The LA Setlist: Oct. 7-13, 2024

Welsh crooner and tenacious survivor Tom Jones has enjoyed a 60-year career that finds him still headlining prestigious venues like the Greek Theatre at age 84. A coal miner’s son and former factory worker, his showbiz durability has been a combo of willingness to genre hop between pop, rock, show tunes, country, and even techno, while retaining the distinctive throughline of a balls-out baritone that trades subtlety for arresting, bottom-heavy body. One of the few still-active talents from the British Invasion of the mid-1960s, Jones has also benefitted from never taking himself too seriously, as reflected in collabs with much younger artists that have helped keep him in the media and remain relevant. His '90s career resurgence, including an appearance at England’s storied Glastonbury Festival, culminated in 1999’s 4-million-selling Reload album of cover duets with The Cardigans, Natalie Imbruglia, Portishead, Robbie Williams and more.

Tickets to the all-ages show at Ticketmaster.

There was a time when almost any interview with an indie rock band included a mention of Big Star, an obscure Memphis power pop outfit that released two albums and played all of seven shows between 1972 and 1974. They’ve been name-dropped by the likes of The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, and The Bangles, who covered Big Star’s “September Gurls” on their 1986 album Different Light; while Cheap Trick’s version of Big Star’s “In the Street” was the theme of TV sitcom That ‘70s Show. Among the most prominent Big Star cheerleaders has been R.E.M., and that’s where this story starts to come full circle - after a revived incarnation ended with main man Alex Chilton’s 2010 passing, and rotating-lineup semi-tribute Big Star’s Third fizzled, a slimmed-down Big Star Quintet was announced, featuring sole surviving original member Jody Stephens on drums, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, Wilco keyboardist Pat Sansone, and The Posies’ Jon Auer and The dB’s Chris Stamey on guitars.

It speaks volumes about Iron Maiden bassist/driving force Steve Harris that, even after decades of selling out arenas he still craves the gritty thrills of to-the-point hard rock performed in small, sweaty clubs. Admirably shunning the opportunity to form a supergroup with rockstar mates, Harris instead created British Lion in 2012 alongside four relative unknowns. And while their eponymous debut album that year was marketed as a Harris solo effort, the project was repositioned as a self-contained band for their 2020 sophomore album The Burning, on which Harris shared songwriting duties with vocalist Richard Taylor and guitarist/keyboardist David Hawkins. With journalists finally tiring of comparing British Lion to Harris’s “other band,” The Burning received rave reviews for its emotive, melodic hard rock that comfortably stands alone on sheer quality and heart. While British Lion typically only tour between Iron Maiden treks, this show precedes Maiden’s Kia Forum gig the following night (see below). Tickets at AXS.

Indie poppers Tegan and Sara went through a nostalgic phase recently, starting with 2017’s Con X: Covers, featuring artists like CHVRCHES and Paramore covering songs from their breakthrough album, Con, on its 10th anniversary. Then the Canadian identical twins released a memoir, later adapted into an Amazon Freevee series, followed by Hey, I’m Just Like You, comprising re-recordings of songs written in adolescence, and Still Jealous, an acoustic re-imagining of their 2004 fourth album, So Jealous. The public reminiscence continued with last year's graphic novel, Junior High, exploring themes of sisterhood and coming out. It was almost the behavior of a legacy act but for the release of their intriguing tenth album, Crybaby in 2022. Guided by GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Death Cab For Cutie), who co-wrote five songs, the nostalgia continued on a record that brilliantly and adventurously melds their early emo-rock output with more recent hit synth-pop stylings.

The follow-up to Junior High, Crush, is out on October 1. To celebrate, the duo are embarking on a nine-city book tour, including a stop at Masonic Lodge on Tuesday, October 8. Tickets at Ticketweb.

