turned into more like a 1 a.m. set when it was all said and done, leaving me and others to wait in line and among a sold-out crowd for close to two hours. Of course, with the state’s 2 a.m. curfew in effect, the last performer of the night is always the one that pays the price — or at least its fans do — and in this case, there proved to be only enough time left on the game clock for Keeler and Grainger to run through You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine from start to finish before wrapping with a two-song encore consisting of lead single “Freeze Me” on 2017’s Outrage! Is Now and “Dead Womb” off the 2002 EP Heads Up that marked the group’s very first studio release. We might have been packed in there like sardines, but I did my best to take it all in while holding onto the rail in front of the stage for dear life — as well as my camera equipment — and trying not to stare into the red eyes of that patriotically bizarre, three-headed horse mural on the back wall.

Was it disappointing that we only got about an hour of raw, impassioned punk rock? Sure, we can’t say we would have minded hearing material from 2014’s The Physical World and the Canadian outfit’s most recent effort Is 4 Lovers that dropped more than three years ago at this point. But there’s no doubt going to a show at Pappy’s is not like any other concert experience you have had before. You don’t have to put on a pair of cowboy boots and/or Stetson hat to feel like you belong either, though it wouldn’t be frowned upon if that’s your thing. Anyone and everyone are welcome, and the same ethos has seemingly applied in showcasing all styles of music there. At one moment you might be listening to indie folk, and the next, you’re headbanging to some heavy metal — that’s what really makes Pappy’s so fun and cool. Because while it might not be a hidden gem in the desert anymore after previously hosting Coachella sideshows from Future Islands to Glass Animals, you won’t find anything quite like it to this day.

Setlist:
Turn It Out
Romantic Rights
Going Steady
Go Home, Get Down
Blood on Our Hands
Black History Month
Little Girl
Cold War
You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
Pull Out
Sexy Results

Encore:
Freeze Me
Dead Womb

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Live Music Reviews, Show Experience Tagged With: Arctic Monkeys, Band of Horses, Belle & Sebastian, Built To Spill, Coachella, Coachella 2011, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2011, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2011, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2011, Coheed and Cambria, Death from Above 1979, Eagles of Death Metal, Future Islands, Gene Autry, Glass Animals, Grizzly Bear, Lorde, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Modest Mouse, Nine Inch Nails, Orville Peck, Pappy & Harriet's, Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, Pappy and Harriet's, Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, Patti Smith, Paul McCartney, Pete Yorn, Phoenix, Queens of the Stone Age, Radio City Music Hall, Robert Plant, Slipknot, Sylvan Esso, The Integratron, Troubadour, Vampire Weekend, Violent Femmes, Wynona Judd

Portola Music Festival 2024: Our awards & highlights coming off a Bay Area three-peat for Goldenvoice

October 4, 2024 by Molly Kish 1 Comment

Soulwax

Photos by Chris Kocher // Written by Molly Kish //

Portola Music Festival //
Pier 80 – San Francisco
September 28th-29th, 2024 //

Closing out the last weekend of September and kicking off another Indian summer in the Bay Area, Portola returned to Pier 80 for a third installment and drew its largest crowd to date. With tickets quickly selling out in record time, it seemed like someone finally let the raccoons out of the bag. Goldenvoice’s marketing team, per usual, leaned into a hilariously unhinged campaign, and this year’s lineup of night shows dwarfed previous years in talent and quantity. It almost felt like Portola elevated its identity into a brand with a third installment of their “Racoon Social” afters occurring a month later at The Midway.

This year’s roster stayed true to form and highlighted talent from all over the world and electronic music spectrum. Heavy hitting legacy acts headlined outdoor stages both nights, allowing the crowd to enjoy the perfect weather and lose themselves in nostalgia-filled dance parties under the giant, crane-lifted disco ball. As one of the premiere dates of their new stage design, Justice dominated as the best and most heavily anticipated headline set of the weekend. The French duo satiated longtime fans with a set of throwback hits that breathed new life into their past material and mixed seamlessly with tracks from their fourth LP Hyperdrama that dropped in April thanks, in part, to their incredible new A/V production. Other closers worth mentioning were the “Dark Prince” aka Gesaffelstein at the Crane Stage on Day 1 and FISHER’s absolute takeover of the pier’s eastern half on Day 2, plus let’s not forget both Four Tet and Sara Landry blowing out the Warehouse each night.

There was a refreshing amount of performances with live instrumentation this year, expanding upon the ideas and notions of what the electronic genre encompasses. Between Peaches — aka the “Teaches of Peaches” — commandeering the stage, Soulwax’s insane multi-drummer live spectacle, Tycho’s return to form with a full band and Mount Kimbie covering Stereolab, the sounds we heard for two days leaned more noticeably in the direction of alternative dance. Barry Can’t Swim, more specifically, performed his live show for only the third time ever in the states with an ecstatic crowd on hand, leading directly into an electrifying sunset set by Disclosure with a full horn section. RÜFÜS DU SOL closed out the Pier Stage on the fest’s first day to a huge audience that got a sneak peak at the Australian three-piece’s new stage design before its upcoming world tour was announced.

ortola Music Festival 2024 - Tycho (Zac Brown)

Tycho’s Zac Brown

The Camp was also ramped up a little more, although the bill wasn’t as queer-focused as the previous two. horsegiirL performed to an equestrian-themed Ship Tent and crossed over as the first interspecies DJ to play Portola. Meanwhile, meme-turned “super serious, underground, exclusive tastemaker, gay, EDM, culture, Bushwick raver,” Rebecca Black debuted as an experimental vocalist/DJ on Sunday and Natasha Bedingfield pulled a surprising amount of hyped attendees away from Jamie xx’s performance Saturday for a brief 15-minute, hits-only set that even Four Tet himself couldn’t resist taking in. Reigning supreme as a highlight of the weekend, however, was disco queen Jessie Ware’s performance over at the Pier Stage that channeled Studio 54 and even included a cover of Cher’s “Believe” from her 1998 album of the same name.

The festival footprint expanded in 2024 with VIP areas taking over more space in front of the stages, which was received with mixed emotions. Cellphone service almost seemed worse than ever before, remaining an ever-present pitfall that unfortunately prevented us from being able to enjoy Portola to its fullest potential. Increased seating areas and bathrooms contributed greatly to the GA experience, but they still seemed limited amid the larger crowd size. A healthy amount of food offerings and expanded beverage selection was widely appreciated, and plenty were still surprised yet delighted by activations like the hidden speakeasy, which this time transformed into a robot-themed bar in honor of Daft Punk.

Though the third edition of Portola proved successful in continuing to expand Goldenvoice’s influence across the Bay Area festival landscape, it’s unknown at the moment as to whether or not it will return next year. Still being dubbed as “the city’s loudest event” after as many as 224 noise complaints — 24 on Saturday followed by 200 on Sunday — were filed despite organizers’ efforts to lower the decibels, rotate stages and utilize acoustic blankets. Judging by the turnout this time and increased demand for an event of this caliber in the Bay Area, we would be surprised if Portola wasn’t back after another 12 months. But once the permits are approved by both the SF Entertainment Commission and Port of SF, one can only hope that Goldenvoice will throw down on some distributed antenna systems or reliable WiFi coverage for 2025.

