Live Music Reviews

Lord Huron make their hometown fans at Kia Forum see how they’ve gone from burgeoning indie-rock band to newly minted arena act

November 7, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Lord Huron with Feist //
Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
November 2nd, 2025 //

One of the most redeeming qualities about following music and having the opportunity to address it in this space is watching the trajectory of any act that comes into our purview and strikes a chord with us. We see that kind of progression often manifest when an artist or band books larger rooms and bigger spaces for their latest tour, starting out in clubs of 500 or less and eventually graduating to ballrooms, theaters and amphitheaters that can hold as many as 10,000 fans.

But playing arenas requires a different level of “reach” aka popularity in layman’s terms, and if there’s an indie-rock outfit that I didn’t anticipate headlining arenas in an era when pop stars, rappers and DJs can fill seats at a much higher clip, Lord Huron would have to be on that list.

After all, the group’s continued growth is quite remarkable when you consider it was only 15 years ago that Ben Schneider (guitar, vocals, harmonica) founded Lord Huron as a solo project after relocating to Los Angeles from New York. A native of Michigan who drew inspiration from his visits to Lake Huron, he had been writing music even before studying visual arts while attending college in Ann Arbor as well as in France and then pursuing a career as an artist.

It was in LA, however, where Schneider’s dream as a musician would be realized after recording some material on his own that resulted in a couple of EPs and subsequent calls for him to perform live. That’s when he asked his childhood friends back home to join him on a wild ride that has only picked up more momentum since those early beginnings in 2010.

Schneider has surrounded himself with some different sidekicks since then, but Lord Huron’s cinematic sound and evocative imagery have always exuded modern country-western vibes. While their debut LP Lonesome Dreams laid the groundwork, it was the group’s 2015 follow-up Strange Trails that ushered in mainstream appeal and commercial success after the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” shined a light on “The Night We Met” during its first and second seasons.

Any artist or band that has an album go certified platinum early on in its career — especially in this day and age — could easily rest on its laurels, and in spite of Strange Trails eclipsing that prestigious mark here stateside, there has been no letdown for Lord Huron. Their ensuing full length Vide Noir that they dropped three years later would reach as high as No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart with such standouts as “Ancient Names (Part I)”, “Wait by the River”, “When the Night Is Over” and the title track bolstering the 12-song effort, ultimately cementing their status as one of the most exciting folk-based outfits in the past decade.

The indie-folk genre has felt increasingly crowded ever since the Garden State soundtrack came out in 2004 with Sub Pop and Saddle Creek, among other record labels, investing resources into upstarts like Iron & Wine and Fleet Foxes before Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers would take things to another level. Those aren’t the only sonic-adjacent acts that come to mind when we consider how many others — including Father John Misty, Band of Horses, Local Natives, Grizzly Bear, The Paper Kites, Of Monsters and Men, Volcano Choir, and Blitzen Trapper to name quite a few — could also be lumped in with Lord Huron on the same bill now if push came to shove.

That’s actually something to celebrate given the uncertainty around the future of music and technology, but it is why we were surprised and at the same time equally impressed to see Schneider and company headlining the Kia Forum with a capacity of 17,500 to culminate a 44-date tour over the last five months that stretched from the U.S. to Europe and the UK before wrapping up along the West Coast.

I can’t and won’t claim to be a die-hard Lord Huron fan, but it was only a little more than four years ago when I caught them at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in what proved to be one of the first concerts I witnessed coming out of an 18-month lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic days after covering My Morning Jacket at the Santa Barbara Bowl (read our show review here). And it’s one that I can foresee myself always remembering — mainly because of the skeleton cowboy Schneider portrays as a visual metaphor for a psychonaut who’s exploring the space between life and death — as it was honestly too memorable to forget given the spooky environs that paired with the onstage production. The album that they were touring in support of was the first they had issued any singles for believe it or not, and 2021’s Long Lost proved again with “Mine Forever”, “Not Dead Yet” and “I Lied” (with Allison Ponthier) leading the way that they are not a one-trick pony.

As thoughts from the Hollywood Forever replayed in my head as I arrived in Inglewood on the first Sunday after turning the clocks back, walking into an arena-sized venue for a Lord Huron show felt slightly strange. Having spent two nights at The Forum in September for the final dates of Nine Inch Nails’ “Peel It Back Tour” with Boys Noize when every seat in the house was spoken for, this wasn’t quite the same turnout. Nevertheless, it was rather evident Lord Huron have upgraded their western-style stage production — complete with a pay phone Schneider pretended to operate at the outset — since the release of The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 in July to mark the four-piece’s fifth studio album and arguably its most complete one yet.

In fact, watching more than half of the songs on The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 come to life in front of a hometown crowd only gave us a deeper appreciation for Schneider’s songwriting capabilities and the evolution of Lord Huron’s sound with each album cycle. There was the upbeat, almost frenetic “Who Laughs Last?”, which features spoken word verses throughout by actress and director Kristen Stewart on the record, to kick things off plus two other Cosmic Selector highlights in the form of “Looking Back” and “Bag of Bones” that followed. The setlist assembled for this year’s tour incorporated every one of Lord Huron’s albums, and Strange Trails certainly got its due with four consecutive songs before parting ways — “La Belle Fleur Sauvage”, “Frozen Pines”, “Meet Me in the Woods” and their biggest hit “The Night We Met” that was accompanied by a female and male actor who role played as a couple in love before going their separate — leading into the encore break.

Schneider and his cohorts Mark Barry (drums, percussion, vocals), Miguel Briseño (bass, keyboards, percussion, theremin) and Tom Renaud (guitar, vocals) seemingly didn’t stop there, though. With three touring members Brandon Walters (guitar, vocals), Misty Boyce (keyboards, vocals) and Waylon Rector (guitar, vocals) mixing into the equation, “The World Ender” opened the encore like there was a stallion galloping through the desert at full speed to make it five straight from their sophomore smash. Whether it’s country and folk or rock and pop, there’s a little bit of something for everyone coming through Lord Huron’s music. Regardless of where you come down on it, you can’t argue — at least seriously — that it’s not an eclectic. Of course, that’s what makes them a major draw at this point and one we can tell is progressively hitting its stride.

LORD HURON

Setlist:
Who Laughs Last
Looking Back
Bag of Bones
Ends of the Earth
The Ghost on the Shore
Wait by the River
Secret of Life
Used to Know
Ancient Names, Pt. I
Long Lost
Twenty Long Years
Watch Me Go
I Lied
La Belle Fleur Sauvage
Frozen Pines
Meet Me in the Woods
The Night We Met

Encore:
The World Ender
Nothing I Need
Not Dead Yet
Life Is Strange

FEIST

Setlist:
I Feel It All
My Moon My Man
A Commotion
How Come You Never Go There
Hiding Out in the Open
Borrow Trouble
Let It Die
1234

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Allison Ponthier, Band of Horses, Blitzen Trapper, Boys Noize, Feist, Grizzly Bear, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Kia Forum, Kristen Stewart, Local Natives, Lord Huron, My Morning Jacket, Nine Inch Nails, Of Monsters and Men, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Paper Kites, Volcano Choir

The Flaming Lips & Modest Mouse team up for one of the summer’s best co-headline tours as we witnessed at the Santa Barbara Bowl

September 12, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

The Flaming Lips

By Josh Herwitt //

The Flaming Lips & Modest Mouse with Dehd //
Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
September 5th, 2025 //

A couple of weeks ago, we made the case that summer continues to be live music’s biggest and most important season after Louisville five-piece My Morning Jacket closed out their summer tour with three dates in California (see more photos from the shows here).

