Boston based synth-pop outfit Passion Pit came through Los Angeles for what seemed to be the 100th time on Tuesday, December 7. Yet devotees of their 2009 release, Manners, packed into the Palladium ready to hear their keyboard-heavy tunes as if it were their first show. This performance was a victory lap of sorts as the band winds down and prepares to do it all again sometime next year when their sophomore LP is released. more ›

The Buzzcocks’ Saturday night appearance at Club Nokia, featuring a scheduled run-through of their first two albums in their entirety, reached its emotional climax about fifteen minutes into their set, as guitarist Pete Shelley led the band through the military/ waltz beat of “Sixteen” and intoned the lines: “And I wish I was sixteen again/ Cause things would be such fun All the things you do and that are said/ Well they’re much more fun than when you’re twenty-wa-wa-wa-wa-one!” more ›

Already anointed by many as a star in the making, even though the release of her self-titled debut album is still months away, Toronto born singer/songwriter Anjulie proved worthy of the early accolades with a first-rate 40 minute performance Wednesday night. more ›

For the second straight year, the Hip Hop Live tour, which teamed up top emcees with the instrumentation of ten plus piece band, rolled into the House of Blues. The lineup for this year's tour featured Little Brother, David Banner and Talib Kweli. Once again the band backing the three acts was the Los Angeles-based Rhythm Roots Allstars. more ›

It's difficult to determine what rocked the most on Friday night at Alex's Bar in Long Beach. Was it Sun Trash's suggestive singer or guest percussionist, Sexual Chocolate, that made their set a highly entertaining mix of live performance theatre and rock and roll? more ›

LAist was able to check out a couple of concerts last weekend, in two completely different venues. The program included some very patriotic affair, with the California Phil providing all of the fireworks. These concerts were mentioned as last week's classical pick, and did not disappoint. Although the program was exactly the same, the orchestra was able to adjust accordingly to the acoustics at each venue and offered a different interpretation but the same unbridled enthusiasm at each performance. The founder-conductor Victor Vener (who sounds like Jeff Bridges) engaged the orchestra and enthralled the audience throughout the concerts, with interesting anecdotes to make the pieces more personal to the audience, including a touching story involving his brother. more ›

By Roger Park more ›

Ladytron evokes a cold, ethereal and graceful mood, so how is that I wanted to start a mosh pit all night? more ›

Tuesday nights in LA can be slow in the Spring; the energy of activation to get prettied up and brave the slick streets is much higher than that required to crack open a beer and settle on the couch. But when a heat wave hits with its concomitant restlessness, suddenly a weeknight outing is not only desired but sorely needed. It was in this fitful state I found myself making my way down a back alley off Cahuenga Blvd to check out songstress Audra Mae and finding a performance alight with the weather. more ›

A few weeks ago, LAist was invited to see Herbie Hancock perform live, at the Nissan Live studio in Century City. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music is a series of performances attended by fans (plus a friend) for an intimate show of around 400 that features A-list artists, and released only on Yahoo! Music. Previous shows mentioned by LAist include Iggy and the Stooges, Lenny Kravitz, PJ Harvey, and Wyclef Jean. Other artists featured include Beck, Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5, the Mars Volta, and Trisha Yearwood. more ›

Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman brought his sweet, shy, Burt Bacharach-meets-the-Avalanches sound to the Henry Fonda Theater on Friday and kicked out almost every jam he's got: "Maple Leaves," "Black Cab," "The Opposite Of Hallelujah," a jittery new song and even an Arthur Russell cover. Only bummer was that the show barely lasted an hour and a half, but at least he'll have some fresh tunes to play next time -- and there will definitely be a next time. more ›

Carbon/Silicon took their punk rock pedigrees to the stage at the El Rey Wednesday night and kicked out an inspired, energized set that left the crowd of several hundred white 40-year-olds ecstatic that they’d stayed out past their bedtimes. more ›

For a band named after the Hawaiian word for "hello," Aloha seemed a little shy during their too-brief opening set for the Velvet Teen on Tuesday night. But the scrawny indie kids were confident about their musicianship, which was impressive indeed. The band played with a blend of Death Cab For Cutie's melodic sense and the Sea and Cake's jazzy virtuosity, with drummer Cale Parks unleashing a torrent of polyrhythms from his lightning-like hands. Aloha didn’t lean too heavily on their new material, only playing one song from last year’s Light Works EP, but the energetic set didn’t suffer for it. The young-ish crowd, likely there to see Velvet Teen (or Black Moth Super Rainbow across the hall on the main stage), was attentive and even supportive; it’s too bad the band had to cut things short. More photos after the jump.
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When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level of talk going on in the comments: more ›

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level of talk going on in the comments: more ›

The Kooks and The Morning Benders showcase a plateful of indie pop rock goodness at The Echo on February 8, 2008. more ›

