The Best Los Angeles Concerts: Nov. 18-24, 2024

One of the few remaining “has-to-happen” band reunions that, well, hasn’t happened is that between strutting former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach and his erstwhile bandmates. This reluctance to reform, apparently on the part of the band rather than Bach, is both frustrating and admirable, considering the arena shows and tasty paydays that would doubtless ensue for the storied hard rock quintet. In the meantime, both acts have been at the Whisky A Go Go level for years, with both playing the band’s anthemic hits – “Youth Gone Wild,” “18 and Life,” “Slave to the Grind” and more – which all date from Bach’s 1987-1996 tenure. For fans, it’s hard to call which is a more authentic tribute to that era: the “rump” Skid Row, which has been through three frontmen since and is currently singerless, or the iconic, mane-haired figurehead Bach. Many simply support both, while still hoping that “Seb Row” will become a reality before it’s too late.

Phil Elverum, aka Mount Eerie, is a songwriter/producer almost indivisible from his art, channeling the natural surroundings of his home on Washington’s Fidalgo Island (his performing name being a nod to the isle’s hulking Mount Erie) and, more recently, the tragically premature passing of his wife soon after the birth of their first child. Disarmingly frank and often plainspoken throughout his 11 albums to date, Elverum’s broadly classified indie folk is restlessly experimental, having brushed up against krautrock, post-rock, and even black metal as vehicles for his attention-to-detail lyricism. On the new Mount Eerie album, Night Palace he mostly takes a lo-fi approach but remains stylistically elusive, including flirtations with Auto-Tune and trap hi-hats (on “I Spoke with a Fish”). But muddying musical identity is Elverum’s musical identity, and Night Palace is another single-minded quest for truth in the shadow of unfathomable grief, with standout “Non-Metaphorical Decolonization” a four-and-half-minute indie rock outpouring utterly visceral and all the more admirable for it. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Bastille’s brilliant marriage of glossy throwback synth pop and cinematic arena rock promptly paid commercial dividends, with their 2013 debut album Bad Blood debuting at number one in the UK just three years after they formed. While their four albums since haven’t matched the six-million sales of that first effort, Bastille – originally and in many ways still the solo project of singer Dan Smith – has stayed at the top by expanding their palette with hints of R&B, gospel, house and dance genres, but never too jarringly. If you mostly know Bastille from 2013’s falsetto-flecked mega-hit “Pompeii,” new album &, released in installments between July and October, may feel different yet oddly familiar. Because even as Smith attempts to dial back his epic urges with an intimate, more traditionally singer-songwriter approach, the multi-layered production and smart pop he’s known for gradually creeps back in. Tickets at AXS.

Seeing a GRAMMY Award-winning artist who racks up eight-figure YouTube views at The Echo is an intriguing proposition. Pittsburgh-raised, LA-based Daya had a hefty hit with her 2016 debut album Sit Still, Look Pretty while still a high school junior, also landing a GRAMMY that same year for her vocals on the Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down.” Since then, she’s gradually gained control of her sound and image - shifting from sugary, teen-targeted pop to slick electro-pop on a trio of EPs and a slew of singles, while also featuring on Gryffin & Illenium’s Platinum-certified “Feel Good” in 2017 and RL Grime’s “I Wanna Know” the following year. Squeezed between select stateside arena opening slots on Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour and major Australian festival sets, this show at the 350-capacity Echo is a rare chance to see such a popular singer up-close as she continues to evolve her identity as a fully independent artist. Tickets at Live Nation.

Sadly (and confusingly), English OG new wave standouts Bow Wow Wow have joined the likes of Gene Loves Jezebel, LA Guns and Queensrÿche in having two different incarnations simultaneously hitting stages. The BWW playing the Whisky A Go Go on November 22 is built around original bassist Leigh Gorman with, since 2021, “Dame” Madelyn Feller on vocals, while the rival Annabella The Original Bow Wow Wow features Annabella Lwin, who was just 13 when first recruited by Sex Pistols Svengali Malcolm McLaren in 1980. While a schism in what was always a “manufactured” act – McLaren basically poached Adam Ant’s entire band and paired them with the then-unknown Lwin – doesn’t seem as sacrilegious as some of those listed above, it’s nonetheless a shame that Gorman’s accomplished, funky yet classically-rooted bass and Lwin’s feral yelps and chants can’t continue to meld atop the distinctive “Burundi Beat” tribal drumming and Zulu pop-influenced guitar that BWW (and Ant) liberally plunder. Tickets at Ticketweb.

With trance music experiencing something of a resurgence, the premier event devoted to the EDM subgenre returns to its Southern California home. Presented by electronic music event maestros Insomniac (Electric Daisy Carnival, Nocturnal Wonderland etc.), Dreamstate SoCal creates an enveloping environment in which ethereal beats and insistent melodies offer escape from the everyday and transports ravers to a higher state of consciousness. If a trance revival feels premature, consider that it’s been thirty-five years since it morphed out of EBM in Germany - its repetitive hypnotic, mid- and high-tempo tracks building and tensing towards massive “drops” that push crowds over the edge. The 2024 edition boasts a vast bill of global artists including Armin van Buuren, Infected Mushroom, Trance Wax and Avalon on Friday; and Paul Oakenfold, Grigore, Ace Ventura and Paul van Dyk on Saturday. But Dreamstate emphasizes the community spirit among attendees, declaring the dreamers, dancers, and lovers in the crowd to be its true headliners. Tickets at Front Gate.