While the industry has always thrived when the days are long and weather is warm, one of the draws about seeing live music in the summer is the co-headline tour. Back in 2023 there was not only MMJ and Fleet Foxes sharing the iconic Hollywood Bowl’s stage (read our show review here), but also The Revivalists and Band of Horses that subsequently proved to be a fun mix to catch on a night out under the stars (see more photos from the show here).

Last summer didn’t offer much as far as co-headline tours go, and while having Phantogram open for Kings of Leon (see our photos from the show here) marked one of the best double bills from 2024, this year has brought together some new pairings and one standing out right away was psych-rock veterans The Flaming Lips joining forces with indie-rock pioneers Modest Mouse for “The Good Times Are Killing Me” tour across 18 U.S. cities.

Considering the longevity of both bands, each has spent countless hours on the road. Modest Mouse, after all, are no strangers to the co-headline tour, and while no pun was intended there, we do say that after watching them share the stage with Brand New back in 2016 on the heels of releasing their sixth studio album Strangers to Ourselves (read our show review here). Isaac Brock, who has served as the project’s lead vocalist, principal songwriter, guitarist and only constant member since forming out of the Pacific Northwest in the early 90’s, has kept things afloat even with founding members Eric Judy (bass, acoustic and rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and of course the late Jeremiah Green (drums, percussion) no longer in the picture.

It has already been more than four years since Modest Mouse put out new music, but they also remain one of a select few indie acts to craft a unique setlist for each show — something you can expect from a jam band — and it’s what has compelled us to be “in the room” whenever they come to town. There are plenty of bigger fans of jam bands than yours truly, yet there’s something about not following the same script every night that makes a Modest Mouse concert feel special.

Modest Mouse

Surprisingly, no material on 2021’s The Golden Casket was touched when Brock and his sidekicks came to the Santa Barbara Bowl for their first visit in almost two decades. Instead, they leaned into older tunes from 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2004’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News, 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica, 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West and even 1999’s Night on the Sun EP that was only made available in Japan. Highlights throughout their 75-minute set included several deep cuts starting with “Fly Trapped in a Jar” and “Paper Thin Walls” before “Perfect Disguise” and “Styrofoam Boots” came later as well as the new, unreleased “Dogbed/Sheetrock” that provided a change of pace sonically without Brock’s usual shout-bark vocals. What we found a bit ironic was not hearing the song the tour was named after, though we realized with a little bit of online research that it wasn’t played at any point during the tour and only twice so far in 2025.

The Flaming Lips, meanwhile, are still one of a kind and going strong for 40-plus years. This wasn’t our introduction, having seen them as early as 2003 when they were touring in support of what has become their landmark 2002 LP Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and the feeling of being totally overstimulated by Teletubbies and other costumed dancers onstage at the age of 18 has been burned into my memory forever. Since then, we have caught the Lips in a variety of other settings — from festivals to their own headline gigs — but maybe none better than when they took a sold-out audience in Los Angeles for a ride at The Theatre at Ace Hotel (now known as the United Theater on Broadway), the historic movie palace that was built in 1927 and only seats 1,600 (read our show review here).

As much as its music sounds different from Modest Mouse’s, there is enough crossover appeal with the Oklahoma City outfit led by founding member and frontman Wayne Coyne for a co-headline tour like this to work. In fact, this wasn’t the first time the two groups have played the same night at the Bowl after the “Unlimited Sunshine Tour” that also featured Kinky, Cake and De La Soul stopped through in 2002. And when we saw Modest Mouse celebrate the quarter-century mark for The Lonesome Crowded West just a few years ago at The Wiltern, they covered “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain” on the Lips’ 1990 studio effort In a Priest Driven Ambulance during the encore, so to assume that there is no familiarity between them would be foolhearted. That said, any enthusiast of 90’s rock could get behind what occurred over the next several hours and despite the venue’s tight curfew making for an early start time of 6 p.m., you could not ask for a more picturesque scene on a warm and beautiful Friday evening as Chicago three-piece Dehd kicked things off well over a year after their fifth full length Poetry dropped on Fat Possum Records to favorable reviews.

With all of the antics and shenanigans that transpire during a Flaming Lips performance, there’s no way someone could be bored by the constant barrage of confetti cannons, inflatable stage props, oversized costumes and trippy visuals projected on the large screen behind them. If so, we probably don’t want to hang out with them. There’s so much happening up there it’s easy to get lost in the chaos, but it’s really the music and not the production that has convinced us to come back for more. A cover of “The Golden Path” by The Chemical Brothers that the Lips contributed vocals on, for instance, got its own permanent spot midway through, and Coyne’s homage to Ozzy in the form of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” was the most recent tribute to the legendary Prince of Darkness we have witnessed after Primus at LA’s Greek Theatre (read our show review here) and MMJ at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (read our show review here) delivered their own to loud applauses.

Coyne and his cohorts have been honoring the 20th anniversary of Yoshimi for the past three years and their setlist for this tour, unlike Modest Mouse’s, did not deviate at all from one city to the next. Usual live staples “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)”, “She Don’t Use Jelly” and crowd favorite “Do You Realize??” brought things to a fever pitch prior to the final homestretch that saw them end with The Soft Bulletin single “Race for the Prize”, which we remember was the opener for that initial encounter at the Hollywood Palladium. A lot has changed for the Lips in that span, whether it has been welcoming in new cast members or collaborating with household names such as Miley Cyrus, Thievery Corporation, Erykah Badu, Kesha, Nick Cave, Neon Indian and more. Coyne, for one, doesn’t appear to be slowing down at 64 years old, with his charisma channeling a love and zest for life he hasn’t lost, and we sure hope somehow he never does.

THE FLAMING LIPS

Setlist:
Sleeping on the Roof
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2
Turn It On
Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
Five Stop Mother Superior Rain
The Golden Path (The Chemical Brothers cover)
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)
She Don’t Use Jelly
Do You Realize??

Encore:
War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
Race for the Prize

MODEST MOUSE

Setlist:
King Rat
Float On
Fly Trapped in a Jar
Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine
Dogbed/Sheetrock
Paper Thin Walls
Ocean Breathes Salty
Perfect Disguise
Night on the Sun
Dance Hall
Dashboard
Little Motel
Third Side of the Moon
Styrofoam Boots
Spitting Venom

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Band of Horses, Black Sabbath, Brand New, CAKE, De La Soul, Dehd, Erykah Badu, Fat Possum, Fat Possum Records, Fleet Foxes, Greek Theatre, Hollywood Palladium, Kesha, Kia Forum, Kings of Leon, Kinky, Miley Cyrus, Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Neon Indian, Nick Cave, Ozzy Osbourne, Phantogram, Primus, Red Rocks, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Flaming Lips, The Revivalists, The Theatre at Ace Hotel, The Wiltern, Thievery Corporation, United Theater on Broadway

My Morning Jacket continue to reinvent themselves while celebrating 20 years of ‘Z’ during two more dazzling performances at Red Rocks

August 22, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

My Morning Jacket with Melt //
Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
August 15th-16th, 2025 //

When it comes to experiencing My Morning Jacket in the flesh, there is no place I would rather see the Kentucky-bred band take the stage than at Red Rocks.

