The LA Setlist: Aug. 12-18, 2024

Marrying wry Western synthpop and Yellow Magic Orchestra-esque East Asian sounds, Bolis Pupul’s widely acclaimed solo debut, Letter to Yu dropped in March. Previously known for his collabs with singer Charlotte Adigéry, most notably 2022 album Topical Dancer, he was one of the first artists signed by Belgian compatriots Soulwax to their Deewee label. The charmingly contemplative Letter to Yu is built around a posthumous letter written to his mother, Yu Wei Wun, after she died in a 2008 car accident. The tragedy inspired the musician/producer to make repeated visits to his mom’s native Hong Kong to explore his relationship to his heritage, experiences which inform the throbbing, dance floor techno and playful synths of Letter to Yu. Bolis Pupul only played his first solo show in February, so this close-up Genghis Cohen performance will likely be an ”I saw him back when” tale, years from now. TIckets at Dice.

Olivia Rodrigo’s first arena tour includes a heartwarming tale of her repaying one of her musical inspirations. Although the all-conquering Disney phenom is known for authentic, relatable pop, she’s said that she divides her musical life into before and after hearing The Breeders’ 1993 alt-rock hit “Cannonball,” released a decade before she was born. So, on the back of the colossal success of her Sour and GUTS albums, the SoCal singer/songwriter/actor – the youngest artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 – invited the now 60-something Breeders to open a run of her shows at NYC’s Madison Square Garden in April and on these LA dates at Kia Forum.

The Breeders are no strangers to big stages, having previously opened for U2 and Foo Fighters, but it’ll nonetheless be interesting to see how they’re received by Rodrigo’s Gen Z devotees, many of whom know her from starring roles on Disney TV.

Tickets to the sold-out concerts are available at the AXS Marketplace.

Coming up in South Central LA alongside Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q began rhyming about street life in his mid teens. As his first two albums charted in the early 2010s, his subject matter expanded into fame, fatherhood, and sobriety. Consistently revered by critics, Q earned multi-platinum singles with 2013’s “Collard Greens” (feat. Lamar) and “Studio” (feat. BJ the Chicago Kid) the following year, which helped his third album, Oxymoron debut atop the Billboard 200. An unflinchingly gritty rap opera, the title referencing his prior Oxycontin dealing, Oxymoron is a playground for an elastic, finessed flow that spans Jay-Z’s diversity and 50 Cent’s raw aggression, with beats as harsh as its stories. These days, Schoolboy Q can be found golfing at Calabasas Country Club, but he returns to his roots with this smaller-venue tour of LA (along with The Roxy on August 15 and El Rey on August 17) to promote his sixth album Blue Lips, widely hailed as his best yet. Tickets at AXS.

While 10cc have always been more popular in their native UK, their mid-1970s singles “I’m Not in Love” and “The Things We Do for Love” remain stateside soft rock staples. Quirky studio perfectionists with talents that far transcended any one genre, the original quartet lasted only four years before the more experimental Kevin Godley and Lol Creme departed, leaving primary songwriters Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart to continue 10cc’s success with the plaintive “Things We Do for Love” in 1976. Right up there with English peers ELO as songwriters, arrangers, and vocal harmonizers, 10cc managed one more mega-hit with ‘78’s reggaefied “Dreadlock Holiday” before punk and new wave marginalized their often oddball art rock. For the past quarter-century, bassist/co-vocalist Gouldman has helmed a touring incarnation and the elegant, ornate United Theater on Broadway, which reopened in 2014, will be an apt setting for their sumptuous melodicism and throwback virtuosic musicality. Tickets at AXS.

At age 26, Young Miko’s life is already a book. A former soccer player who appeared for Puerto Rico’s youth teams, she funded her early studio endeavors with four years as a tattoo artist before a string of platinum-selling singles across Latin America, many of them collabs, allowed her to focus on music. Traversing a laidback, Auto-Tuned drawl and more enunciated, cutting cadences, Miko shares uncensored urban tales of sex, drugs, and related dramas. Last year, her minimalist reggaeton collab with Colombian singer-songwriter Feid, “Classy 101,” charted high in South America and Spain, as well as placing her in the stateside Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. With her distinctively swaggering rap/trap flavored with reggaeton and rock, plus an openly lesbian viewpoint, Young Miko is refreshing multiple genres and achieving a resonance that straddles borders. Tickets at AXS.

St. Vincent’s “Los Ageless” is one of those rare songs that I recall exactly when and where I first heard it, navigating the Newhall Interchange late one night and impatient to get home to find out just who created the LA-inspired electropop/rock gem. Yet no one song is illustrative of St. Vincent’s restless and very personal artistry, which includes the ultra-intimate “New York” and the confessional and likewise piano-based “Happy Birthday, Johnny,” both also from the 2017 Top 10 album Masseduction. A force-of-nature talent who was formerly a member of the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ band, co-wrote Taylor Swift smash “Cruel Summer,” and been ranked among the all-time great guitarists, St. Vincent channels the arty yet accessible spirit of Kate Bush and David Bowie with complex arrangements, stylistic adventurism, and distinctively polysemous lyrics. In concert, her all-star band and provocative presentation elevate already arresting material to new heights. Tickets at AXS.