Iron Maiden founder/bassist Steve Harris has been rewarded for staying true to his vision of melodic and heroic denim n’ leather metal, which was the antithesis of fashionable when he formed the band in London at the height of mid-'70s punk. Maiden haven’t released ballads just to break the charts; never “went pop” or radically changed their image; and never pandered to shifting metal fashions. Instead, they’ve thrived by maintaining impeccable musical standards and being proudly British and traditional metal, with galloping grooves, twin-guitar harmonizing (triple since 1999) and, for their most successful years, the quasi-operatic vocals of Bruce Dickinson. With both Dickinson and heyday guitarist Adrian Smith having departed but returned to the fold (with the band charmingly opting to retain Smith’s replacement, Janick Gers, as a third axeman), today’s Maiden is pretty much its classic incarnation. But get it while it’s going, because drummer Nicko McBrain’s struggles since suffering a stroke last year suggest changes ahead. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

A former fast food cook who learned to play accordion and guitar from YouTube, uploading songs that almost instantly became viral hits, Junior H has, at age 23, already enjoyed sufficient commercial success in the lyrically controversial corridos tumbados subgenre (corridos ballads influenced by hip-hop and Latin trap, sometimes dubbed “narcocorridos”) to headline two nights at BMO Stadium. An incredibly prolific singer-songwriter, he’s released an astounding eight albums since 2019, three of which topped the Regional Mexican Albums chart while earning multiple Platinum (Latin) certifications. The big breakthrough was last year’s $ad Boyz 4 Life II, the sequel to his acclaimed fifth full-length, which debuted at number 14 on the mainstream Billboard 200 propelled by single “Y Loro.” A wonderful, ongoing burgers-to-Bugattis story, Junior H is himself as inspiring as his grittily romantic compositions and seems set for a long reign at the top of the urban corrido movement. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

If you only know Weezer from enduring radio staples like “Beverly Hills” and “Hash Pipe,” you’re in for a surprise with their live show. Because mainman Rivers Cuomo & co. augment the sheer quality and quantity of their power pop genius with a tasteful heaviness and oodles of both self-deprecating humor and all-around good humor. Even after 32 years and over 35 million album sales, Cuomo still convincingly conveys his “I’m just a nerd in a rockstar dream” schtick to the point where it feels at least partially authentic. Weezer were inspiring tribute bands within two albums, and although the LA foursome is yet to outsell its 1994 Blue Album debut, Cuomo’s immaculate songcraft has endured ever since, with 2001’s Green Album in particular being a near-perfect pop collection. And while the bespectacled Cuomo is rightly their focus, Weezer, with a staple lineup for over 20 years, feels like a true band. Tickets at Ticketmaster.

Bold, big-voiced Euro-pop princess Mónica Naranjo has enjoyed tremendous success, especially in her native Spain and in Latin America, despite career decisions that must’ve kept her managers awake at night. After relocating to Mexico in her late teens, Naranjo’s 1994 self-titled debut album was a huge hit in her adopted country, selling more than 900,000 copies and spawning a string of hit singles. Three years later, the follow-up, Palabra de Mujer, was also a smash back in Spain and successful in the U.S. Then came the admirably single-minded yet head-scratching decision to release a tribute to 1960s/’70s Italian singer Mina as her third full-length. Counterintuitively, that Minage record sold briskly, while its overtly commercial dance-pop follow-up, Chicas Malas, marked a career slump. Despite sometimes taking years between albums ever since, Naranjo retains a cult following who’ll be out in force for this Peacock Theater performance. Tickets at AXS.

While SoCal’s third-wave ska scene spawned big-selling 1990s outfits like No Doubt and Sublime, the excellent Aggrolites have remained a cult act. For one, they were late to the table (formed in 2002), but, more significantly, The Aggrolites are almost an entirely different animal from the aforementioned acts. Because this hard-giggin’ LA quintet is focused on ultra-authentic rocksteady revivalism, almost reverse engineering the “proper” ska of early 1960s Jamaica and late ‘70s England rather than remotely wanting to dilute the style with pop (or much else). Consider that they formed as a backing band for Jamaican rocksteady standout Derrick Morgan and have since also backed Morgan’s compatriots Phyllis Dillon, Prince Buster, and Joseph Hill. While there’s an irony to an American group backing original Jamaican ska and reggae artists, The Aggrolites as a standalone band claim their own, subtly defined subgenre of “dirty reggae,” a combination of early skinhead sounds, soul, and funk.