Colorado’s world-famous, open-air amphitheater has become one of the quintessential music venues — along with The Fillmore in San Francisco and Palace Theatre in Louisville — to catch a MMJ show and a rite of passage for many fans thanks, in part, to frontman Jim James dubbing it “the birth canal of the universe” in 2019.

That’s why I have made the trip out from Los Angeles each of the last three times that 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) have come through Denver to headline two nights “on the rocks.”

What still amazes me after attending quite a few concerts at Red Rocks for almost two decades is that the experience doesn’t seem to grow old or tired, and that rings even more true every time I have seen Jacket perform there (read our First Times coverage from 2023 here). A lot of bands have become too popular to book the 9,525-person venue, opting for larger, more lucrative arenas and stadiums instead, but the psychedelic, jam-adjacent five-piece — for whatever reason we have yet to understand — has not garnered audiences nearly as large despite working with an outside producer for the first time ever on its 10th LP is that came out in March.

That honor, no less, would go to three-time Grammy winner Brendan O’Brien, whose decorated career includes studio time with AC/DC, Pearl Jam, The Offspring, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan, Rage Against the Machine, the Killers and Bruce Springsteen. The result is a tight, 10-track effort that doesn’t rank among MMJ’s best but fits in quite seamlessly with the rest of their catalog. While some of the album finds them exploring new sonic avenues on lead single “Time Waited” and “I Can Hear Your Love” that sounds as if it could have been written by Buddy Holly or Roy Orbison, the back half is — or we should say is — what stands out with “Beginning from the Ending”, “Squid Ink”, “Die for It” and “River Road” all having the potential to be long-standing earworms.

But this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the group’s seminal full length Z, which saw it move away from the heavy reverb that dominated their earlier material to incorporate other genres such as reggae and dub, with Friday’s performance at Red Rocks marking the first of five dates that Jacket is allocating to celebrate the 2005 release on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

MMJ has a penchant for extending and stretching certain songs live, and though James and company didn’t veer off the beaten path for most of Z, they did unleash the longest “Dondante” since their 2019 version between “Creation Rock” and “Ship Rock,” with this one clocking in at a whopping 23 minutes. The unconventional second set that followed delivered its fair share of highlights — from Melt vocalist Veronica Stewart-Frommer assisting on “Here in Spirit” from James’ solo work to a shortened rendition of “Cobra” that was subsequently reprised during “Squid Ink” and flowed right into “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2” — but maybe none bigger than their live debut of Steely Dan’s hit single “Do It Again” considering no one could have seen it coming or had such on their Red Rocks bingo card.

The recent passing of Ozzy Osbourne, conversely, had been on my mind for the last several weeks with tributes pouring in all over the world, and I knew from social media that some of the members in Jacket were Black Sabbath fans. I had sent a direct message to Blankenship on Instagram after Night 1 with a request for some Sabbath to remember the late Prince of Darkness, and as I put on my Vol. 4 T-shirt on Saturday when I arrived for Night 2, something was telling me that my wish might actually come true. A woman in the parking lot made a comment in a sort of “rock on” tone as she passed by my car not long after I arrived, making me feel for a second like I had chosen the wrong gig to broadcast my affinity for heavy metal’s pioneers.

I wasn’t going to be fazed that easily, though. My Vol. 4 T-shirt had become an omen of good luck after watching Primus the week before cover “N.I.B.” with Ty Segall on the mic during their star-studded stop at LA’s Greek Theatre (read our show review here), and my love for Ozzy ran too deep for me to change shirts (yes, I had an extra). His death, albeit less surprising given his age, moved me much in the same way that Chris Cornell’s did when it happened in 2017. The farewell concert in Birmingham just weeks prior had serendipitously proved to not only be a fitting send-off for Sabbath, but also a larger-than-life figure. And what better place to show some appreciation for an absolute rock god than at Red Rocks?

Sure enough, MMJ would have plenty of more surprises up their collective sleeves for Saturday as they touched on all 10 of their albums to create a career-spanning setlist in a matter of two and a half hours. Crowd favorites “Phone Went West” and “Steam Engine” came early, with the former getting a quick tag of Bruce Hornsby’s “Mandolin Rain” down the homestretch. Yet, the biggest moment came in the encore after dedicating “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” to Diana Ross. That’s when Jacket officially put a bow on the weekend with the haunting, eponymous opener to 1970’s Black Sabbath for the first time in close to 15 years, leaving room for Broemel to briefly offer his own Tony Iommi impression. By that point, I was completely satiated and satisfied. The ensuing “One Big Holiday” was an extra cherry on top, and as I took one last look at the natural beauty that has built one of music’s most sacred spaces, I thought to myself how sweet this life can be with both MMJ and Red Rocks in it.

MY MORNING JACKET – AUGUST 15TH

Setlist:
Set 1 (Z)
Wordless Chorus
It Beats 4 U
Gideon
What a Wonderful Man
Off the Record
Into the Woods
Anytime
Lay Low
Knot Comes Loose
Dondante (longest version since 8-2-2019)

Set 2
How Could I Know
Here in Spirit (Jim James song) (with Veronica Stewart-Frommer)
Half a Lifetime
Everyday Magic
Cobra
Squid Ink (> “Cobra” reprise >)
Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2
Where to Begin
Do It Again (Steely Dan cover) (live debut by MMJ)
Dancefloors

Editors’ Note: “Z” 20th anniversary show.

MELT – AUGUST 15TH

Setlist:
Veronica’s Apology / The Idiot
Shy
The Door
Waves
Stay for the High
Sour Candy
Plant the Garden

MY MORNING JACKET – AUGUST 16TH

Setlist:
The Dark
It’s About Twilight Now
The Way That He Sings
X-Mas Curtain
Phone Went West (with “Mandolin Rain” tag) (>)
Steam Engine
I’m Amazed
Aluminum Park
Smokin’ From Shootin’ (>)
Victory Dance (>)
Circuital
Holdin on to Black Metal (with Veronica Stewart-Frommer)
Spring (Among the Living) (with “Dear Prudence” tag)
Still Thinkin
Feel You
Least Expected
Love Love Love
Out in the Open
Lemme Know
Die for It

Encore:
State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) (Jim James song) (dedicated to Diana Ross) (>)
Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath cover) (first time since 2010)
One Big Holiday

MELT – AUGUST 16TH

Setlist:
Fake Romantic
More than Ever
Inside
Waves
Walk to Midnight
Stay for the High
Plant the Garden
Surrender
Harvest Moon (Neil Young cover)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Brendan O'Brien, Bruce Hornsby, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly, Diana Ross, Greek Theatre, Jim James, Melt, My Morning Jacket, Ozzy Osbourne, Palace Theatre, Pearl Jam, Primus, Rage Against the Machine, Red Rocks, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Roy Orbison, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, The Beatles, The Fillmore, The Fillmore Auditorium, The Fillmore SF, The Killers, The Louisville Palace, The Offspring, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tony Iommi, Ty Segall

From covers of Black Sabbath & King Crimson to surprise guests Bill Burr, Matt Stone & half of Tool, Primus wow at LA’s Greek Theatre

August 11, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Primus with Ty Segall //
Greek Theatre – Los Angeles
August 6th, 2025 //

If you are a fan of live music and have been following the current rock landscape lately, you probably already know the last few months have been a rough time for drummers.

Legendary bands like The Who, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters have all experienced changes behind the drum kit recently while well-established mainstays in the jam scene such as Umphrey’s McGee and Goose have also had to find new blood on the skins.

