The sleaze and the cheese were turned up to 11 during ’80s-inspired heavy metal comedy act Steel Panther’s JVC- and Spin-sponsored set at the Key Club in Hollywood last night (July 21). Openers Blacklist Union celebrated their new CD with black leather- and-bombast- fueled rock, and Albatross warmed things up with a swamp-metal fest. And since […]
Read More »
It’s good to be Matchbox Twenty. The band feted this fact with a triumphant two-hour set Sunday night at the Staples Center. Supporting its 2007 greatest hits album, “Exile on Mainstream,” with the band’s first national tour in more than four years, the quintet tapped unlikely but compelling openers Alanis Morissette and up-and-coming alt rock group Mute Math for an […]
Read More »
British singer-songwriter James Blunt has achieved perhaps the weirdest distinction in pop history. As he explained at his sold-out show Thursday at the Wiltern, he has written the most popular wedding song in Britain — his breakout hit, “You’re Beautiful,” from his double-platinum debut album, “Back to Bedlam.” He’s also written what he said has […]
Read More »
When Los Angeles-based psychedelic rock trio the Entrance Band plays a show, it’s a happening. Not only because band members take sound and style inspiration from the ’60s counterculture that coined the term, as they demonstrated during a short set Sunday at the new Arthur Magazine Sunday Evenings music series at McCabe’s in Santa Monica. […]
Read More »
LOS Angeles-based indie-rock band Dengue Fever has earned international acclaim for its stylish, genre-bending take on Cambodian pop. On its third album (in stores Tuesday), the band channels its passion for Khmer rock and ’60s psych into an increasingly unique musical hybrid. “Seeing Hands” is sultry Cambodian-Middle Eastern noir, while “Tiger Phone Card,” is a […]
Read More »
You can teach a dirty old dog new tricks, but he’ll still be adirty old dog, and thankfully, Social Distortion embodied this maxim attheir sold-out House of Blues show in Anaheim last night (Dec. 11).Mike Ness and Co. delivered new takes on old favorites, proving thatafter 30 years in the SoCal punk scene, the band’s […]
Read More »
What a short but eclectic trip it’s been. At age 30, John Mayer may seem too young for a career retrospective. But his three-hour-plus show Saturday at the Nokia Theatre was just that. The night explored his musical evolution in the six years since his multi-platinum debut, “Room for Squares,” with three equally compelling segments: […]
Read More »
John Fogerty has made peace with his past and his present, and his live show is all the better for it. He finally settled his notoriously acrimonious dispute with Fantasy Records, which kept him from playing Creedence Clearwater Revival songs in concert for decades. His bitterness gone, he’s written some of his most powerful material […]
Read More »
Diana Ross has done her best to halt time. Impeccably coiffed and made up Tuesday for her 90-minute set at the Gibson Amphitheatre, the regal entertainer still manages to look much like she did at the height of her career, rather than her age of 63. Her stage show was pure old-school glitz, from the […]
Read More »
Women with guitars are nearly as common as men with guitars these days; not to mention women with harps, pianos and samplers. Finding a niche is no easy task. Up-and-coming L.A. singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop is doing so with a distinctive talent for darkly seductive, genre-bending songs that dabble in everything from folk and pop to […]
Read More »