I went to my 15th Tori Amos concert last night. I still remember the high school days of camping outside of Tower records at 7am on a Saturday morning to get tickets to the her shows, or that time I drove 3 hours in the snow to see her play in Boston on my 21st birthday. And then there was the time we got up at 6am to see her do a show in Central Park for Good Morning America. I even endured a full Alanis Morrissette concert in Vegas to see Tori play second in a double bill. Or there was that time in 1996 I stood in the rain for 2 hours in my L.L. Bean jacket waiting for her to sign autographs and take photos after the show. more ›

Everybody's doing it, right? I don't pretend to be hip or edgy or rebellious. I mean, I grew up on Billy Joel and Madonna and Motown and then the Gen Xer's basic dichotomy of KROQ versus Top 40 in the 90s. I find it increasingly harder to fall in love with albums in the downloading age, and am one of those people who obsessively compiles mixed cds for friends and iPod playlists full of individual tracks from a broad sampling of artists. The three places I'm most thankful for getting me turned on to new music would be my fellow LAisters, the awesome site 3hive, and good ol' KCRW. So without further ado, here are my pics for the 2007 releases I most enjoyed: more ›

One look at the bill for Night Two of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas one might think with all of the INDIE flavor that that LA's "other" rock station was behind the programming. But alas it was KROQ and Night Two featured great performances by Modest Mouse, Muse, Feist, Silversun Pickups, Jimmy Eat World, Spoon and a surprise unannounced performance from the Killers.
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Nothing says Merry Christmas like mosh pits, sweaty fans and loud rock music, unless of course it is KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas. Night One, the more "edgy" of the two nights of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas featured performances by rising stars Paramore, legends Bad Religion and chart toppers Linkin Park.... more ›

Happy Holidays LAist Readers! Here's a nice treat for you. We have three pairs of tickets to giveaway for Tori Amos at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE on Dec 16 at 8:15 p.m. If you haven't been Downtown in awhile, the new LA Live development across the street from the STAPLES Center is really starting to change the neighborhood. All very exciting and all within a short walk from the Red and Blue lines. To enter... more ›

If you like classical new music, then why aren't you coming to Monday Evening Concerts? This is the real deal and a one of the kind music series in Los Angeles. Last Monday night's concert was our Classical Pick of the Week and there was good reason for it. The nearly sold out concert of the young and elderly gathered at Zipper Hall at Downtown's Colburn School of Music. The night started with the... more ›

There is rarely an audience at an LA club show so fully and intensely captivated as the crowd at The El Rey was last night. Leave it to Dap Kings guitarist / emcee Binky Griptite who is a master at his craft: warming up the crowd and introducing the boogieing Miss Sharon Jones. Jones & the Dap Kings performed for solid two hours, no opening act necessary (although the 60's and 70's dusty and... more ›

Bob Thompson’s passionate preview of last night’s Biblical Proof of UFOs show at Spaceland told the story of one of the truly great lost Los Angeles bands. Three unassuming nice guys who subverted the local scene for six-some years, then dissolved into the ether. Bob’s reverence is not undeserved. In their prime, BPUFO mastered the art of dynamics better than any band I’ve ever seen. I always pictured them crammed into a sweaty practice... more ›

Vampire Weekend, decked out in polo shirts and loafers, played their blend of indie rock meets afro-pop to a packed house at The Echo last night. The show was sold out and the band did not disappoint despite singer Ezra Koenig’s ailing vocal chords. Armed with enhanced energy and a couple of new songs since the last time they were in LA, Vampire Weekend proved that they are very deserving of the buzz currently surrounding... more ›

I feel at home at hip hop shows. I am in my element. I am around people who love the same kind of music I love. This past Wednesday night, however, for the first time in my show-going life I was at a hip hop show as an outsider. Nerdcore rap was something that I had only vaguely heard of, all I knew of it was rap with a whole lot of references to... more ›

Beck, looking oddly like David Spade, played a not-so-secret show last night at the Echoplex. (Or should I say Beck-o-plex?) The “only North American date of the tour” was to give his new band a chance to get their live feet wet before heading out for some bigger shows in South America. A lucky crowd of about 700 people crammed into the club and were treated to a set comprised of mostly greatest hits... more ›

New Jersey singer/songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs (MySpace), whose song "Fuck Was I" was on , is arguably best known for her connection with the controversial and self-described "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton, whose championing of her music led to visits on her MySpace page reportedly leaping from 2,000 plays a day to a whopping 60,000. more ›

"It's so nice and quiet and beautiful in here... from here the lighting kinda looks like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica." -- Neko Case, melting the heart of every geek in the house while taking in the mysterious angles and lighting inside the Frank Gehry-designed concert hall. Neko Case closed out the first half of Walt Disney Concert Hall's 2007-08 Songbook Series last Friday to a rapt, grateful, near-sellout audience of about 2,000. The... more ›