But another rock-leaning act that saw its timekeeper step off the stage — and rather abruptly — was Primus, the 90’s alt-metal group led by bassist, vocalist and founding member Les Claypool that has cycled through its share of drummers since first forming under the name Primate more than 40 years ago in the Bay Area.

Whether it has been Vince Parker, Mark Edgar, Peter Libby, Robbie Bean, Tim “Curveball” Wright, Jay “Jayski” Lane, Bryan “Brain” Mantia or Tim “Herb” Alexander laying it down, Claypool and guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde have seen the drum throne become a revolving door for the majority of their careers. So with Alexander leaving the band unexpectedly for a third time in October and revealing that he “lost his passion for playing,” Claypool and LaLonde were once again faced with the unfortunate reality the two close friends would become accustomed to after leaving their former band Blind Illusion and reforming Primus at the end of 1988.

Rather than going back to the well or only accepting referrals for the role, they decided to open up the process to anyone and everyone in their search for “the greatest drummer on Earth.” What came as a result was at least 6,200 submissions followed by a multi-week audition process at Claypool’s studio in Northern California that the band would coin the “Primus Interstellar Drum Derby.” The competition was stiff, with an All-Star cast that included Thomas Pridgen, Nikki Glaspie and Thomas Lang in the mix, but the honor ultimately went to John Hoffman, a relatively unknown from Shreveport, La., whose style and impeccable chops blended perfectly with what Claypool and LaLonde like to cook up when they plug in.

Primus are one of those rare bands that can bring jam fans and metalheads together into the same space. As we have said before after witnessing his Fearless Frog Brigade mark their first tour in two decades with a sold-out gig at The Wiltern a couple years ago (see more photos from the show here), Claypool remains among rare company as a one-of-a-kind musician who has made his living at the intersection of the alt-metal and jam scenes. When you hear a song by Primus, you can tell almost immediately it’s them. Much of that has to do with Claypool’s unmistakable spoken-word vocals of course, though the way he continues to captivate listeners with his innovative bass playing still has Primus sounding like nothing else out there to this day.

It has been nearly eight years since Primus have dropped an album, and there’s a sense with Hoffman officially in the fold now that new material can be expected at some point. But the first order of business for Claypool and LaLonde had to be getting back on the road with their new comrade since performing Rush’s A Tribute to Kings in 46 North American cities on their last headlining tour.

Ty Segall

That’s not to say Primus haven’t been active. We have actually caught them each of the last two years, first at the Hollywood Bowl with Puscifer and A Perfect Circle for Sessanta (read our show review here) and then at Acrisure Arena out in the desert for Sessanta V2.0 (read our show review here).

With the “Onward & Upward” tour this summer providing 25 more opportunities for Claypool, LaLonde and Hoffman to continue building their chemistry onstage, we can tell that Primus are beginning to hit their stride as they introduce fans to “Hoffer.” On a weeknight at LA’s charming Greek Theatre, things began with an onslaught of noise from prolific garage rocker Ty Segall, whose 45-minute opening set was highlighted by a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive”. The singer-songwriter from Laguna Beach put out his 17th studio album Possession in May and his penchant for honoring the greats, from Bob Dylan to T. Rex, is no secret to those who are familiar with his music. While his overall energy this time didn’t quite match what we remember being impressed by back in 2016 at the Teragram Ballroom (read our show review here), Segall’s ability to shred at a moment’s notice is always evident when he takes the stage. Coincidentally enough, his hometown friends were actually sitting beside me and they were definitely feeling it as enough chunky riffs filled our earholes to make us wish that “Sloppo” would tour with San Jose stoner/doom metal duo Sleep in the future.

The sonic similarities between Segall and Primus remain few and far between, but that didn’t take away from what proved to be a magical evening under the stars … and there were plenty of them at the Greek in addition to Claypool, LaLonde and Hoffman. The three-piece opened with two tracks off 1997’s Brown Album, and although this wouldn’t be the same sort of exhibition Primus staged last month at Red Rocks Amphitheatre when seven songs from it were performed, the surprises that ensued could give any fan of 90’s music instant FOMO.

It had come to my attention last spring when I attended Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme’s benefit show that comedian Bill Burr can hold his own on the drums, and even after noticing him outside the venue before entering, it somehow didn’t dawn on me that he was anything other than a spectator. A colleague had mentioned to some of us between sets that he spotted Tool drummer Danny Carey, who had previously filled in for Alexander, and as soon as I saw two kits set up on the stage, I knew we were in for something special. So when Burr walked out with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor after “Bob’s Party Time Lounge” and broke into “Too Many Puppies” on Frizzle Fry, the crowd essentially lost its collective mind and we would have as well if we weren’t busy trying to capture it from behind the camera. What’s more is that Burr totally nailed his part, locking in from the start while Chancellor came equipped with a gift that just so happened to be one of Claypool’s beautiful Pachyderm bass guitars.

Surprises as such are often reserved for the encore, yet considering this was only the third song and we were in one of the biggest entertainment capitals in the world, more were likely in store. The details were certainly unknown, but my Black Sabbath Vol. 4 T-shirt did draw a comment from one of the band’s crew members, which made me believe that a cover might be forthcoming after seeing on social media that Primus uncorked “N.I.B.” in New Orleans with Puddles Pity Party offering his best Ozzy impersonation. My inclination would eventually be proven true after Primus dove into some Oysterhead before crushing King Crimson staple “Thela Hun Ginjeet” with South Park co-creator Matt Stone on the drums, except this time it was Segall manning the mic and sending the place into an absolute frenzy as the Prince of Darkness’ maniacal face was projected on the video screen.

And if that wasn’t enough, Primus gifted us a “DMV” tease prior to launching into “The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Part 3)” and followed it up with “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” that received a roar of applause. Not every Primus setlist will feature the lead singles on 1991’s Sailing the Seas of Cheese and 1993’s Pork Soda, but this rendition of “My Name Is Mud” was extra dirty — in a good way — with Carey finally taking his place stage right to Hoffman and unleashing a dual drum solo that had Claypool slapping his strings in unison, creating a double-bass effect that you could feel in your chest and down to your bones.

How could a Primus show be complete without a bass solo or better yet, a bass off? From solely our perspective, it really couldn’t be. So after a brief encore break, Claypool did what only a bass master would do and brought out MonoNeon, who’s well-known for his work with Prince, for Tales from the Punchbowl single “Southbound Pachyderm” and one of our personal favorites. As the two low-end wizards traded licks down the finish line, it wasn’t very hard to consider this one of the best Primus shows I have ever caught and there have been many. Their recipe of swamp funk mixed with metal might not be everyone’s cup of tea. For us as well as anyone in attendance who found themselves chanting the band’s paradoxical inside joke “Primus Sucks!” — because if you know, you know — however, it never seems to get old no matter what age any of us are.

PRIMUS

Setlist:
Restin’ Bones
Bob’s Party Time Lounge
Too Many Puppies (with Bill Burr) (and Justin Chancellor)
Dirty Drowning Man
Groundhog’s Day (>)
Polka Dot Rose (Oysterhead cover) (partial) (> “Groundhog’s Day” reprise)
Thela Hun Ginjeet (King Crimson cover) (with Matt Stone) (with “Dueling Banjos” tease)
Over the Falls
John the Fisherman
N.I.B. (Black Sabbath cover) (with Ty Segall) (with “Bassically” intro)
The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Part 3) (preceded by “DMV” tease)
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
Welcome to This World (>)
My Name Is Mud (with Danny Carey)

Encore:
Southbound Pachyderm (with MonoNeon)

Editors’ Note: “Amos Moses” and “Mrs. Blaileen” were on the written setlist, but “John the Fisherman” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” were played instead.