Justice

PORTOLA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024 AWARDS:

Headliner of the Weekend: Justice

Favorite Stage: Pier

Breakthrough Performance: Franc Moody

Best Dance Party: Disclosure

Largest Crowd: FISHER

Most Controversial: M.I.A.’s endorsement of Donald Trump

Festival Daddy: Tycho guitarist/bassist Zac Brown

Portola Queen: Jessie Ware

Best Legacy Act: Soulwax

Hardest Set: Sara Landry

Best Performance: RÜFÜS DU SOL

Most Cunty: Horsegiirl

Best Stage Production: BICEP present CHROMA (AV DJ set)

Favorite Festival Addition: Giant crane-lifted disco ball

Best Activation: Daft Punk speakeasy

Favorite Merch: Pier 80 blanket

Best Afterparty: Boiler Room with Club Heat

Best Mascot: Warehouse raccoons

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Empress Of

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Interplanetary Criminal

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Franc Moody

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Lava La Rue

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Joy Orbinson

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Jessie Ware

Portola Music Festival 2024 - BICEP Present CHROMA (AV DJ set)

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Gessaffelstein

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Barry Can't Swim (Live).jpg

Portola Music Festival 2024 - horsegiirL

Portola Music Festival 2024 - Disclosure

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: A. G. Cook, Ahadadream, Anderson .Paak, Astra Club, Barry Can't Swim, Ben Böhmer, Bicep, BICEP Present CHROMA, Boys Noize b2b VTSS Boys Noize, Braxe + Falcon, Busy P, Busy P b2b Braxe + Falcon, Carlita, Carlita b2b DJ Tennis, Chase & Status, Cher, Club Heat, Daft Punk, Deltron 3030, Disclosure, DJ Heartstring, DJ Pee .Wee, DJ Seinfeld, DJ Tennis, Donald Trump, Empress Of, Eric Prydz, Eric Prydz Presents HOLO, Fcukers, Fisher, Floating Points, Four Tet, Franc Moody, Gesaffelstein, Glass Beams, Goldenvoice, Honey Dijon, horsegiirL, Interplanetary Criminal, Jamie xx, Jasper Tygner, Jersey, Jessie Ware, Joy Orbison, JPEGMAFIA, Justice, Kenya Grace, Lava La Rue, LP Giobbi, Luke Alessi, M.I.A., Maddy Maia, Mall Grab, Mochakk, Mount Kimbie, NALA, NEIL FRANCES, NIA ARCHIVES, Nils Hoffmann, Nooriyah, Panjabi Hit Squad, Peaches, Portola, Portola 2024, Portola Music Festival, Portola Music Festival 2024, Pretty Girl, Raf Saperra, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Rebecca Black, Sammy Virji, Sara Landry, Shygirl, Shygirl Presents Club Shy, Skrillex, Snow Strippers, Soulwax, Starrza, Tinlicker, Tycho, VTSS, Zulan

Rodrigo y Gabriela give LA the emotional reset it needs while taking fans at the Hollywood Bowl on a riveting, philosophical journey

September 25, 2024 by Ivan Fernandez Leave a Comment

Photos by Carla Lopez // Written by Iván Fernández //

Rodrigo y Gabriela with Afro-Cuban All Stars //
Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
September 18th, 2024 //

It hadn’t been two weeks since LA found itself in near-literal hell when Rodrigo y Gabriela returned to the Hollywood Bowl. The city found itself surrounded by wildfires to the north, east and south and crunched with inescapable record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures.

With the heatwave gone and the fires mostly contained, the people needed a fresh start. The Mexican duo were more than happy to oblige with an assist from the Afro-Cuban All-Stars.

The beauty of the Hollywood Bowl is how it can feel immense without losing its intimacy, especially in the hands of seasoned performers. Thankfully, this was the case with the night’s acts: two experienced veterans with many performances at the Bowl in their pocket. It also takes something special to be the type of performer who is invited to the Bowl multiple times in their career — “maybe eight times” said Rodrigo during the concert — and both bands showed everyone what that special something is.

The show began with the Afro-Cuban All-Stars led by founder Juan De Marcos González, who also happens to be the guy who helped Ry Cooder put Buena Vista Social Club together during the same year he also founded the All-Stars. To say he has an eye and an ear for talent is like saying Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani knows how to hit a baseball or steal a base. As a longtime of Buena Vista, seeing one of its founders perform live sent chills through my body.

González and the 12 members who comprised this version of the All-Stars had the crowd cheering, hollering and dancing throughout their too-brief, five-song set. They opened with “Addimu A Oshun” as they have for years. Their version of the invocation to the saint of Cuba is also an invocation to get off your seat and dance, after all.

Afro-Cuban All-Stars

The vibes continued through their set filled with jaw-dropping instrumental solos, including the conga solo on the closing song, which had people dancing in conga lines in every section of the venue. Did I mention that this was just the opener?!

So how does a two-person, guitar-only group take the stage after that type of performance?

Easily, if you are Rodrigo y Gabriela! The duo comprised of Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero walked out confidently and immediately got to work with two songs from their latest album In Between Thoughts…A New World. The album’s cover art served as a backdrop that set the scene for the emotional and philosophical musical journey ahead.

As a longtime fan, I was happily surprised with the shift in their music as Rodrigo spent most of the night playing an electric guitar. As other longtime fans know, Rod & Gab performed on acoustic guitars for the majority of their career. In fact, they were still an acoustic act when last I saw them at the Bowl in 2016.

That changed in 2019 with the release of Mettavolution when they sparingly added electric guitars into the mix before fully incorporating them into the recorded and live performances of 2023’s In Between Thoughts…A New World. The change didn’t alter Rodrigo y Gabriela’s music into an unrecognizable form nor did it feel like an experiment tacked on out of curiosity. Just as they have expanded their own philosophical beliefs into their lives and their recent albums, so too has the electric guitar expanded the range and style of their recorded music and live performances.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

The duo surprised everyone at the Bowl by performing four new songs. “Some bands don’t like to play songs from their new album, but we frankly don’t give a fuck,” said Rodrigo to cheers from the audience.

Of the four new songs, “The Simurgh” stood out the most to me. The song, as Gabriela explained, is based on a poem called “The Conference of the Birds” by Sufi poet Attar and is written as a narrative soundtrack, or companion, to the journey taken by the birds in the poem. The song included a guitar solo by Rodrigo that was so impacting one could feel and see the poem come to life.

Rod & Gab went back to their fully acoustic roots halfway through their set for a trio of older hits: “Hanuman”, “Diablo Rojo” and “Tamacun”. They even performed them in the manner like they used to when they first began performing together, sitting next to each other on stools as close to the audience as possible.

Rodrigo left the stage at one point, leaving Gabriela to regale the crowd with a solo on acoustic guitar for a few minutes. It was a master class in guitar artistry. Rodrigo eventually joined her as she continued playing until the two met, musically, segueing into “Finding Myself Leads Me to You”.

