The LA Setlist: Aug. 19-25, 2024

Just three years into her career, Ice Spice boasts four GRAMMY nominations and hits with Taylor Swift (“Karma”), Nicki Minaj (“Barbie World”), and PinkPantheress (“Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2”). A parade of increasingly popular singles preceded her well-received debut album, Y2K!, released last month. Rooted in braggadocious Bronx drill, the 24-year-old rapper almost makes a feature of her limited (though slick) range, keeping things short – Y2K!’s longest track is 2:42 – simple, and deliberately disposable. It’s an approach that’s served her well on TikTok/Twitter and brings a welcome, to-the-point urgency to tracks on which she features. A performer whose polish defies her overnight success, Ice Spice prides herself on high production values atypical for her genre, with repeat collaborator RiotUSA not only an opener on this tour but also acting as sound engineer. Cash Cobain, who featured Ice Spice on his “Fisherr” single with Bay Swag in February, also performs.

Tickets to the all-ages show at Live Nation.

This Wednesday night bill at Kia Forum gathers three acts that have played major roles in pushing heavy metal forward and are now hugely revered OGs. Co-headliners Lamb of God and Mastodon established themselves at the top of the new wave of American heavy metal in the 2000s, achieving broad appeal by adroitly merging multiple substrains. Atlanta’s Mastodon blend prog metal, grindcore, hardcore and stoner elements; while Lamb of God, from Virginia, flavor their groove metal with metalcore, thrash, and deathly influences. Arrive early for guitarist Kerry King, a constant presence in Slayer, who injected fresh punk energy into metal alongside fellow thrashers Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax in the late ‘80s. Released in May, King’s acclaimed solo debut, From Hell I Rise confirms that the LA axeman has lost none of his zeal for frantic, angry thrash. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Over the past 15 years, Princess Chelsea’s whimsical baroque pop has earned her an almost cult-like worldwide underground following, as evidenced by the New Zealander’s second U.S. tour with her supremely tasteful band in just eight months; and stout streaming stats as far afield as Türkiye and Mexico. But the mainstream is now taking notice, in particular since her lifting of the 2023 Taite Music Prize, New Zealand’s most coveted such award, for her fifth full-length, Everything Is Going to Be Alright. Classical training informs Princess Chelsea’s introspective, ostensibly innocent synth-driven chamber pop and elaborate theatrical concepts, with song titles like “I Love My Boyfriend” and “Growing Older” indicative of her disarmingly on-the-nose confessionals. Yet part of the more-ishness here is an ambiguity between literal meaning and wry, wallflower observation. If Princess Chelsea is new to you, try the deceptively complex Everything  earworm “Forever Is a Charm.”

There was a time at the end of the aughts when it was hard to escape Kings of Leon on rock or alt radio. Three Tennessee brothers and a cousin penned robust alt-rock that was just earthy and Southern enough to set them apart, with Caleb Followill’s plaintive, cracking vocals sealing their huge appeal. Kings of Leon really exploded with their Americana-accented, arena-ready 2008 fourth album Only by the Night. Spurred by singles “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire,” Only by the Night entered the British charts at number one, eventually made the U.S. top five, and was also a huge hit in Australia, Canada, and Germany, going on to sell over six million copies worldwide. This year’s ninth album, Can We Please Have Fun finds the Followills further indulging the future-rock footprint established with 2016’s Walls while urging us to keep on living and loving regardless of societal schisms. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