TY SEGALL

Setlist:
Void
Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd cover)
Candy Sam
Buildings
Possession
Feel
Wave Goodbye (Ty Segall Band song)
Love Fuzz (slowed down)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: A Perfect Circle, Acrisure Arena, Bill Burr, Black Sabbath, Blind Illusion, Bob Dylan, Foo Fighters, Goose, Greek Theatre, Guns N' Roses, Hollywood Bowl, Iron Maiden, Josh Homme, King Crimson, Matt Stone, MonoNeon, Oysterhead, Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, Primus, Primus Interstellar Drum Derby, Prince, Puddles Pity Party, Puscifer, Queens of the Stone Age, Red Rocks, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Rush, SESSANTA, SESSANTA 2024, SESSANTA 2025, SESSANTA V2.0, South Park, T. Rex, The Belasco, The Who, The Wiltern, The Wiltern Theatre, Tool, Ty Segall, Ty Segall Band, Umphrey's McGee

After canceling last year’s arena tour, The Black Keys try to forge a new path forward while making their debut at LA’s Greek Theatre

June 9, 2025 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

The Black Keys with The Heavy Heavy //
Greek Theatre – Los Angeles
June 3rd, 2025 //

There are certain bands over the past two decades that didn’t attain mainstream success until years after their formation.

One that always stood out is Modest Mouse with the 90’s alt-rock group not reaching radio listeners and late-night TV viewers until their fourth LP Good News for People Who Love Bad News came out in 2004 and boasted Grammy-nominated hit “Float On” despite previously releasing three excellent albums over a four-year stretch at the start.

The Black Keys are another that immediately comes to mind, considering the bluesy garage-rock duo comprised of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums) issued five albums in a matter of six years before cracking the Top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200 with its 2010 breakthrough Brothers.

While the Danger Mouse-produced effort climbed as high as No. 3 on the charts here in the states, it was the Keys’ subsequent studio material — 2011’s El Camino and 2014’s Turn Blue — that saw the two-piece level up to the No. 2 and No. 1 spots, respectively. We remember being struck by the latter upon first listen (read our album review here) that ended up as one of our favorites in a crowded field that year (see our picks here).

Auberbach and Carney have put out four more albums since then, with 2019’s Let’s Rock, 2021’s Delta Kream and 2022’s Dropout Boogie landing inside the Top 10 — an impressive feat considering that one was just covers of hill country blues songs they recorded “in about 10 hours.”

Things took a turn last spring when the two childhood friends from Akron unveiled Ohio Players and had to stomach not only the mixed reviews from critics, but also the fact that it marked their first album to not make the Top 20 in 18 years. Ironically enough, lead single “Beautiful People (Stay High)” still managed to receive Grammy nominations for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song even if only two other songs were dropped in advance of the 14-track LP.

The charts weren’t the only indication that Ohio Players lacked the same fanfare as the Keys’ previous albums, though. That became even more apparent when the five-time Grammy winners had to cancel their North American arena tour due to poor ticket sales, yet still hard to believe for a band that in 2013 was nominated for Album of the Year. Because as Carney told Rolling Stone earlier this year after the pair fired its management: “Shit happens.”

Just how bad did it get? We will let you be the judge, but they had to forfeit almost $10 million in ticket sales and agreed to play an “America Loves Crypto” concert in their hometown for “a lot of money” as the 2024 elections loomed. If that doesn’t sound at least a tad desperate, then we might be working in the wrong business and aren’t afraid to admit it.

Auerbach and Carney, nonetheless, weren’t waiting to put last year’s turmoil behind them. A month into this year, they had already announced the first leg of their “No Rain, No Flowers” tour beginning in May and revealed the same name for the Keys’ next album a week before a string of U.S. shows scheduled at smaller, yet iconic venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Berkeley’s historic Greek Theatre.

What’s also hard to believe is that the Keys have never stepped foot onstage at LA’s own Greek Theatre in all their visits to the entertainment capital. It probably wasn’t the way they wanted to make their debut after more than two decades on the scene, but that’s how fast the band’s ascent was in the early 2010’s as it bypassed midsize rooms and went straight from headlining clubs to arenas in a couple of years.

For as much commercial success as The Black Keys have attained however, their live show lacks the same element of surprise that has made Jack White one of today’s best rock acts to catch in the flesh after witnessing him command the stage during his sold-out shows at Hollywood Palladium and Santa Barbara Bowl (read our show review here) last month in electrifying fashion. Auerbach and Carney, on the other hand, aren’t ones to switch up their setlist every night when they definitely could, although it was a pleasure to hear them dust off “Too Afraid to Love You” for the first time since 2015 in LA.

The rest of the evening went pretty much according to plan, with a cover of Canned Heat’s 1968 hit “On the Road Again” that was followed by the title track on their 13th full length coming in August. So far only two songs off No Rain, No Flowers have been revealed, including “The Night Before” that came midway through the Keys’ 90-minute affair at the Greek. What might have been more noticeable toward the end of their two-song encore was no Ohio Players material had been performed, and while that has certainly been the trend on this tour, we would venture to guess it’s not merely by coincidence. Even their recent single “Babygirl” didn’t make the cut, and we would have loved to catch personal favorites like “Just Got to Be” on 2006’s Magic Potion, “Strange Times” from 2008’s Attack & Release and “Shine a Little Light” that opens 2019’s Let’s Rock. If anything, it’s a reminder of just how expansive The Black Keys’ catalog is at this point, and as much as we enjoy hearing “Weight of Love” get its moment in the spotlight, there is something about dialing up the same setlist that feels beneath where a band of this caliber should be. That might be asking a lot of Auerbach, Carney and their cast of touring sidekicks, but as fans from their early days, we know it’s what would keep us coming back for more.

THE BLACK KEYS

Setlist:
Thickfreakness / The Breaks / I’ll Be Your Man
Your Touch
Gold on the Ceiling
Fever
Wild Child
I Got Mine
Everlasting Light
Next Girl
The Night Before
Lo/Hi
Weight of Love
Too Afraid to Love You (first time live since 2015)
Tighten Up
On the Road Again (Canned Heat cover)
No Rain, No Flowers
Heavy Soul
Howlin’ for You
She’s Long Gone

Encore:
Little Black Submarines
Lonely Boy

Editors’ Note: The entire show can be viewed here.

THE HEAVY HEAVY

Setlist:
Parakeets
Miles and Miles
Lemonade
Man of the Hills
All My Dreams
Cherry
Go Down River
Happiness
One of a Kind

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Billboard Hot 100 Festival, Canned Heat, Danger Mouse, Greek Theatre, Hollywood Palladium, Jack White, Modest Mouse, Red Rocks, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Black Keys, The Heavy Heavy

Jack White shows his SoCal fans why he’s Hall of Fame material with sold-out performances at Hollywood Palladium & Santa Barbara Bowl

May 19, 2025 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

Jack White at Hollywood Palladium

Photos courtesy of Jack White // Written by Josh Herwitt //

Jack White //
Hollywood Palladium & Santa Barbara Bowl – Los Angeles & Santa Barbara
May 12th-13th & 15th, 2025 //

If you talk to most people across the music industry and those who follow music, you won’t hear a lot of reverence for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Even after being established more than 40 years ago, it has about as much clout as the Grammys do these days and let’s be honest … that’s not saying much.