Rodrigo y Gabriela closed out the show with an amazing rendition of their most recent album’s title track that had everyone on their feet. The concert was a joyous ceremony from beginning to end and a much-needed emotional reset from the oppressive, heat-related dangers of the past weeks.

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA

Setlist:
True Nature
The Ride of the Mind
Astrum in Corpore
Egoland
Seeking Unreality
Monster
Hanuman
Diablo Rojo
Tamacun
The Simurgh
Gabriela Solo
Finding Myself Leads Me to You
Dublin
Descending to Nowhere

Encore:
In Between Thoughts…A New World

AFRO-CUBAN ALL-STARS

Setlist:
Addimu A Oshún
A Distancia
Sueño Y Realidad
On the Road Again
Conga

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Afro-Cuban All Stars, Buena Vista Social Club, Hollywood Bowl, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ry Cooder, Shohei Ohtani

Beats Antique keep the Do LaB spirit alive at Teragram Ballroom

September 19, 2024 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Beats Antique with Haywyre //
Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles
September 12th, 2024 //

There might not be an act that represents the Do LaB better than Beats Antique from the moment when the experimental world fusion and electronic music group out of Oakland formed in 2007.

At the time, belly dancer Zoe Jakes had just approached her manager Miles Copeland — producer and brother of drummer Stewart Copeland from The Police — about hitting the studio to make an album and received the answer she was ultimately hoping for. Within months of that meeting a partnership between Jakes, multi-instrumentalist David Satori and drummer Tommy “Sidecar” Cappel quickly came to fruition as their debut LP Tribal Derivations was born on Copeland’s record label CIA. From there, the trio would go on to issue 10 more releases over the ensuing nine years.

But the LA event design and production company based in Venice Beach that has showcased its art at Coachella every spring for the past two decades and has put on the “transformational” boutique festival Lightning in a Bottle in that same span has also helped foster a unique community of like-minded artists and creatives — one of which has undoubtedly been Beats dating back to their first live performance at LIB in 2009.

Much has changed for the Bay Area three-piece since those early days growing up with the Do LaB, albeit maybe none more than its announcement a couple of years ago that Satori would be taking an indefinite break from touring. And even though he remains involved in the creative process for Beats Antique, you could tell from their statement that the news must not have been easy to take for either Jakes or Cappel as they navigated the shift “with love and compassion.”

Nevertheless, the two of them have pressed on to embrace their artistic vision and loyal following with the multi-talented Miles Jay filling Satori’s shoes for the unforeseeable future. That was apparent last Thursday for their latest visit to the City of Angels, which saw Grammy-nominated electronic producer and classically trained pianist Haywyre (born Martin Sebastian Vogt) kick-start the evening and get the dance floor at the Teragram Ballroom moving thanks to several new singles he has dropped this year.

The last time we caught Beats Antique they were co-headlining The Novo (fka Club Nokia) in downtown LA nearly a decade ago for what proved to be an eclectic bill as funk collective Lettuce played first and brought out Nigel Hall to sing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Gratitude” plus a few more tunes during their groovy set (read our show review here).

Considering the disparity in size between the two aforementioned music venues, this outing was bound to feel more intimate — and indeed it did. Not that the Teragram’s 625-person capacity came that close to being reached on this night, but a spirited crowd was there to welcome Jakes, Cappel and Jay when they finally arrived onstage prior to 10 p.m.

There’s something mysterious about a Beats Antique concert that’s hard to fully comprehend until you have the chance to experience one for yourself. Whether it’s the Middle Eastern sounds and afro-beat influences that regularly permeate their tracks or the various costumes Jakes dons in the matter of 90 minutes, there’s never a dull moment once the music begins. It’s those twists and turns, both sonically and performatively, that have always made Beats Antique an exciting force in the live space and what ultimately had us coming back for another taste in 2024.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: Beats Antique, Club Nokia, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Do LaB, Earth Wind & Fire, Haywyre, Miles Copeland, Nigel Hall, Stewart Copeland, Teragram Ballroom, The Do LaB, The Novo, The Novo DTLA, The Police

Phantogram show us at the Santa Barbara Bowl while on tour with Kings of Leon that they are primed to release their fifth album

August 30, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Phantogram //
Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
August 26th, 2024 //

It’s always strange when you receive a media credential to cover the opening act of a performance but not the headliner. This was one of those rare instances where our business at a music venue we have covered many headliners at before was to simply focus on the evening’s support.

And even though they are certainly worthy of their own headlining tour after last week’s announcement of a fifth LP, street-beat/psych-pop duo Phantogram are currently making the rounds with Kings of Leon on a 26-date jaunt all across North America that made a stop Monday at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards, piano, programming, synthesizers, guitars, production) and Josh Carter (vocals, guitars, programming, synthesizers, drums, percussion, production) are set to drop Memory of a Day on October 18th via Neon Gold Records, but until then, show up early if you are hoping to catch them live.

Their 6:45 p.m. start in Santa Barbara before the sun had even set over the Pacific Ocean, for that matter, still drew a solid turnout despite the 4,562-person amphitheater marking the smallest venue booked for KoL’s current tour.

Barthel’s vocals proved to be just as breathy as we remember them after she stepped onstage in Zebra-patterned shorts, black leather boots and a white top. To her left or stage right, you could see that Carter was dialed into whichever guitar lick he was riffing on during their 45-minute concert.

Of course whenever I have the opportunity to see Phantogram in the flesh, it usually reminds of the time I interviewed Carter more than a decade ago for a feature story right as the New York band was starting to break out and attract larger audiences.

Now a well-oiled machine, Phantogram have also established a loyal following even if their new material such as singles “All a Mystery” and “Happy Again” stray even farther from what KoL offers. Though they might not have been tapped as a co-headliner considering KoL’s stature and overall reach these days, there’s no doubt that putting both acts together has produced one of the best double bills this summer with capacity crowds filling arenas in city after city.

Any excuse to visit the Santa Barbara Bowl is often a good one, but with Phantogram playing we didn’t need much more of a reason to spend the night at one of our favorites places in Southern California to witness live music.

Setlist:
Don’t Move
Fall in Love
All a Mystery
Pedestal
Run Run Blood
Mister Impossible
Happy Again
Answer
Black Out Days
When I’m Small

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: Kings of Leon, Phantogram, Santa Barbara Bowl

Galactic bring the funk back to LA with Jelly Joseph & special guests making for a groovy night at The Bellwether

August 19, 2024 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Galactic featuring Jelly Joseph with Joy Guerilla //
The Bellwether – Los Angeles
August 15th, 2024 //

If I told you that it has been 30 years since Galactic formed after childhood friends Jeff Raines and Robert Mercurio moved to New Orleans for college, you might not believe it … or want to believe it.

But the truth is, the fivesome has been going strong ever since it all came together in 1994 with Raines (guitar) and Mercurio (bass) leaving their hometown of Chevy Chase, Md., to attend Tulane University before eventually teaming up with Richard Vogel (Hammond organ), Stanton Moore (drums) and Ben Ellman (saxophone, harmonica).

