The Best Los Angeles Concerts: Dec. 30, 2024 - Jan. 5, 2025

GRAMMY-winning LA EDM godfather Steve Aoki has enjoyed remarkable longevity in a genre where star DJs/producers can burn brightly but briefly. From humble beginnings in his college dorm room to now a globe-trotting superstar – his current tour list alone includes dates in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, and he’s in that ultra-elite group slated for a SpaceX Starship flight – Aoki has retained an admirable work ethic and sense of creative adventure when he could easily have retired years ago (indeed, as an heir to the Benihana restaurant empire he needn’t have worked at all). Yet despite his busy tour schedule, he continues to push himself in the studio with this year’s ninth album, Paragon, being his most innovative to date. Known for raucous live sets that include literal cake throwing, Aoki is the perfect host for this New Year’s Eve Eve celebratory bash at Exchange LA, housed in the old stock exchange building in Downtown LA. Tickets at Ticketweb.

Playing a sold out, four-night, New Year’s-straddling stand at the cozy Largo, Jeff Tweedy is the revered frontman, lyricist and principal songwriter of Chicago alt-country mainstays Wilco. Consistently prolific, his twenty albums over a forty-year career include four with Wilco precursor Uncle Tupelo and, beginning with 2017’s Together at Last, four in rapid succession as a solo artist. His most recent, 2020’s Love Is the King is an exquisite lockdown record that doesn’t directly reference the pandemic, but rather offers quiet folk, country, and indie rock reassurances that all will be well. Tweedy’s solo albums seldom reach out from the speakers but instead take patience to fully appreciate. Written and recorded with his two sons, Love Is the King is no exception, slowly seeping into committed ears with luminously rewarding results.

Enrico Sangiuliano’s career mirrors the story of EDM itself, beginning in the 1990s illegal rave scene in his native Italy, starting to DJ and produce on his home computer (initially specializing in psytrance and hardcore), and then being invited to DJ at one of the raves he frequently attended. Simultaneously, he became an audio engineer and producer who eventually, in the late 2000s, began releasing his own material. Known for his pulsing and melodic “peak time” techno, with mighty kicks, massive synths and festival-oriented tempos, his chart-topping yet utterly authentic sound is well-suited to New Year’s celebrations. Yet Sangiuliano is no superficial, party-hearty spinner. His deliberately transient NINETOZERO label is a time-limited imprint that challenges the notion of timeless, perpetual music. This ethos extends to Sangiuliano’s wonderfully distinctive DJ sets, which create immersive live experiences that revel in the intrinsically evanescent joys and connections of contemporary club culture. Tickets at Dice.

Diplo’s 2022 self-titled album, his most recent, features a full paragraph of guest appearances from the likes of Miguel, Lil Yachty and Busta Rhymes. Coming from a lesser artist this might feel like talent padding or cross-marketing, but Diplo has always been about both capturing and contributing to musical/cultural zeitgeist, exposing emerging micro-scenes and musicians – in the case of Diplo including Jungle, TSHA and Damian Lazarus – to his huge fanbase. The mostly Florida-raised DJ/producer has long tinted his Miami bass base with Dirty South hip-hop, 1980s pop and electronica, but also created a wildly popular dancehall/rave collision with his Major Lazer project; and even more recently, a country-pop alter ego, Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley. A triple GRAMMY winner for his work with Dua Lipa, Skrillex and Justin Bieber, he also boasts production credits including Snoop Dogg, former beau M.I.A., Beyoncé and Madonna. Presented by Insomniac, “Diplo New Year’s Eve” at Avalon Hollywood offers a rare chance to enjoy the superstar maestro in a relatively up-close environment. Tickets at Ticketweb.

All too often, Brit indie icon Morrissey makes headlines for what he doesn’t do: cancelling concerts and not reforming the band with which he made his name, The Smiths - which he blames on estranged former bandmate Johnny Marr. But gossip shouldn’t overshadow his almost indescribably influential body of work with The Smiths in their mere six-year career and fifteen solo albums since (the most recent of which remain frustratingly unreleased). Long a divisive figure among music aficionados, Morrissey disrupted pop lyric writing with his bluntly bleak, wordplay-rich depictions of dour everyday life and often pathetic attempts to escape it. Though a baritone, Morrissey’s singing owes much to female vocalists popular in his youth, including Lulu, Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw. And though it's toned down over the years, his darkly flamboyant performance style has been much-mimicked ever since The Smiths’ first appearance on Britain’s long-running Top of the Pops TV show. Tickets are available at the AXS Marketplace.

For perhaps the most West Coast hip-hop NYE imaginable, swing by the Fashion District’s 1720 to bring in 2025 with revered G-funk MC/producer DJ Quik. Coming up in Compton in the 1980s, Quik was at times homeless and a gang member, before his mixtape prowess steered him to his first record contract in 1990. Scoring a top 10 album with his self-produced ’91 debut Quick is the Name, which included hit single “Tonite,” he has co-existed as a solo artist known for his slick flow and as a producer whose laid-back yet funky signature can be heard on releases by Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg and more. All this may make DJ Quik – his name a reference to the speed with which he can produce songs – sound like a hermit studio cat, but for this New Year’s Eve performance he’ll be joined on stage by a full band and special guests TBA. Tickets at Etix include a complimentary champagne toast at midnight.