But every once and a while the RRHOF nominating committee gets it right, and this year’s induction of The White Stripes felt appropriate along with Soundgarden and OutKast (we know what you’re thinking, but the latter actually is far from being the first hop-hop act to earn the honor).

The gritty, bluesy garage rock that poured out of Detroit natives Jack White (guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals) in the late 90’s and early 2000’s until their parting was unlike anything anyone had heard and seen at that time from only two rock musicians — let alone two who were married to each other for the band’s first few years but publicly presented themselves as siblings before eventually divorcing — playing their respective instruments.

And although he won’t publicly admit this, much of that had to do ultimately with Jack’s creativity and virtuosity as a guitarist. His distinct and unmistakable style that’s often highlighted by his high-pitched, screeching solos has propelled him into elite company with other legendary six-stringers like the late Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen or the great Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton.

Since the Stripes called it quits back in 2011 and Meg decided to put down the sticks for good, Jack has continued writing music at a prolific rate as a solo artist first and foremost but also for his other projects that include The Raconteurs and supergroup The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart of The Kills.

Jack White at Santa Barbara Bowl

His sixth solo album No Name, which was surprise released last summer and initially distributed in the form of a free 12-inch vinyl with all purchases made at any Third Man Records location, ranked as one of our favorites in 2024 (see our picks here) and was named in several other “Best of 2024” lists.

Nevertheless, we would have to wait more than six months after first hearing the new material to catch Jack and his new cast of sidekicks in Southern California. Missing out on tickets for his album release shows in more intimate settings such as Lodge Room and The Mayan in October, our next opportunity to see him in the flesh came early this year thanks to the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim. It was on a rainy Saturday night in late January that we saw White perform about half of the songs from No Name during a sold-out gig he announced at the Grove of Anaheim and sold tickets for just a few days prior.

With shows on his “No Name Tour” already booked in LA and Santa Barbara this spring, it was a little surprising to see Jack book another one in SoCal ahead of those dates, but that’s what one of the last remaining guitar heroes continues to do more than three decades into his career whether he’s making new music or playing live: surprise.

The support for this tour has followed very much in the same vein, with Jack selecting a local band from each city he visits and revealing who it will be with only hours to go before showtime. That’s not why we spent two straight nights at the Hollywood Palladium as we did three years ago at LA’s YouTube Theater (read our show review here) — or at the Shrine Auditorium in 2012 — and embarked on another trek up the coast to the Santa Barbara Bowl after witnessing Jack’s debut there in 2018 for his third studio effort Boarding House Reach (read our show review here), however.

A lot has changed for Mr. White since those tours. Outside of bassist Dominic Davis, his backing band has been turned over with Patrick Keeler (The Greenhornes, The Raconteurs and The Afghan Whigs) replacing Daru Jones on drums and Bobby Emmett subbed in for Quincy McCrary on keyboards. He’s also married again for a third time — and we all know how much he loves the number three with Jack White III serving as one of his two pseudonyms — with his wife Olivia Jean growing her own career in the music industry and contributing at times to his, including recently providing bass or drums for some tracks on No Name. And not that it’s any of our business, but it does seem like they are a “good match” for each other in true Motor City fashion (no pun intended). Plus, we would be remiss to not bring up the fact he has moved away from his strict “no phones” policy, which saw him partner with Yondr up until his return to the stage last year. Watching him shred one axe after the next through a sea of phones in LA might have felt a bit different than what we have come to expect after seeing more than a dozen of his shows, but we can’t say it completely ruined the experience for us with Jack on top of his game and the crowd’s energy level never wavering throughout his 90-minute sets.

All things aside not related to his music, the 12-time Grammy winner still remains a must-see every time he comes town and for us that’s anywhere within a reasonable driving distance. Because as his sound expands further into new territory — this time leaning even harder into his garage-rock roots with some punk elements — and his artistry evolves deeper with each album, Jack’s shows never get old no matter how many evenings you have previously spent with him. Sure, there was a decent amount of overlap in the setlists across these latest three concerts we witnessed, yet Jack’s penchant for improvisation in the live space continues to seep into the overall DNA of his performances and offers a level of ambiguity (in a great way) for fans. Of course a place in the Rock Hall is certainly well-deserved for a multi-hyphenate musician whose biggest hit has been heard blasting out of PA systems in arenas and stadiums at major sporting events for almost 20 years now. In fact, when’s the last time the home team didn’t play “Seven Nation Army” at one point during a game? If you really want to understand what makes Jack so special though, you have to experience the magic of his live shows for yourself.

MAY 12TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
Instrumental Jam
Me and the Devil Blues (Robert Johnson cover) (Soap&Skin version)
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Little Bird (The White Stripes song) (with “Me and the Devi Blues” outro)
Hotel Yorba (The White Stripes song)
What’s Done Is Done
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song)
Why Walk a Dog?
Sixteen Saltines
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song) (with “Cannon” outro)
Fell in Love With a Girl (The White Stripes song)

Encore:
Encore Jam
Archbishop Harold Holmes
I’m Slowly Turning Into You (The White Stripes song)
What’s the Rumpus?
Lazaretto
Underground (with “Me and the Devil Blues” outro)
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

MAY 13TH – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)
That’s How I’m Feeling
Black Math (The White Stripes song)
Bombing Out
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Let’s Build a Home (The White Stripes song)
What’s the Rumpus?
High Ball Stepper
Hello Operator (The White Stripes song)
I Cut Like a Buffalo (The Dead Weather song)

Encore:
Encore Jam
Steady, as She Goes (The Raconteurs song)
Archbishop Harold Holmes
Ball and Biscuit (The White Stripes song) (with “You Can’t Get That Stuff No More” by Tampa Red snippet)
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

MAY 15TH – SANTA BARBARA BOWL

Setlist:
Intro Jam
Old Scratch Blues
That’s How I’m Feeling
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (The White Stripes song)
It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking)
Little Bird (The White Stripes song)
Love Interruption
Cannon (The White Stripes song)
The Union Forever (The White Stripes song)
Tonight (Was a Long Time Ago)
Broken Boy Soldier (The Raconteurs song)
Lazaretto
The Hardest Button to Button (The White Stripes song) (shortened version; >)
Archbishop Harold Holmes

Encore:
Encore Jam
Icky Thump (The White Stripes song)
That Black Bat Licorice
Ball and Biscuit (The White Stripes song)
Underground
Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes song)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Alison Mosshart, City National Grove of Anaheim, Eddie Van Halen, Grove of Anaheim, Hollywood Palladium, Jack White, Jimi Hendrix, Lodge Room, NAMM Show, Olivia Jean, OutKast, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, Santa Barbara Bowl, Shrine Auditorium, Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Soundgarden, The Afghan Whigs, The Dead Weather, The Greenhornes, The Kills, The Mayan, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Van Halen

‘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

By Josh Herwitt //

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 2 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 very 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

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 1 Comment

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

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 Angelino 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

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 2 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

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

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

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

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

April 29, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 5 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)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, First Times, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: bdrmm, Blur, Blushh, Bon Iver, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella sideshows, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, DIIV, Drab Majesty, Fox Theater Pomona, Goldenvoice, Hotline TNT, Jungle, Modest Mouse, My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Ride, Silversun Pickups, Slowdive, Syd Barrett, The Bellwether, The Glass House, The Majestic Ventura Theater

Maynard James Keenan rings in 60th birthday on ‘Sessanta’ tour as Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle & even Tool rock Hollywood Bowl

April 25, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 4 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Sessanta: Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle //
Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
April 20th, 2024 //

4/20 has become an infamous day of celebration for the cannabis community over the years, but for those of us who paid a visit to the Hollywood Bowl last Saturday, the 2024 edition of April 20th will be forever remembered as a celebration of Maynard James Keenan.