The group’s affinity for local legends like The Meters, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Professor Longhair as well as the influence that they have played in Galactic’s music remains self-evident to this day, and despite rotating through a handful of singers over the years — whether it has been Cyril Neville, Living Colour’s Corey Glover, Maggie Koerner or Erica Falls — since the late Theryl “House Man” DeClouet’s departure in 2004, it has continued to tour relentlessly and put out new material consistently.

Their most recent studio effort, a six-track EP entitled Tchompitoulas that arrived at the beginning of 2023, features multiple vocalists, including Florida rapper Eric Biddines, Grammy-nominated Cuban singer-songwriter Cimafunk and NOLA’s own Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph.

Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph

Of course, Galactic have been incorporating a variety of voices ever since they ventured into hip-hop via their 2007 album From the Corner to the Block, which saw collaborations with Lyrics Born, Mr. Lif, Gift of Gab, Chali 2na, Boots Riley, Juvenile, Trombone Shorty and Lateef the Truthspeaker to name more than just a few.

The last few years, though, have given Joseph a chance to shine with the quintet since they released the single “Float Up” in 2020, and we quickly learned how powerful her delivery was within minutes of taking the stage last Thursday as Galactic brought the funk back to LA for the band’s first show at The Bellwether, which only opened a little more than a year ago now (read our venue review here) but has already established itself as one of the better music venues in a city with no shortage of them. Though we must say, it was cool to catch Galactic somewhere else besides at the El Rey Theatre — where we have covered them before (read our show review here) — or Fonda Theatre after both spaces owned and operated by Goldenvoice had become the band’s unofficial home for its annual visit to the City of Angels year after year.

While the night belonged to Joseph considering the charisma she exuded onstage for more than a hour and a half, Galactic made sure to also sprinkle in covers from heroes such as Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and Aretha Franklin in addition to guest appearances from Alex Wasily of Dumpstaphunk on trombone, Will Blades on organ and Shira Elias on vocals that kept the programming feeling fresh throughout and was certainly a nice surprise after San Diego native Karl Denson showed up the evening prior for their gig at the Belly Up in Solana Beach.

I have always loved the spirit and culture of New Orleans, and even though it had been several years since the last time I saw Galactic in the flesh, it always feels like I’m hanging out on Frenchmen Street again when I do. After all, the joy their music has brought to the lives of so many can’t be understated and is something we are still grateful for three decades later.

Setlist:
You Don’t Know
Making It Better
Domino
Cineramascope
Right On
Heart of Steel
Qualified (Dr. John cover)
Lickety Split (The Dirty Dozen Brass Band cover) (with Alex Wasily)
Clap Your Hands
Compared to What (Gene McDaniels cover)
Twitchie Feet (with Will Blades)
Lady Liberty
People
Yes We Can Can (Allen Toussaint cover) (with Shira Elias)
Dolla Diva

Encore:
Baker’s Dozen (with Alex Wasily)
Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin cover) (with Shira Elias)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: Alex Wasily, Allen Toussaint, Anjelika "Jelly" Joseph, Aretha Franklin, Belly Up, Belly Up Tavern, Boots Riley, Chali 2na, Cimafunk, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dr. John, Dumpstaphunk, El Rey Theatre, Eric Biddines, Fonda Theatre, Galactic, Gene McDaniels, Gift of Gab, Goldenvoice, Jelly Joseph, Joy Guerilla, Juvenile, Lateef the Truthspeaker, Lyrics Born, Mr. Lif, Professor Longhair, Shira Elias, The Bellwether, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Fonda Theatre, The Meters, Trombone Shorty, Will Blades

DIIV give us hope at The Wiltern that there’s a future for indie rock

July 5, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

DIIV with Lightning Bolt, untitled (halo) //
The Wiltern – Los Angeles
June 29th, 2024 //

For nearly 15 years it’s no secret the music industry has moved farther away from the guitar-driven rock that prevailed through much of the 90’s and early 2000’s. Some have even gone as far to now say “rock is dead,” and while we can point out some of our own experiences from recent memory — including one here — to counter that claim, there have only been a handful of new bands since 2010 that accurately fit the description and have hooked me enough to catch them live.

Australian sextet King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are one of those acts, and their three-hour marathon at the iconic Hollywood Bowl last summer (read our show review here) was one of our favorite shows in 2023 (see our picks here).

English bass-and-drums duo Royal Blood are another, and their bone-rattling concert at The Wiltern in November (read our show review here) was also a highlight for us last year.

Of course we can’t forget about Houston psych-funk-rock trio Khruangbin, which have continued their ascent with sold-out gigs at some of America’s biggest music venues and events. In fact, we still think about their 2022 appearance on Day 2 of Primavera Sound LA (read our festival review here).

And then there’s “American indie-groove band” Goose, who gave us a chance to finally watch them in the flesh several months ago when they made their Santa Barbara Bowl debut and a compelling case why they have been one of the hottest (jam) bands lately (read our show review here).

Obviously there are supergroups and/or side projects like The Smile, boygenius and The New Basement Tapes as well, while others might argue that bands such as Greta Van Fleet, Hockey Dad, Turnstile, Wet Leg and Viagra Boys have carried the torch forward for the genre (note: IDLES were not mentioned here because they formed back in 2009 along with Alabama Shakes, Atoms for Peace, Broken Bells, Dawes, The Dead Weather, How to Destroy Angels, Rival Sons, Them Crooked Vultures and Wild Nothing).

But standing among some of the best to arrive on the scene in roughly the last decade and a half are DIIV, which began as a solo endeavor for Zachary Cole Smith (lead vocals, guitar) after previous stints as a guitarist in the psych-rock outfit Soft Black and drummer/guitarist for indie rockers Beach Fossils while he was living in Brooklyn.

Smith has relocated to LA since DIIV’s formation, but the group’s sound has remained fairly consistent — dreamy, hazy vocals float on top of gritty, fuzzed-out guitars as they collide with punchy rhythms that immediately evoke comparisons to Modest Mouse, Silversun Pickups, Slowdive and even Explosions in the Sky when we listen. That’s not to say DIIV’s shoegaze-laden soundscapes don’t have their own feel and vibe, though. They very much have their own identity, as Smith’s catchy riffs often pull you in at the start and build up to moments of pure sonic bliss like on “Taker” or “Acheron” that stands as the longest track in the DIIV catalog at more than seven minutes.

Four albums in following the May release of Frog in Boiling Water on Fantasy Records, and the quartet that was a five-piece in the early 2010’s and currently includes Smith’s childhood friend Andrew Bailey (guitar), Colin Caulfield (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Ben Newman (drums) are no doubt a well-established unit at this point. The 10-track LP anchored by lead single “Brown Paper Bag” has already garnered critical acclaim from quite a few media outlets and fits in nicely with the rest of DIIV’s material, showcasing Smith’s continued growth and evolution as a singer-songwriter. And although we can’t say his overall range behind the microphone has transformed dramatically dating back to 2012’s full-length debut Oshin, Smith does come across more forceful in his delivery on DIIV’s latest studio effort.

