The Best Los Angeles Concerts: Jan. 6-12, 2025

Relentlessly touring behind their low-key, harmony-heavy acoustic folk-pop helped make Jackopierce a 1990s college staple. Formed at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1988, their name an amalgam of those of founding guitarists/singers Jack O’Neil and Cary Pierce, they rapidly earned a fervent North Texas following before spreading their wings nationwide with extensive tours, a very active pre-Internet mailing list, and a beloved ’92 album, Woman as Salvation. Although they signed with a major label, hit the road with the likes of Matchbox Twenty and the Dave Matthews Band, and both fleshed-out and beefed-up their sound, Jackopierce remained outside of the mainstream despite six-figure album sales. Following a five-year hiatus that ended in 2002, the duo has remained sporadically active, including ambitious trip-of-a-lifetime “destination shows” that combined music, food and local culture in each location. This Venice West gig kicks off an extensive 2025 run, offering collegiate nostalgia for their existing fanbase and pleasant evenings of organic, melodic sound for the uninitiated. Tickets at Ticketweb.

Hopscotching genres including hip-hop, R&B, trap and occasionally Gospel, Florida’s Rod Wave has lately been achieving almost Taylor Swift-level sales with his hugely resonant, heartfelt lyricism and massively emotive hooks. His third, fourth, and fifth studio full-lengths – 2021’s SoulFly, Beautiful Mind in 2022, and Nostalgia the following year – all debuted atop the Billboard 200 (a consecutive-years feat only matched by Ms. Swift). There’s something candidly conversational yet colossally significant about Wave’s firsthand tales of growing up, making mistakes, and riding romantic rollercoasters, his potent voice and imaginative use of samples pillars of his pioneering soul-trap signature. Released in October, the prolific rapper/singer’s sixth studio album, Last Lap, “only” debuted at number 2 but is nonetheless a poignant collection of aching love songs and explorations of loss and social anxiety that made many year-end lists. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

With her alluring cross-pollination of credible pop, updated indie folk, and jazz-inflected vocals, the words “Cyn” and “underrated” have frequently appeared in the same sentence over the past decade. But Katy Perry saw her potential early, signing the Michigan singer-songwriter to her Unsub imprint in 2017 and sticking with her through a string of singles and EPs before Cyn’s first full-length, Valley Girl, finally emerged in November. Skipping around dance- and alt-pop, trap, pop rock/pop, and electropop with a subtly irreverent sass, Valley Girl fulfills expectations of the faithful while also serving as an apt intro to Cyn’s world for newbies. And this former Perry tourmate can really deliver on stage, her voice and body language telegraphing genuine feeling behind her nonetheless easily digestible, radio-friendly fare. All credit to Perry for nurturing Cyn’s career in a long-sighted fashion now rare in the industry, but with her own latest album, 143, being critically lambasted, she may be mentoring her own replacement as pop queen. Tickets at See Tickets.

LA’s L. Young is as suave and as smooth as they come, wrapping his velvety yet tremulous vocals around adult contemporary soul and R&B with seemingly effortless grace. Perhaps best known for his viral a cappella, self-harmonizing tribute videos covering the likes of Prince, Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke and Adele, he’s also released four solo albums, co-written songs and produced for artists including Jessy J and KeKe Wyatt, and had his music placed in numerous network TV shows and commercials. Something of a departure for Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club, this one-night-only booking promises to be an intimate evening of expertly delivered love songs originally made famous by Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and other legendary names, alongside some of L. Young’s own smoochy releases. A little early for Valentine’s Day, perhaps, but this is a no-brainer for a date night or even that make-or-break first or second date. Good luck! Tickets at Ticketweb.

At age 19, North Carolina’s Glaive has already been in and out of a major label record deal, headlined tours on both sides of the Atlantic, and released a pair of albums and an array of singles/EPs. A musical product of pandemic lockdown, he started out with bedroom recordings of restless digicore that soon earned him an online following, a manager, and a deal with Interscope Records. That label released his 2023 debut full-length, I Care So Much That I Don’t Care at All, which found him moving away from hyperpop towards emo pop/rock but still brilliantly bottling the teenage experience in sound. Now again an independent artist, Glaive confirms his beguilingly confident pick-and-mix genre fluidity on follow-up May It Never Falter, which dropped in October. With the end of his teens imminent, the album finds him in a confessional mood, discussing romantic tribulations and mental health through raw lyricism while scrolling through emo, trap and EDM-influenced pop. Tickets at AXS.