Following two “Cinquanta” shows a decade ago at LA’s Greek Theatre to ring in his 50th birthday, the singer and primary lyricist for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer has expanded upon that concept this spring for his 60th trip around the sun with a full-fledged tour from coast to coast he’s calling Sessanta.

Serving as a “resurrection” and “expansion” of Cinquanta over 21 dates in the U.S., the performances were intended to follow a similar format featuring A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and another (90’s rock) act Keenan has been close friends with sharing the stage throughout the evening. Failure had earned that honor back in 2014, but this time it was Primus’ turn. We have always been fans of Les Claypool, and after seeing his Fearless Flying Frog Brigade reunite last year for their first concerts in two decades — including a sold-out stop at The Wiltern (see photos from the show here) — we were excited to see the legendary bassist paired with one of our favorite vocalists.

The setlist for the “Sessanta” tour has been anchored mostly by three- or four-song stretches from each band before reaching a total of 30 tunes over the course of three hours, but with MJK’s ties to LA where his music career took off in the early 90’s and became what it is today, we had a feeling that something special was in store on this particular night. It started with the birthday boy guesting on Primus’ “Tommy the Cat” and continued with A Perfect Circle guitarist James Iha — also of Smashing Pumpkins fame — joining his bandmates for “The Hollow” off the alt-rock supergroup’s debut LP Mer de Noms. Then there was original members Paz Lenchantin and Troy Van Leeuwen appearing onstage later to revisit APC’s first single “Judith” that’s nearing the quarter-century mark

But even with Primus drummer Tim Alexander sitting in on APC’s “Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums” and APC guitarist Billy Howerdel doing the same for Primus’ “Southbound Pachyderm” well past the gig’s midway point, the biggest surprise had to come after all three projects performed their contribution to the Sessanta E.P.P.P., the new three-song split EP with a track by each band that Keenan spearheaded and worked on to release just prior to the tour. Because when guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey and bassist Justin Chancellor walked out after MJK had finished singing Primus’ “Pablo’s Hippos” with Claypool, the capacity crowd erupted like it would at a Tool show.

For only one song, that’s exactly what we got. Somewhat reminiscent of the first Cinquanta event when Carey, Chancellor and Zac Rae of Death Cab for Cutie backed Keenan on “Sober” toward the end of the gig, this time they went with something even more fitting geographically and aggressive as Jones began playing the opening riff to “Ænema” on his signature Gibson Les Paul. MJK’s feelings about the City of Angels, after all, have never been a secret to his fans ever since Tool unleashed their sophomore studio album Ænima in 1996, but he stills spends a lot of time working here despite all of the materialism and plasticity that eventually compelled him to make his home in Jerome, Ariz. With many of his colleagues and friends in LA though, he doesn’t have much of a choice but to come back. And as he told us before saying goodbye via Puscifer’s “Grand Canyon” under the Bowl’s iconic bandshell, he has been fortunate to know some of the “best musicians in the business.” What he forgot to mention was … he’s right there with them and always has been.

Setlist:
Act 1: A Perfect Circle
The Package (A Perfect Circle song)
Disillusioned (A Perfect Circle song)
The Contrarian (A Perfect Circle song) (with Carina Round)

Primus
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers (Primus song)
Too Many Puppies (Primus song) (partial)
Follow the Fool (Primus song)

Puscifer
Galileo (Puscifer song)
Horizons (Puscifer song)
Indigo Children (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)

Act 2: Primus
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver (Primus song)
My Name Is Mud (Primus song)
Tommy the Cat (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan)

Puscifer
Flippant (Puscifer song)
Momma Sed (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)
Bullet Train to Iowa (Puscifer song)
The Underwhelming (Puscifer song)

A Perfect Circle
The Hollow (A Perfect Circle song) (with James Iha on guitar and Tim Alexander on drums instead of Josh Freese)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (A Perfect Circle cover) (with Les Claypool on upright bass with bow)
Weak and Powerless (A Perfect Circle song)
The Outsider (A Perfect Circle song)

Act 2: Puscifer
The Humbling River (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)
The Remedy (Puscifer song)

A Perfect Circle
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums (A Perfect Circle song) (with Tim Alexander)
Judith (A Perfect Circle song) (with Paz Lenchantin on bass and Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar)

Primus
Southbound Pachyderm (Primus song) (with Billy Howerdel, Josh Freese and Gunnar Olsen)

Sessanta E.P.P.P.
Kindred (A Perfect Circle song)
No Angel (Puscifer song)
Pablo’s Hippos (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan)

Tool
Ænema (Tool cover) (with Tool) (Les Claypool sang with Maynard)

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

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: A Perfect Circle, Cinquanta, Death Cab For Cutie, Failure, Foo Fighters, Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Les Claypool, Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Maynard James Keenan, Primus, Puscifer, SESSANTA, SESSANTA 2024, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool

With no ‘End’ in sight after 25 years, Explosions in the Sky make a statement at The Wiltern as one of post-rock’s most essential acts

January 31, 2024 by Josh Herwitt 3 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Explosions in the Sky with Kraus //
The Wiltern – Los Angeles
January 25th, 2024 //

It wasn’t until more than a decade after their inception when I first took notice of Explosions in the Sky.

I had somehow missed the boat on “Friday Night Lights” when the film came out while I was in college — despite my daily consumption of sports media and eventually finding a pathway into the industry — and again when it debuted as a TV series in the fall of 2006 shortly after receiving my diploma.

But with streaming services like Spotify fairly new to the marketplace at that time, it was one of your classic, word-of-mouth situations several years later from a former roommate who introduced me to Explosions’ music. Remember when we used to do that before we all succumbed to algorithms?

It should go without saying that the Texas outfit was a fitting choice for the soundtrack to a project about high school football in the Lone Star State. Explosions’ emotive and all-instrumental compositions have always felt right in a cinematic setting, and in that regard it’s not entirely surprising they have worked on four other soundtracks subsequently, with their latest arriving in 2021 for a documentary that premiered on PBS about a place they were all familiar with as native Texans: Big Bend National Park.

By that point, five-plus years had already passed since the release of 2016’s The Wilderness and there was no telling when we might hear new music from Chris Hrasky (drums), Michael James (guitar, bass, keyboards), Munaf Rayani (guitar, keyboards, percussion), Mark Smith (guitar) and the group’s newest member Jay Demko (bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion).

But any uncertainty surrounding the future of Explosions wasn’t completely cleared up last April when they announced their first North American tour in four years. Labeling the 16-date stretch of shows as “The End Tour” instead had fans quickly wondering if it would be their last time onstage together, and there’s no doubt that would have been a big loss to the post-rock community. Because in a relatively small scene led by international acts such as Sigur Rós (Iceland), Mogwai (Scotland) and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Canada), having Explosions alive and well to lead the charge stateside remains crucial to the genre’s longevity here and around the world.