Wrapping up the first leg of a 33-date North American tour last Saturday at The Wiltern with Rhode Island noise-rock duo Lightning Bolt and LA’s untitled (halo) providing support, Smith and company delivered plenty of highs from “Doused” to “Blankenship” and yet left us yearning to hear others like “Dopamine” off 2016’s Is the Is Are and “Skin Game” from 2019’s Deceiver. The fact that neither of those are being played was somewhat surprising — even if they aren’t among their Top 5 songs on Spotify — and yet encouraging considering how well we thought their 90-minute performance in LA flowed from one song to the next. DIIV haven’t been mixing up their setlists each night they take the stage, instead sticking to a very similar script so far for their 2024 dates across Europe and the U.S. While that’s something we eventually hope to see from them after another album cycle, the next six months will mark an important stretch for DIIV with their tour schedule extending all the way through December and taking them back to the UK where a couple of sold-out gigs with Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. — another one of the rare major post-2010 rock acts to emerge — in London await.

The impending doom and gloom that Smith’s lyrics have been known to address since DIIV’s inception in 2011 don’t exactly anoint them as champions of hope and optimism at a time of great uncertainty and political tension here at home. Frog confronts the “overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism,” and with another U.S. presidential election looming that stars a former president and convicted felon, there’s a real cause for concern with the stakes higher than ever. The video interludes — one to advertise DIIV merch, another to introduce their sophomore single on Frog entitled “”Soul-net” and finally a satirical promo for ExxonMobil at the beginning of the encore — sprinkled in throughout the show reminded us of that dark reality, but as Bailey told Zane Lowe during a recent interview for Apple Music: “The message isn’t ‘the world is screwed and there’s nothing we can do.’ It’s more pointing out the fact that the world is screwed and heading toward demise … how do we accept that reality and still turn it into something positive?”

Smith, for one, has faced his own demons and past struggles with substance abuse that we don’t need to get into but has courageously come out on the other side all while continuing to push the boundaries sonically with every DIIV release. Frog, after all, was the first time the band worked democratically with writing credits going to all four members, challenging them individually and testing the strength of their collective bond in ultimately representing “a mesmeric testament to enduring.” For us fans, it’s just one sign of another great band in the making.

Setlist:
In Amber
Like Before You Were Born
Brown Paper Bag
Under the Sun
(Druun Pt. II)
Doused
Reflected
Somber the Drums
Take Your Time
Taker
Raining on Your Pillow
Soul-net
Frog in Boiling Water
Between Tides
Blankenship
Acheron

Encore:
Everyone Out
Horsehead

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Alabama Shakes, Beach Fossils, Broken Bells, Dawes, DIIV, Fontaines D.C., Greta Van Fleet, Hockey Dad, Hollywood Bowl, How to Destroy Angels, IDLES, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Lightning Bolt, Rival Sons, Royal Blood, Santa Barbara Bowl, Soft Black, The Dead Weather, The New Basement Tapes, The Smile, The Wiltern, Them Crooked Vultures, Turnstile, untitled (halo), Viagra Boys, Wet Leg, Wild Nothing

Chicano Batman make history in their hometown while taking a victory lap at Kia Forum with The Red Pears, Lido Pimienta

July 3, 2024 by Amanda Tapia Leave a Comment

By Amanda Tapia //

Chicano Batman with The Red Pears, Lido Pimienta //
Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
June 29th, 2024 //

Having performed at Coachella in recent years, Chicano Batman are no strangers to the limelight. But after their recent hometown performance last Saturday at one of LA’s premier venues, a true milestone was achieved.

History was most certainly made by two Los Angeles-based bands as Chicano Batman and The Red Pears took the stage at the Kia Forum for the first time in an all-Latine lineup. Following the release of their fifth studio album Notebook Fantasy in March, Chicano Batman were billed as the headliner with support by El Monte locals The Red Pears and Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter Lido Pimienta. Nonetheless, each act on the bill has garnered many loyal fans while delivering plenty of unforgettable performances that have showcased their evolution and success over the years.

The Red Pears

Performing at such a renowned venue as the Kia Forum is not just an accolade, but also a symbol of their relentless ambition — serving as a true testament to the barriers they all have broken through to make their mark on the music industry.

It was a celebratory evening a week into the summer and one that was shared among the crowd indeed, as many audience members sang along to anthems that have helped shaped LA identities, latinidad and a love for rock ‘n’ roll.

CHICANO BATMAN

Setlist:
Beautiful Daughter
Itotiani
Freedom Is Free
Live Today
Era Primavera
Magma
La jura
La manzanita
Requiem
Fly
Losing My Mind
Passed You By
Lei Lá
Color My Life
The Way You Say It
Run
Cycles of Existential Rhyme

Encore:
Fairytale Love
Black Lipstick

THE RED PEARS

Setlist:
Didn’t Realize
The Way You Talk
See What I Mean
Hello-Sin-Nation
Arthur
Run N’ Hide
Forever
It Takes Time
Dreams
Not in the Cards
Flowers
Once Together
Tired
Beach Song
Daylight/Moonlight

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Photos Tagged With: Chicano Batman, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Kia Forum, Lido Pimienta, The Forum, The Red Pears

First Times: Experiencing a piece of SF history as My Morning Jacket take over The Fillmore for four sold-out nights with no repeats

June 7, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 1 Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

My Morning Jacket //
The Fillmore – San Francisco
May 27th-28th & 30th-31st, 2024 //

Growing up in Los Angeles, I have always loved going to the Bay Area. Sure, there is definitely no love lost between SoCal and NorCal when it comes to certain professional sports teams and their fan bases, but that hasn’t changed my feelings or how I think of it now — even if I bleed Dodger blue.

With my aunt, uncle and late grandparents living in the City, I have many fond memories of our family trips up north and still consider SF to be one of my favorite towns in the world that I have ever been to (and to be honest, there are a lot I haven’t stepped foot in). But from beautiful parks and breathtaking views to world-class art and innovative cuisine among a plethora of tourist attractions, there’s never a shortage of things to do in “The City by the Bay” no matter where your interests lie or how much time and money (obvious tip: it helps to have a lot) you have on your hands.

Since I began covering concerts more than a decade ago in this space though, my adventures in “music journalism” — if we can call it that — had not yet taken me to the same city where this blog was founded for “work.” I had visited back in 2011 to attend Outside Lands and Treasure Island Music Festival before returning five years later to cover what ended up being a disastrous and largely forgettable 2016 edition of TIMF (read our festival review here). Nevertheless, the right opportunity to photograph any individual shows had not presented itself despite all the years I have lived in the Golden State. That is, until one of my favorite acts in live music announced by early March that it had booked four in the span of five days at the historic Fillmore and promised not to repeat songs.