For Dutch hardstyle sibling duo Sound Rush, technology is a welcome and effective conduit for human emotion rather than a barrier to, or distorter of, feelings. Instantly recognizable even in the oversaturated EDM landscape, as identical twin brothers, Jeroen and Martijn Boeren dance a nuanced, 150-ish bpm line between hardcore and hard trance, with potent beats offset by prominent, deeply moving melodies. This year’s fourth album, Destination, the brothers’ first on their eponymous label, parades Sound Rush’s admirable evolution over the past 15 years, with almost front-to-back anthems. It’s one of those rare records where each euphoric song grabs the ear instantly but also holds it indefinitely, with every drop and break different - and always in a good way. These hard-to-dislike veterans of Intents Festival, Tomorrowland, Defqon.1, and Mysteryland know how to bring it live, and Exchange LA, housed in the city’s former stock exchange building in Downtown LA, will be absolutely throbbing on this Friday night and into Saturday morning.Tickets at Ticketweb.

iHeartRadio ALTer EGO ’25 adroitly gathers a cross-section of alt rock acts spanning the past 40 years. A big draw is St. Vincent, whose latest album, All Born Screaming harnesses 1990s revivalism to very personal themes, rather than her traditional adopting of emotionally self-adjacent personas. In her 2017 single “Los Ageless,” she also penned one of the great contemporary LA anthems - its brilliantly written chorus personifies the former Polyphonic Spree musician’s knack for polysemous lyrics that listeners can interpret to suit. Also on the bill are Calabasas commercial titans Incubus who, while they broke out in the wake of ‘90s nu metal, have since proven to be almost genreless, their masterplan-free authenticity both a throughline and an enduring charm. Then there’s Orange County’s similarly mega-selling but much changed the Offspring, plus The Lumineers, Cage the Elephant, Glass Animals, Fontaines D.C., The Head and the Heart, and a special performance from Måneskin mainman Damiano David. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Mexico City sibling duo Valgur present their arresting synth-pop unconventionally on stage, leaving aside instruments in favor of theatrical, symbolic elements that have included a Bible, cloaks, a teddy bear, and a sword. Born to Christian pastor parents in Juchitan, Oaxaca, their music reflects both their upbringing in worship groups and the deep-rooted traditions of Zapotec culture, the latter especially evident on 2018 debut album Zapandú, which discussed the violence plaguing Mexico at the time with unblinking candor. Five years later, their follow-up full-length Armageddon drifted into dreamwave, Elizabeth Valdivieso’s airy vocals caressing playful, funky synths. While heavily 1980s styled, Valgur bring their own little world of captivating weirdness and post-punk experimental to the table, unapologetic and single-minded rather than pandering to fashion. Yet, however otherworldly their sound and energetic stage show may get, at their core Valgur is connecting through broadly relatable themes of family, faith, gender normativity, and indigenous identity – and making it all eminently danceable. Tickets at Live Nation.

Here’s a chance to see seasoned rockers accustomed to theaters and amphitheaters at the 250-capacity Mint (and to enjoy the venue’s unusually imaginative bar food while you’re at it). Vocalist Graham Bonnet’s prodigious resume includes stints with Rainbow, the Michael Schenker Group, and Alcatrazz. It’s his voice on enduring classics like Rainbow’s “Since You Been Gone” and “All Night Long,” both UK top 10 singles at the turn of the 1980s. At age 77, Bonnet has retained his genre-atypical Miami Vice x James Dean image – and those hit-making pipes. Hailing from the following generation of top-tier hard rockers, bassist/vocalist Marco Mendoza has played with Whitesnake, Journey, Thin Lizzy and many others, as well as releasing a quartet of solo albums since 2007. A flamboyant performer and virtuoso player, his background as chiefly a bassist and sideman belies his ability as a natural frontman whose supple singing has been honed as a backing vocalist on some of the world’s biggest stages. Tickets at Dice.

This evening of Christian-tinted post-hardcore may trigger major mid-aughts nostalgia for some. Because that’s when Seattle-based quintet Emery most resonated with listeners, their 2005 album The Question making number 45 on the Billboard 200. While longtime aficionados still cling to the band’s stunning debut, The Weak’s End - they’re playing the 2004 album in its entirety on this tour - its follow-up kept that record’s edginess while adding poppier vocal melodies and wavy synths. Also in 2005, Aaron Gillespie – screamo royalty as drummer/clean vocalist with Floridian genre standouts Underoath – formed The Almost, a solo project that morphed into an enduring collaborative band fronted by Gillespie. With The Almost, Gillespie casts his stylistic net wider than Underoath ever has by ably embracing post-grunge and alt rock. By 2015, The Almost was mothballed while Gillespie drummed for Paramore, but they returned in 2019 with Fear Caller and tonight will revisit their acclaimed debut album, Southern Weather, plus other fan favorites. Tickets at Ticketmaster.