So when Explosions revealed a few months later that the name of their eighth studio LP would be End, whatever speculation that happened to still be floating around was finally dispelled. The press release accompanying the announcement, after all, explained that the seven-track effort was a concept album with a starting point of “an ending — death, or the end of a friendship or relationship.” And though the message is somber, it’s actually somewhat of a return to form sonically after seeing them incorporate more ambient sounds and electronics on The Wilderness. It didn’t garner the same amount of praise from the music media as the aforementioned, but End does represent another chapter in the quintet’s ever-growing catalog, with lead single “Ten Billion People” setting the tone at the outset and “Moving On” earning a spot as one of our favorite songs from 2023 (see our picks here).

The new material had unquestionably drew us back in after their longest gap between releases, and our excitement only grew at the end of last year upon learning that Explosions had extended “The End Tour” into early 2024 by unveiling another set of 16 shows — ultimately offering several more opportunities to catch them live.

There aren’t many, if any, post-rock bands in the U.S. that have carved out a stronger and more loyal following than Explosions with as much commercial success. Booking six shows in California for the continued stretch of “The End Tour” certainly indicated that as they took the stage at The Wiltern last Thursday to mark the second of two gigs in LA before stops in Ventura, San Diego, Anaheim and San Francisco, and as we came to discover, so did the setlist with a number of changes being made after Wednesday’s performance inside the historic Art Deco theater.

On this night, a third of the songs came from 2003’s seminal The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place with “First Breath After Coma” and “The Only Moment We Were Alone” bookending another epic journey of “cathartic mini-symphonies” filled with peaks and valleys over the course of 80 minutes. Nevertheless, what started 25 years ago as Breaker Morant and eventually morphed into Explosions in the Sky has stood the test of time as one of post-rock’s most essential acts. Fortunately for us, there appears to be no end — or should we write End? — in sight anytime soon. Let’s just hope things stay that way for a while longer.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

Setlist:
First Breath After Coma
Ten Billion People
The Birth and Death of the Day
All Mountains
Magic Hours
Greet Death
Your Hand in Mine
The Fight
The Only Moment We Were Alone

KRAUS

Setlist:
for now
Given
Anyone
between
Fell For It
Bum
Glass Valley

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Breaker Morant, Explosions in the Sky, Friday Night Lights, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Kraus, Mogwai, Sigur Ros, The Wiltern

After going viral this year, Royal Blood play The Wiltern again & show a sold-out crowd in LA why they are one of rock’s most exciting acts

November 13, 2023 by Josh Herwitt 2 Comments

By Josh Herwitt //

Royal Blood with HotWax //
The Wiltern – Los Angeles
November 9th, 2023 //

For any of you reading this who were unfamiliar with Royal Blood prior to May 28th, there’s probably a good chance that you have heard of them now.

Mocking a lackluster and “pathetic” crowd at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend — it really was but you can judge for yourself here — before flipping them off might not have been the way Mike Kerr (lead vocals, bass, keyboards, piano, guitar) planned for the project he has fronted since early 2011 to go viral, but that quickly became his reality by the following day.

The music media, not surprisingly, seized on the moment, permeating our news feeds and timelines with an onslaught of headlines all pointing to Kerr’s onstage banter and behavior in Scotland. Merely a week later, he was on BBC Radio 1’s airwaves to address the incident with his sidekick Ben Thatcher (drums, percussion, piano), confessing that he “felt like a sort of pro wrestler” and “pantomime villain” during the performance but “meant no offense … and applause is optional.”

Despite all of the subsequent backlash Royal Blood received online, it hasn’t exactly put a dent in their ticket sales — at least in a major U.S. metropolis like LA with endless opportunities to see live music — less than six months later. Take last Thursday’s sold-out gig at The Wiltern for instance, as the English alt-rock duo packed one of the larger-sized venues that they are playing in North America this fall, with the historic theater filled from the reserved pit and GA floor sections up to the mezzanine and balcony for the band’s first time there in six years. It was also the first time in almost two decades visiting that I have witnessed a legitimate mosh pit break out.

Fresh off a nine-day break after their latest shows in the UK and Ireland last month, Kerr and Thatcher were primed for a big night under the bright lights of LA. Much like their appearance more than a year ago at what was then the brand-new Ventura Music Hall (read our show review here), these lads were once again joined by touring member Darren James (keyboards, backing vocals) as their newer studio material starting with 2021’s Typhoons sees them leaning more into synthesizers and keyboards than sticking with the original recipe of only bass and drums they cooked up for their first two albums. What results is a more dance-forward sound that has continued on their fourth LP Back to the Water Below, which was released in September and serves an excellent complement to the rest of their catalog.

The grungy, post-punk tendencies from their fellow countrymates in HotWax, who were making their debut in the states, proved to pair well with the evening’s main course, and by the time Royal Blood walked out around 9 p.m. to a thunderous applause like the ones they are used to, we were ready to scarf up everything that Kerr and Thatcher put on our plates. They fittingly began with “Mountains at Midnight” — the lead single on Back to the Water Below — and then took us back in time, unleashing the blistering one-two punch of “Boilermaker” and the ensuing “Lights Out” at one point to set the tone for the rest of the night.

Those of us who have caught Royal Blood on previous tours know what they’re capable of when they take the stage, but it’s always exciting to see how their new songs will play out in front of an audience. The fuzzed-out “Shiner in the Dark” and already fan favorite “Triggers” both delivered, and though you won’t necessarily find the album’s title represented in the tracklist like their previous two full lengths, it does come from a lyric during the piano-led single “Pull Me Through” with a groove that will have you singing along or at least nodding your head to by the final chorus, offsetting some of the machismo we have become accustomed to from both Kerr and Thatcher. There was “Tell Me When It’s Too Late” as we neared the finish line, with a triplet feel on the bass drum that the late John Bonham would be most likely proud of, and even though it’s the shortest track on Back to the Water Below at well under three minutes, it’s as big and bombastic as anything else they have done.

Since our last encounter, the core of Royal Blood’s setlist hasn’t changed with “Come on Over”, “Hook, Line & Sinker”, “Little Monster”, “How Did We Get So Dark?”, “Loose Change”, “Out of the Black”, “Ten Tonne Skeleton” and of course “Figure It Out” all making a return this time. While we can’t say we don’t enjoy hearing these songs when they are performed, it would be nice if Royal Blood mixed things up a little more or expanded upon what they have already recorded to make every show feel special. Yet, in fairness, they did bring out HotWax’s Tallulah Sim-Savage to play guitar on “Waves” at the start of their encore — something we hope they will consider doing more of in the future. We would also like to see their concerts extend past the 90-minute mark, even if it were only for a little bit longer, and there’s no question that should be the case in due time.

Regardless of our commentary on Royal Blood’s current live show, Back to the Water Below has easily ascended, alongside Queens of the Stone Age’s In Times New Roman…, to be one of our favorite rock albums of 2023. It shares the same accessibility 2014’s self-titled effort and 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark? have, and at the same time, sonically still manages to move the needle forward enough for now.

We can imagine at this point that Royal Blood would just like to forget BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, and we are definitely not interested in dwelling over past indiscretions anymore. Kerr and Thatcher have not only the bravado and charisma, but also the chops to stake their claim as a top-notch rock act for a long time. And hey, maybe a little notoriety never hurts, too.

Setlist:
Mountains at Midnight
Come on Over
Boilermaker
Lights Out
Shiner in the Dark
Hook, Line & Sinker
Triggers
Trouble’s Coming
Typhoons
Pull Me Through
Little Monster
How Did We Get So Dark?
Tell Me When It’s Too Late
Loose Change
Out of the Black