Self-describing as “Mumford and Sons’ evil twins” The Dead South bring an alt-rock accessibility to trad folk and bluegrass, wrapped in western pioneer aesthetics. Characterized by punky energy, adroit harmonizing, and almost constant banjo picking, their dark-hued instrumentation and narrative lyricism is transporting in both time and space, channeling the prairie vastness of their native Saskatchewan, Canada. Over a dozen years of hard touring and reliably solid recordings, the quartet has won a pair of Juno Awards and thrice topped the US Bluegrass album chart. While all members shared lead vocals on two 2022 covers EPs, guitarist Nate Hill returns as chief voice on The Dead South’s fourth full-length Chains & Stakes, released in February. Though it’s been five years since its predecessor, Sugar & Joy, this latest offering picks up where the latter left off, with more lived-in bluegrass songcraft and ominous, sepia-tinted storytelling speckled with upbeat, exhilarating excursions. Tickets at AXS.

Since its 2009 debut, Reggae on the Mountain has grown to become LA’s premier homegrown reggae fest, comprising not only world-class music on multiple stages but also craft beer, wine, gourmet food, diverse vendors, and a kids’ area. Its 2024 edition is billed as “The Homecoming,” as RotM returns to where it all began with a humble nighttime creek jam in rustic Topanga Canyon, where co-founding local musicians Brooks Ellis and Amit Gilad first met. This year’s lineup features GRAMMY Award-winning roots veterans Steel Pulse, who are about to mark their 50th anniversary; plus Don Carlos, Marlon Asher, Empress Akua, Quinto Sol, Neighborhood Orchestra, Mestizo Beat, Irie Nature, and Jah Faith. But the outdoor Reggae on the Mountain does much more than gather top genre talent by also selecting a venue and nurturing a respectful, togetherness vibe that elevates the sounds into a transporting experience just minutes from the big city. Tickets at Eventbrite.

A counterbalance to the superficial bling and materialistic mumble-rap of mainstream hip-hop, Rhyme Fest proudly stays true to the underground, independent artists and ethos that remain the genre’s heartbeat. Emphasizing its roots in consciousness and empowerment, the event has served authentic doses of street-level hip-hop for over a decade, with prior luminaries including Immortal Technique, De La Soul, and Dilated Peoples. The all-ages Rhyme Fest 2024 happens at The Torch, the outdoor venue next to LA Coliseum in Exposition Park. The stacked lineup includes Atmosphere, Living Legends, Visionaries, Freestyle Fellowship, Funkdoobiest, Project Blowed, Blu & Exile feat. Fashawn, Sage Francis, Coyote, and many more live performers and DJs. Gates open at 2pm for this standing room only classic (note than even the VIP area is standing) which is easy to reach on the Metro E Line, with the Expo Park/USC and Expo/Vermont stops less than a five-minute walk. Tickets at AXS.

For Madison McFerrin, a cappella singing is in the blood. The daughter of iconic a cappella vocalist Bobby McFerrin and granddaughter of groundbreaking Black operatic baritone Robert McFerrin, she began her career with a pair of vocal-based EPs. But her third extended play, 2019’s You + I, found the multi-instrumentalist expanding into diverse sound sources in collaboration with her brother and producer Taylor McFerrin. Madison’s genre-blending/bending melding of a cappella, electronic pop, soul, and jazz (dubbed “soul-appella” by Questlove) has earned her prestigious gigs including New York’s Lincoln Center, Central Park SummerStage, and alongside De La Soul and The Roots. All of her musical experience and evolution was poured into last year’s mostly self-produced debut album, I Hope You Can Forgive Me. A singular collision of vocal gymnastics, complex beats, and cultured arrangements, I Hope You Can Forgive Me confirms the huge promise of McFerrin’s EPs and then some. Free with RSVP at Eventbrite.

Pennsylvania’s Live almost personified ‘90s rock, releasing four big-selling albums during that decade that peaked with 1994’s masterful Throwing Copper. Epic, spiritually earnest, and as deft as it gets with four-piece rock dynamics, Live were crushingly heavy, sonically and lyrically, and melodramatically catchy all at once. Although attention fell mostly upon the whisper-to-a-scream vocals and shaved-head stage persona of Ed Kowalczyk, Live were four childhood friends who co-wrote instantly era-evocative hits like “Lightning Crashes” and “I Alone” that took their band to stadium status before a spat over money led to the singer’s temporary departure. There hasn’t been a new Live studio album featuring Kowalczyk since 2006 and, having fired his bandmates two years ago, he remains the sole original member, but those riffs, dynamic shifts, and that voice are still well worth the price of admission. Tickets at Ticketmaster.