The first time I saw My Morning Jacket in the flesh, Jim James (lead vocals, guitar), Tom Blankenship (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums, percussion), Bo Koster (keyboards, percussion, backing vocals) and Carl Broemel (guitar, pedal steel guitar, saxophone, backing vocals) completely blew me away after a three-night run at The Wiltern in LA with a unique opener — featuring Portugal. The Man, Iron & Wine and Shabazz Palaces — and setlist (inspired by fan requests submitted online) each night serving as the impetus for the Louisville-bred band’s “Spontaneous Curation Series.” The five-piece by that point was in between albums, having already released 2011’s Circuital almost 18 months earlier and toured the country in support of it, and the circumstances in the 415 felt similar with 2021’s self-titled marking the group’s last proper studio effort (unless you are counting MMJ’s holiday-themed LP entitled Happy Holiday! that they released in late November comprised mostly of Christmas carols plus two originals).

The weeks in May leading up to The Fillmore were certainly bittersweet. After all, this wasn’t supposed to be the first time I was seeing Jacket since their rescheduled — thanks to Tropical Storm Hilary — co-headlining date with Fleet Foxes at the Hollywood Bowl in August (read our show review here) after two sold-out gigs at Red Rocks (read our show review here). That was intended to be the first week of May instead of the last one, when they were scheduled to lead the third and final day of BeachLife Festival with ZZ Top, Fleet Foxes and Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB also rounding out an excellent lineup. But after covering the event’s first two days in Redondo Beach (read our festival review here), the final four hours were unexpectedly canceled — and many would say prematurely — due to a high-wind advisory.

In the matter of an hour, the only LA date that MMJ had slated for this year had been completely wiped from the record. The decision had already been made, and with the staff and security being sent home and an earlier curfew for Sunday in place, there was no way all the remaining artists could still perform. Attendees left that day visibly frustrated and angry with the fest’s organizers for calling it off so quickly, considering the wind had died down by 7 p.m. with time left on the clock. Subsequently, we have been wondering in the aftermath why BeachLife doesn’t target a weekend in June or another summer month rather than early May when it’s not exactly “beach weather” — unless you think daytime temperatures that peak in the mid-60’s and high winds of 45-50 mph is for some reason.

Is there any chance MMJ will eventually announce a makeup date for their SoCal-based fans? No one knows right now, but alas, there we were driving along Interstate 5 through California’s Central Valley a few weeks later, excited and gratified to be making the roughly 800-mile trek roundtrip to catch them at least on one occasion in 2024 and use that, on a personal level, as a way to celebrate the beginning of a new decade. Assuredly it helps when the weather in the Bay Area cooperates over the course of your stay, and with warm, sunny days filling the forecast, the stars were finally starting to slowly align after the disappointment we had recently experienced at BeachLife. Because when I walked up those burgundy-colored carpeted stairs at The Fillmore for the first time and was greeted by hundreds of old photos and posters plus a large bucket of apples (we can’t confirm if they were organic even if they passed our taste test), I could immediately feel the history of the place. And in the leadup to these shows, I had curiously spent some time learning more about Bill Graham and became fascinated with his backstory as I dived deeper into it. The legendary promoter whose mother placed him in an orphanage that helped Graham escape Nazi Germany has been credited with hosting some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most legendary musicians — Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors and Otis Redding — as the counterculture movement in the 60’s exploded all across Western civilization. Whether it’s the iconic Jerry Garcia photo that greets you at the top of the staircase on your way to the Poster Room or the bevy of ornate chandeliers that hang above the hardwood dance floor, there’s nothing quite like an evening at The Fillmore. It has been said that Graham wanted to make patrons believe as if they were hanging out in his own personal living room, and the warm, friendly staff we encountered matched the auditorium’s cozy vibe that he created thanks to entrepreneur and businessman Charles Sullivan, who owned the property’s master lease in 1965 and let him use his dance hall permit to put on concerts.

Holding only 1,315 guests, the former Majestic Hall built in 1912 is easily the smallest music venue that I have ever seen MMJ play. While they have never quite reached the level of an arena or stadium act like other popular rock bands, any room under a couple of thousand folks would be considered an “intimate” setting for them at this point in their 25-year-plus history. Between the live music industry shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing demands of touring upon its resumption however, you also won’t find Jacket throwing down three- and four-night runs with much regularity nowadays outside of their own destination festival One Big Holiday in Mexico and a select few U.S. cities such as Denver and Chicago where some of the highest fan concentration in the MMJ community exists. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty who traveled great distances to arrive at the corner of Geary Blvd. and Fillmore St. on the edge of Japantown. One couple I met, in fact, came all the way from northeast Pennsylvania to catch all four performances, and that’s the kind of dedication you will see from longtime enthusiasts and loyal listeners.

But considering the setlists that were assembled, no one could have asked for much more when the final note of “Wordless Chorus” was struck. After an opening night that boasted a myriad of highlights, including “Master Plan” with a “China Cat Sunflower” tag as an ode to the Dead, a stretched-out “Only Memories Remain” that reached the 14-minute mark, the first “Librarian” since March 2018 and a Bob Dylan cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” during the encore, there were more Fillmore fireworks on Night 2 when James and company broke into Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and later offered up “I Get Around” from The Beach Boys, which we were hoping to hear at BeachLife since MMJ performed the 1964 single last year during the GRAMMY’s televised tribute for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band. Yet, I knew Jacket would save some of their biggest bangers for the last two shows in SF and we can only imagine the 48-hour break between Nights 2 and 3 provided some necessary respite before they dove into another round of jams to unleash only the fourth “If It Smashes Down” ever, extend “Steam Engine” for a whopping 18 minutes, bring back “By My Car” for the first time in almost five years and close with a huge “Phone Went West” that included Journey’s “Lights” interpolated midway through.

That collection of songs would satisfy most Jacket fans on any given night, but I was sure they would save their best for last — and by “best,” I mean “Dondante” without a doubt. The Z finale has been my favorite MMJ tune for quite a while, and the nearly 22-minute version they uncorked at The Fillmore was by far the best (no pun intended) one I have witnessed out of four. You could tell by the end of it that the capacity crowd, having already been gifted “Cobra” at the onset as well as a cover of George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” earlier, was officially on cloud nine. Something special had seemingly happened in that moment and nothing could bring us down to Earth from that point forward — only making James’ ensuing “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” all the more powerful to experience live (you would have thought “the power is going out” from the way they played it with such fervor) along with the apropos live debut of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”, which was written following the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in a Sausalito houseboat the “King of Soul” rented. The three-time Grammy nominees, on the other hand, have always made a point to mix in covers that correspond to a particular time or place, and this was one that couldn’t have been more perfect for the moment. It was just another example of what has us coming back around time and time again … and ultimately why we will have our fingers crossed for that makeup date in LA.