As perhaps the quintessential Sunset Strip hair metal band, it’s apt that L.A. Guns has become a repeat NYE headliner at the legendary Whisky A Go Go, which was at the heart of that famously debauched ‘80s scene. Los Angeles through-and-through, the grittily glam quintet originally formed at Fairfax High School and its ever-changing lineup has included members of Faster Pussycat, W.A.S.P., Steel Panther and a certain Axl Rose. Indeed, L.A. Guns main man Tracii Guns was an original member of GnR and, while his own band never reached their giddying commercial heights, L.A. Guns’ first two albums were certified Gold stateside and their 1989 “The Ballad of Jayne” single hit #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sleazy and much more gritty than most of their Strip peers, L.A. Guns has persisted through more than fifty different members, including two rival, concurrent incarnations of the band over recent years. The L.A. Guns that you’ll see on NYE features Guns and the band’s heyday vocalist, Phil Lewis. Tickets at Ticketweb.

Big names typically play multi-night engagements at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club, but this special NYE performance by legendary LA conguero Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band will be strictly one-and-done. Sanchez’s fiery fusing of straight-up jazz, lived-in soul, Latin and South American grooves, and addictive melodies have made him a fixture as both a band leader and sideman for over thirty years. Recognized as one of the most influential percussionists in jazz, the GRAMMY-winning Sanchez is in fact a multi-instrumentalist and singer with a vast catalogue of recorded works that includes more than a dozen Top 50 titles on the Jazz Album charts. His diverse gigs as a sideman have included collabs with the likes of Dr. John, Benny Golson, Ilya Serov, Art Pepper and even Joe Strummer. At age 73, Poncho Sanchez still has “it” in spades, so expect an enthused, frenetic set to see in 2025 in virtuoso style. Tickets at Ticketweb. Note: dinner or a two-drink minimum is required in addition to tickets.

For old punks and young ‘uns looking to boost their OG cred, Black Flag’s January shows at Saint Rocke and The Whisky offer a punk rock release after the orgy of Christmas commercialism and NYE frivolity. Not that the storied LA outfit is without humor, which was always a welcome foil for their outrage and nihilism during their original, ultra-prolific 1976-1986 run. The definitive LA hardcore punk band, the much-changed quartet – only founding guitarist Greg Ginn has been a constant – lists ex-members including prominent multi-hyphenate Henry Rollins, Off!/Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris, and ex Danzig/Social Distortion drummer Chuck Biscuits. Seething, cynical, and sonically adventurous – flirting with metal, jazz, and experimental noise - Black Flag also embodied a tireless DIY ethic and have influenced countless backyard bands, punk and otherwise, and later big names including Nirvana, Slayer and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Long fronted by pro skateboarder Mike Vallely and with only one album in the past 40 years, Black Flag nonetheless retains Ginn’s signature sheer commitment to the cause. Tickets at Etix.

Almost synonymous with the fledgling MTV, which heavily aired their adventurous videos in the 80s, the influence of Missing Persons lingers, most notably in image similarities between MP frontperson Dale Bozzio and one Lady Gaga. Their formula was simple yet hugely effective: marry a group of Frank Zappa alumni virtuosos (literally, in the case of drummer Terry Bozzio) to an ultra-vivacious, glamorous vocalist, who’d also worked with Zappa, to deliver new wave at an unusually high standard. The original lineup also featured longtime Duran Duran guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and Michael Jackson collaborator Chuck Wild, but all eyes were on the colorful, charismatic Dale Bozzio and all ears pricked for futuristically quirky yet insidiously catchy singles like “Walking in LA” and “Destination Unknown.” Today’s Missing Persons is literally missing persons, with Dale Bozzio the only original, but unlike many such legacy acts continues to release albums, most recently 2023’s Hollywood Lie. Tickets at Etix.

Portland’s New Body Electric seamlessly meld organic and digital instrumentation into dreamy, blissful pop for fans of Beach House, MGMT and Tame Impala. Publishing their self-produced creation as a duo of singer/songwriter/producer Aaron Peterson and guitarist/bassist/drummer Evan Smoker but performing live as a quartet or quintet, you may have already heard them, consciously or otherwise, on ad campaigns across the globe. Beachy guitars, playful synths, funky basslines and optimistic beats support ethereal vocals with the combined effect of the sun on your face after days indoors, of hedonistic nights and heady days, of mutual desires satiated and still wanting more. Sonically appropriate support comes from Beauty Queen, the musical alter ego of SF-based multimedia artist Katie Kai. Born and raised in Hawaii, her retro-tinted melodic pop still suggests slightly psychedelic paradise escape and vacation rumination - Kai’s luminous vocals waft above gauzy guitars, burbling beats, and throwback analog keys, apt for both after-hours clubs and early hours connections. Tickets at Dice.