Known globally for the 2008 hit single “Walking on a Dream” and the similarly successful eponymous debut album that spawned it, glam Australian electro-pop duo Empire of the Sun has continued to provide blissful, stargazing escapes and flamboyantly exotic stage shows ever since. Comprising Luke Steel (The Sleepy Jackson) and Nick Littlemore (PNAU), EotS made an immediate impression with their theatrical, consciously ludicrous recordings and performances, sprinkling studio magic around insistent earworm melodies and elevating their material to another level live with elaborate costuming and extravagant, shimmering production. Released in July, Empire of the Sun’s fourth album, Ask That God has been hailed as a return to their ecstatic best, offering the super-danceable sun-kissed disco and heady escapism that few do better. Their Hollywood Bowl show will be all about forgetting everyday mundanities and minutiae while collectively immersing in something both cerebral and visceral. And dancing – lots of dancing. Expect to leave inspired, satiated and exhausted.

While OG fans might maintain that the “real” Interpol ended with the departure of supremely inspired bassist Carlos Dengler in 2010, these arch post-punk revivalists have admirably prevailed for a further three albums since. With the most recent, 2022’s The Other Side of Make-Believe barely scraping the Billboard 200, it’s largely the Manhattan band’s prodigious early catalog that has them still headlining prestigious venues like Kia Forum. Of the countless bands that took a stab at post-punk at the turn of the Millennium, Interpol simply did it better. While some noted an unmistakable debt to Joy Division - particularly in Paul Banks’ almost cloned Ian Curtis moan - there was true symphonic brilliance in the interplay between the stringed instruments, a fantastic grasp of stark dynamics, and the marvelously instinctive rhythmic and melodic phrasing of Dengler’s oft upper-register bass antics. Today a trio fleshed out with touring musicians (including Secret Machines’ Brandon Curtis), Interpol expertly satiate the hunger for post-punk nostalgia. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Over her 40-year career, singer/songwriter/actress/activist Cyndi Lauper has gone from quirky MTV pop fixture to national treasure, winning every major entertainment award along the way. While still best known for 1983 pop-feminist anthem “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” that playful mega-hit and her accompanying zany image belied serious musical chops, including a four-octave vocal range and composing the Tony-winning score for Broadway musical Kinky Boots. Lauper was already 30 when her hugely successful ’83 debut, She’s So Unusual was released and the hits kept coming throughout that decade – “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” “True Colors” and more – before she largely faded from the pop mainstream. But she continued to thrive as a composer, blues artist (her 2010 Memphis Blues album being the most successful of its genre that year), and LGBTQ rights activist. At 71, the astonishingly youthful Lauper has announced this to be her final tour, so expect an emotional, celebratory night on stage and off at Intuit Dome. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Orange County experimental rock duo The Garden, comprising identical twin brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears, has devoted their 13-year career to defying all existing genres and musical norms with a no-wave style (or lack thereof) they dub “Vada Vada.” Originally associated with Fullerton’s eccentric, freewheeling Burger Records label and scene, they subsequently signed with the much higher profile Epitaph imprint. On their new Six Desperate Ballads EP, unleashed last month, The Garden marry fluttering programmed beats and distant, disaffected vocals to ragged, punky riffage and lo-fi atmospherics to spawn something simultaneously arresting and unsettling, uncaring yet self-aware. More than ever, the twins’ respective, absurdly prolific side projects Puzzle (Fletcher) and Enjoy (Wyatt) audibly influence, or at least overlap with, the mothership on Six Desperate Ballads. Now these restless rebels are expanding their “Vada Vada” concept with this eponymous mini-fest featuring The Garden, Puzzle, Enjoy and fellow Vada Vada collective artists Cowgirl Clue (electro-country weirdness), Slater (underground alt-pop) and 313d3p (hyperpop). Tickets at AXS.

Long Beach Dub Allstars was formed in 1997 by the two surviving members of the city’s hugely successful Sublime, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh, following the passing of that band’s singer/guitarist Bradley Nowell the previous year. Originally a 10-piece gathering of local luminaries including RAS-1, “Miguel” Happoldt, Todd Forman and Ras MG, they explored a similar reggae/ska/dub/punk intersection as their founders’ former outfit. Although the Allstars reached many new ears when their “Sunny Hours” became the theme song for the Friends spin-off Joey, they broke up after just four years and two albums. Lineup changes continued after their 2012 reunion, but today’s incarnation still features Happoldt, a frequent Sublime contributor; and vocalist Opie Ortiz, an artist whose work appeared on Sublime album covers. So, while nothing can replicate the work of the original Sublime, if you’re looking to recapture those beachy ‘90s vibes with some of the players who helped create them, Long Beach Dub Allstars is for you. Tickets at Ticketweb.