MAY 27TH

Setlist:
At Dawn
O Is the One That Is Real
Master Plan (with “China Cat Sunflower” by Grateful Dead tag)
Mahgeetah
Rollin Back
Run It
Evelyn Is Not Real
Carried Away (Carl Broemel song) (“Just My Imagination” by The Temptations tag)
Only Memories Remain
A New Life (Jim James song)
You Wanna Freak Out
Outta My System
Honest Man
Librarian (last played 3/5/2018; “Let’s Live for Today” by The Grass Roots tag)
What a Wonderful Man (preceded by a Jim solo version on omnichord)
In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)
Holdin On to Black Metal
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1
Here in Spirit (Jim James song)
Love Love Love

Encore:
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
Feel You
Gideon
Dancefloors (with “China Cat Sunflower” and “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider” by Grateful Dead transition teases)

MAY 28TH

Setlist:
In Color
It’s About Twilight Now
Strangulation! (instrumental intro due to technical difficulties)
War Begun
Slow Slow Tune
The Way That He Sings
X-Mas Curtain
Never in the Real World
How Could I Know (Oxen)
I Will Sing You Songs
Harvest Moon (Neil Young cover)
Come Closer
I Think I’m Going to Hell
Victory Dance
Aluminum Park
I Get Around (The Beach Boys cover)
Anytime

Encore:
Old Sept. Blues (with “Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny during intro)
It Beats 4 U
Spring (Among the Living) (with “Dear Prudence” by The Beatles tag)
One Big Holiday

MAY 30TH

Setlist:
Regularly Scheduled Programming
Compound Fracture
Off the Record
Tropics (Erase Traces)
Death Is the Easy Way
If It Smashes Down (only performed live three times & last played on 3/2/2018)
The Dark
Lowdown
Climbing the Ladder
Least Expected
Penny for Your Thoughts
Steam Engine
By My Car (last played 08/09/2019)
I’m Amazed
Picture of You
Believe (Nobody Knows)
Lay Low
Wasted

Encore:
Sooner
Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time) (Elton John cover)
Smokin’ From Shootin’
Phone Went West (“Lights” by Journey interpolation > Phone Went West)

MAY 31ST

Setlist:
Cobra
If All Else Fails
Golden
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) (George Harrison cover)
Circuital
Easy Morning Rebel
Nashville to Kentucky
Like a River
Thank You Too!
Lucky to Be Alive
Evil Urges
Dondante
State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) (Jim James song)
Remnants
Run Thru

Encore:
Highly Suspicious
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2
(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay (Otis Redding cover) (Live debut)
Wordless Chorus

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Live Music Reviews, Show Experience Tagged With: BeachLife Festival, BeachLife Festival 2024, Bob Dylan, BottleRock, BottleRock 2024, BottleRock Napa, BottleRock Napa 2024, Carl Broemel, Elton John, Fleet Foxes, George Harrison, grateful dead, Iron & Wine, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jim James, Jimi Hendrix, Journey, Monterey Pop Festival 2017, My Morning Jacket, Neil Young, Otis Redding, Outside Lands, Outside Lands Music Festival, Portugal. The Man, Poster Room, Poster Room at The Fillmore, Santo & Johnny, Shabazz Palaces, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Doors, The Fillmore, The Grass Roots, The Who, TIMF, Treasure Island Music Festival, Trey Anastasio, Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB, ZZ Top

BeachLife Festival 2024: A bittersweet ending to an otherwise fun weekend of live music in Redondo Beach

May 15, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 6 Comments

Photos by Josh Herwitt, Melissa Herwitt & courtesy of BeachLife Festival // Written by Josh Herwitt //

BeachLife Festival //
Seaside Lagoon – Redondo Beach, CA
May 3rd-5th, 2024 //

If you live in the greater Los Angeles area and are reading this, you probably already know that the city’s live music scene has centered around the bevy of arenas, amphitheaters, clubs, theaters, stadiums and other entertainment spaces spread all across it — from Miracle Mile to Highland Park and everywhere in between those neighborhoods.

With major concert promoters like Goldenvoice and Live Nation owning and operating the majority of LA’s music venues for a while now, making it in this “town” of more than 12 million is no easy task for younger players without the same level of connections and resources.

But when BeachLife Festival announced its inaugural edition in 2019 and picked Redondo Beach as its home, the South Bay’s entertainment portfolio was immediately raised. The coastal region consisting of 16 cities along Santa Monica Bay’s southern stretch has held a deep connection to hardcore punk ever since such legendary bands as Black Flag, Descendents and Circle Jerks emerged in the late 70’s and were followed by Redd Kross and Pennywise in the subsequent 80’s.

Redondo Beach, more specifically, has not been known as a major destination for live music despite its proximity to the rest of LA, and though the Saint Rocke remains just steps away in Hermosa Beach, the diminutive room that holds less than 300 guests has mostly served as a home for up-and-coming artists. But by booking All-Star talent in the form of Bob Weir, Brian Wilson and Willie Nelson to lead BeachLife’s first run at Seaside Lagoon, co-founders Allen Sanford and Rob Lissner had quickly demonstrated to the South Bay community at large that they really meant business.

Fast forward five years later following a global pandemic, and BeachLife is still going strong. The three-day music festival offers a laidback, family-friendly atmosphere perfect for the ages 35-65 demographic. These aren’t the vibes you will find almost 150 miles east out at Coachella only a few weeks earlier, but there’s still a lot of great music — albeit tailored for an older, less boisterous crowd — to catch whether you enjoy rock, reggae, country, funk, soul, folk, hip-hop or old-school electronic.

As newcomers to BeachLife, we have been impressed with every roster but were particularly enticed by this year’s lineup after Sting, Incubus and one of our favorite live acts, My Morning Jacket, were tapped as headliners. And for the festival’s first two days, things went fairly well from a programming standpoint. Donovan Frankenreiter & G. Love, City and Colour, Seal and Dirty Heads warmed us up over the course of Day 1 before Sting’s hits-laden set that any fan of The Police would have enjoyed took us all back in time. From there, Pepper, Santigold, Local Natives and Devo turned the dial up a few notches on Day 2 that led to an electric, career-spanning performance by Incubus — complete with covers of The Beatles “Come Together”, Portishead’s “Glory Box” and David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” along with a snippet of The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” during “Are You In?” — and reminded us why we became huge fans of the Calabasas group dating back to its major-label debut S.C.I.E.N.C.E. in 1997.

Then we got to Day 3, which was the one we were unquestionably looking forward to the most. And after St. Paul and The Broken Bones’ set on the Hightide Stage and Margo Price’s on the Lowtide Stage had lifted our spirits under the shining sun, we were giddy over what was supposed to be a rockin’ finish that had ZZ Top, Fleet Foxes, Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB and MMJ lined up … until they weren’t.

Because as we waited prior to 5:30 p.m. for Fleet Foxes to hit the stage, the wind began to pick up and swirl in a way that felt a bit uncomfortable and prompted me to throw on a sweatshirt. Within minutes of doing so, BeachLife’s security team had jumped on the PA system and asked everyone to evacuate for one hour due to a high-wind emergency. While getting everyone to vacate the premises proved to be a challenging endeavor for organizers, the news that would follow on social media prior to 7 p.m. was an absolute gut punch to those of us who sought an answer outside the gates. What made the revelation that the remainder of event had been canceled even more painful to accept was the fact that the winds had completely died down, leading to a host of sarcastic comments as people left the site. We certainly understood the concern for safety, but in retrospect, there wasn’t enough transparency and explanation surrounding the decision — considering there was also Sunday’s earlier curfew time to factor in — until days later. Couple that with the poor media accommodations we witnessed but won’t get into here, and we will confess there’s still plenty of room for improvement going into Year 6.