One of the great songwriting teams of the 1980s is co-headlining at YouTube Theater alongside a standout voice from that decade. Either act alone would merit an LA road trip, but together Squeeze and Boy George becomes irresistible. On many levels, this will be a night of contrasts: Squeeze are the Brit everymen telling often regretful tales with a laddish, pub-rock frankness - albeit poetic - that might get them “canceled” today; and Boy George, the androgynous icon whose soulful, imploring vocals capped Culture Club’s supple new wave. The commonality is sheer musical quality - Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford are the power pop Lennon and McCartney of their generation, responsible for narrative gems like “Up the Junction,” “Is That Love,” and “Tempted.” Boy George’s outlandish aesthetic and off-stage antics often overshadowed his seductive timbre and broad stylistic palette, which embraces reggae, calypso, salsa and even country on the Culture Club classic “Karma Chameleon.” Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Sophisticated, sultry, Latin and loungey, The Marías are a super-smooth bilingual indie-pop band that earned a GRAMMY nomination for their 2021 debut album, Cinema. That title is apt for an outfit who were initially approached to make music for TV and, when that opportunity evaporated, nonetheless remained gorgeously cinematic. Led by Puerto Rico-born vocalist María Zardoya and her drummer/producer partner Josh Conway, their exquisitely intricate sound incorporates psych, funk-lite, gauzy pop, and exotic bossa nova rhythms. On stage, the quartet’s classy playfulness is personified by the elegant Zardoya, whose voice can somehow be simultaneously supremely pure and knowingly coy, glacially girlish and late-night lush. A tour with Halsey, a Coachella slot, and a feature on Bad Bunny’s smash 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti have raised The Marías’ stock considerably, so savor this two-night opportunity to lose yourself in their transporting tones under the stars at Hollywood Forever.

Tickets to the all-ages show at Ticketweb.

Though he started out as a rapper, Victony truly found his voice with Afrobeats in his late teens. Having already generated an online buzz with his 2017 debut mixtape, The Outlaw King, he gatecrashed the mainstream with “Holy Father,” a 2021 Mayorkun collab which topped the streaming charts in his native Nigeria, while barely in his twenties. Victony’s streaming digits continued to soar before he landed a huge international hit with 2022’s anthemic, compulsively danceable “Soweto,” which racked up over 100 million streams within a year. Capitalizing on its success, he released a string of “Soweto” remixes with high-profile names including Omah Lay, Rema and Don Toliver. Slipping between Afrobeat, R&B and amapiano with admirable ease, Victony’s debut album proper, Stubborn, released in June, is a pared-down yet vivacious channeling of all he’s experienced, including a car accident that left him wheelchair bound.

Tickets to the all-ages show at AXS.

The nuanced, apparently innate genius of Kane Brown has been imbuing his country fare, whether sappy slow jams or party-licious foot-tappers, with signature streaks of hip-hoppy R&B and confessional pop. Once rejected by American Idol, Brown instead began clawing his way up a decade ago via social media. While his trad country cred and often autobiographical lyricism are underpinned by an unsettled, itinerant Georgia/Tennessee childhood and a long-incarcerated father, his viewpoint is also informed by being biracial in the still predominantly white country genre. Indeed, thriving by defying country convention has been a throughline of his burgeoning popularity to date, which included being the first artist to earn simultaneous number ones on all five main Billboard country charts. Brown’s third full-length, 2022’s Different Man, includes two sentimental odes to Georgia and “Thank God,” a duet with his wife, Katelyn Brown, which became the record’s fourth hit single. Tickets at AXS.

At the turn of the 1990s, rave culture was sweeping out of London while the baggy, indie-rock “Madchester” sound – The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays et al – emanated from northwestern England. Two bands from that country’s more rural west, Jesus Jones and EMF, found themselves geographically between the two and absorbing influences from both scenes to briefly enormous commercial effect. The week after EMF’s era anthem “Unbelievable” topped US charts in 1991, Jesus Jones’ equally evocative “Right Here, Right Now” hit number 2. Though they’ve never repeated the success of that single, Jesus Jones’ timely soup of pop, dance, and sample-laden techno alongside potent hooks has proven durable, as has their original five-piece lineup. They arrive at the Whisky a Go Go on the wave of a mini-revival for their cross-pollinated subgenre, having toured with EMF for the first time earlier this year and now making their second U.S. trek of 2024.

Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliot always had grand designs. In the late 1970s, when most amateur metal bands were happy to play local clubs and record demo tapes, he borrowed money to release the vinyl Def Leppard E.P. Despite photocopied sleeves glued by Elliot and his mum, the record charted in the UK and immediately made the Leps a national act. Yet the quintet was still just one of a slew of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands that included Saxon, Iron Maiden, and Diamond Head. That is until, in another inspired move, they teamed with South African producer Mutt Lange. His three increasingly poppy and polished albums with Leppard, in particular 1987’s Hysteria, made them the biggest band on Earth, crossing over from metal without being shunned by their core hesher following.

At SoFi Stadium, the Leps are joined by similarly melodic co-headliners Journey with the Steve Miller Band opening. Tickets at Ticketmaster.