It has taken some time for the initial shock to wear off, and in the aftermath, BeachLife has tried to “turn lemons into lemonade” by recently offering refunds. Of course no one wanted to see a fun weekend end in that fashion, but the gesture should reassure attendees that they can count on Sanford and Lissner to do the right thing when Mother Nature unexpectedly interrupts the party. We would recommend moving the dates to June when the weather is warmer and more predictable as well, even if that’s outside of our jurisdiction and not the feedback they want to hear (we only mentioned it because we want the best for BeachLife and the opportunity to fully experience the festival from start to finish).

That might not have been in the cards on this go-around, yet come 2025, we already know we will be anxiously anticipating the next one no matter what changes are implemented.

BeachLife Festival 2024 - Bedouin Soundclash

BeachLife Festival 2024 - Abraham Alexander

BeachLife Festival 2024 - Donovan Frankenreiter

BeachLife Festival 2024 - City and Colour

BeachLife Festival 2024 - The Expendables

BeachLife Festival 2024 - Paul Oakenfold

BeachLife Festival 2024 - St. Paul & The Broken Bones

BeachLife Festival 2024 - Courtney Barnett

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Festival Reviews, Festivals Tagged With: 7 Seconds, Abraham Alexander, ALL, Asiatica, Atlas Genius, BeachLife Festival, BeachLife Festival 2024, Bedouin Soundclash, Black Flag, bob weir, Brian Wilson, Chase Petra, Chevy Metal, Circle Jerks, City and Colour, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Courtney Barnett, Cydeways, David Bowie, Descendents, Devo, Dirty Heads, donavon frankenreiter, Epic Records, Fleet Foxes, G. Love, G. Love & Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love & Special Sauce, Gaby Moreno, Grace McKagan, Immortal Records, Incubus, It's OK!, Jen Pop, Jon Snodgrass, Jordana, Kevin Seconds, Local Natives, Margo Price, My Morning Jacket, Pennywise, Pepper, Phish, Portishead, Redd Kross, Saint Rocke, Santigold, Sashamon, Saxon Weiss, Scott Reynolds, Seal, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Steel Pulse, Sting, Sugar Ray, Sun Room, Surfer Blood, The Beatles, The Bombpops, The Doors, The Expendables, The Last, The Police, The Rookies, The Samples, The Vandals, Tito Puente Jr., Trey Anastasio, Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB, Trey Anastasio Band, Wall of Sound, Warren Fitzgerald, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top

First Times: Leaping head first into slowdive’s dreamy shoegaze at a sold-out Fox Theater Pomona

April 29, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 6 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

slowdive with Drab Majesty //
Fox Theater Pomona – Pomona, CA
April 26th, 2024 //

When you live in a city as big as Los Angeles, it’s not everyday that you find yourself hopping on the 60 Freeway and embarking out to the county’s eastern edge for an evening of live music in Pomona.

But nearly 10 years after making the 45-mile trek on a weeknight to catch The Kills at The Glass House (read our show review here), I still found a good reason to do it again and endeavor trying to beat rush-hour traffic on a Friday in LA (pro tip: it takes a lot of patience).

P-Town, as the locals call it, is Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett’s backyard after all. It’s where he grew up and co-founded The Glass House with his brother Perry before teaming up with Goldenovice co-owner Rick Van Santen to conceive the $100 million idea that Coachella would eventually become almost two decades later.

But it was in 2007 when Tollett partnered with Ed and Jerry Tessier to purchase the historic Fox Theater Pomona, a fully restored Art Deco movie palace that remains one of the Pomona Arts Colony’s flagship attractions more than 90 years after opening. Constructed in the classic “Hollywood Style” and used by movie studios around Tinseltown to host sneak previews of their upcoming films, the building received $10 million’s worth of renovations when the Tessier family took control and restored it into a state-of-art music venue for audiences as large as 2,000.

With a capacity of that size, the Pomona Fox Theater can attract some top-notch acts every year and Tollett has seized the moment each April since 2012 by booking some big Coachella sideshows there, from Bon Iver and Modest Mouse to Blur and Jungle most recently. Yet, after all these years covering live music, it was English rockers slowdive who finally convinced me to head east again for my first trip to the Fox — and I’m glad that I didn’t miss it after being out of town during their two LA headline shows at The Bellwether in October.

slowdive, believe it or not, have been around for more than three decades at this point. The five-piece out of Reading was formed back in 1989 by primary songwriter Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell but has remained intact despite a hiatus that lasted almost 20 years.

And with the group’s label parting ways after its first three studio albums were released by the mid-90’s, it wasn’t until 2017 a few years after reuniting when slowdive dropped their self-titled LP that captivated a whole new swath of fans, who quickly jumped on the bandwagon upon hearing dreamy cuts “Slomo”, “Star Roving”, “Sugar for the Pill” and our personal favorite, “No Longer Making Time” toward the end of the eight-track effort.

I will be perfectly honest and admit that I have not always been the biggest fan of shoegaze. The alt/indie-rock sub-genre that had exploded out of Ireland and the UK in the late 80’s when I was a youngster had escaped me amidst the hair-metal scene and subsequent tidal wave of grunge rock during the early 90’s that my older brother turned me onto. I had completely missed the boat on My Bloody Valentine until much later on and never found myself diving into RIDE or Lush, which left me largely unaware of the movement that has paved the way for more recent acts, including DIIV, Hotline TNT, bdrmm and even Silversun Pickups (Pitchfork actually published a piece on shoegaze’s revival prior to the end of last year, citing slowdive’s “phoenix-like rise from the ashes in recent years” here).

Back inside the Fox where a capacity crowd eagerly awaited their arrival onstage, Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine), Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar) and Simon Scott (drums) made their presence known just after 9 p.m. with the opening track to their fifth full length Everything Is Alive that arrived in September via Dead Oceans. But it was older material such as the ensuing “She Calls” from the band’s 1992 compilation Blue Day that caught us by surprise as the constant wash of guitar distortion and echoing vocals put us in a trance-like state for the remainder of slowdive’s 90-minute performance.

If there was anything from the show we could nitpick, it was probably that we didn’t get to hear “Slomo” after it was played a day earlier at The Majestic Ventura Theater, and while we had considered heading north for that date instead, our first time seeing slowdive was far from underwhelming. “Souvlaki Space Station” followed by “kisses” served as one highlight, while an encore beginning with what has become their most popular hit “Sugar for the Pill” and a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair” that understandably felt psychedelic in its nature provided a euphoric ending for the long drive home. slowdive might not be the loud rock ‘n’ roll concert you are looking for, but there’s no question — effects pedals and all — that they have carved out quite the following since their reformation. Because with the way things have been trending for them of late, we sure hope they don’t slow (no pun intended) down anytime soon.

Setlist:
shanty
She Calls (started, and abruptly stopped by Rachel, then played in its entirety)
Star Roving
Catch the Breeze
Avalyn
skin in the game
Crazy for You
chained to a cloud
Souvlaki Space Station
kisses
Alison
When the Sun Hits
40 Days

Encore:
Sugar for the Pill
Golden Hair (Syd Barrett cover)