Brett CallwoodFrom Mississippi wunderkind Christine “Kingfish” Ingram and the industrial fun of Cold Waves Fest to Swedish punks Millencolin and an intimate evening at the Grammy Museum with Billie Eilish, here are 12 of the best music shows in Los Angeles this week.
fri 9/13
Kingfish (Rory Doyle)
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
EL REY THEATRE
Masterful showman Buddy Guy pulled out all the stops at his August show at the Hollywood Bowl as the legendary blues guitarist turned his guitar inside and out. One of the highlights was a star turn by Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, the Mississippi-raised wunderkind who stood out from the rest of the crowd of guest guitarists. The 20-year-old guitarist pried out of his ax restrained, subtly expressive solos that felt inventive and passionate instead of generic and clichéd. He definitely rocks hard on his debut album, Kingfish, but he also demonstrates his soulful, wiser-than-his-years presence on bluesy ballads like “Been Here Before.” “I was born at the turn of the century/lucky to be born at all,” he muses on the prophetic “Before I’m Old. “But I’ve seen a lot, and I done a lot/Too young to lay down in that hole.” Also at Warner Grand Theatre, Saturday, September 14. —Falling James
Cold Waves Fest
REGENT
A traveling celebration of Chicago industrial music, as well as an ongoing tribute to beloved sound engineer Jamie Duffy, Cold Waves could quite easily become a one dimensional dirge-fest if the organizers weren’t smart when putting the bills together. But they are, and the bands on this L.A. lineup, while all playing with the industrial genre, come at it from a variety of angles. London innovators Test Dept. headline, with Australian post-punk/synthpop band Severed Heads next on the bill. And of course Ministry man Paul Barker makes an appearance. Should be quite the party. —Brett Callwood
sat 9/14
Suzi Moon
HIGHLAND PARK BOWL
So many modern bands have the classic punk-rock look down cold. Many are so good at mimicking their forebears that they almost sound like a real 1977-era group. But precious few new bands exude a sense of real menace or sing about anything remotely dangerous or daring. Turbulent Hearts give good danger in large part because lead howler/guitarist Suzi Moon commands the stage with a charismatic, unpredictable presence that feels reckless and unselfconscious. At the recent Echo Park Rising festival, Moon rolled around onstage, wandered into the audience and eventually strolled right out the venue’s front door and continued singing like a madcap Pied Piper as she marched far up the street until finally her microphone cut out. “I was born on a red-hot moon,” she declares. “When my mother looked at me/She said this one is frightening.” Moon performs a solo set of new material at Highland Park Bowl. With No Small Children and ModPods. —Falling James
Iron Maiden (John McMurtrie)
Iron Maiden
BANC OF AMERICA STADIUM
Simply put, there are few better live bands than Iron Maiden anywhere in the world today, in any genre. A bold statement, sure. But ever since frontman Bruce Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999, they’ve been simply unstoppable, putting out a string of well-received albums and amping up the live show year on year. “Serious” music fans might scoff, not just at Maiden but at all power-metal bands with their oh-so-silly wizards and warlords-themed lyrics and widdly riffs. But fuck that — nobody knows how to pen an epic tune better than Steve Harris, and there are few greater sights than mascot Eddie lumbering across a stage. Maiden give us pyro and escapism-fueled fun, and in 2019 that’s a priceless trait. —Brett Callwood
sun 9/15
Café Tacuba, Cherry Glazerr
THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
So many tours are packaged with sound-alike bands on the same bill, and many lineups are often determined by musicians’ corporate connections rather than musical compatibility. These days, it’s also rare when seemingly disparate groups are placed together on the same show, which makes this pairing of Mexican alt-rockers Café Tacuba with L.A. indie-punk-pop band Cherry Glazerr so intriguing. Café Tacuba’s most recent album, 2017’s Jei Beibi, is a varied assortment of soft pop, dance rock and low-key ballads. Cherry Glazerr’s new album, Stuffed & Ready, is considerably stranger, as singer-guitarist Clementine Creevy leads her latest version of the group through atmospheric grunge passages, arty new-wave chansons and fuzz-shrouded, dreamily surging anthems. It will be interesting to see how fans at the Bowl react to such dissimilar bands. —Falling James
Millencolin (Johnny Eckhouse)
Millencolin
THE OBSERVATORY
Swedish punk rock band Millencolin formed in 1992, a full 27 years ago, which seems weird to those of us who remember them as skater punks during the pop-punk boom. Fear not though, these guys are eternally youthful, and they’re still releasing music on Epitaph Records over here as they have done since their ’94 Tiny Tunes debut (later changed to Same Old Tunes after getting in trouble with Warner Bros). This year they put out SOS, their ninth studio album in total, and the first since 2015’s True Brew, and nothing has changed. The band are still fired up and tight, and the tunes are still huge. Mest and LAW these two local dates, also hitting the Regent Theater on Saturday. —Brett Callwood
mon 9/16
Savannah Pope (Lady Lea Photography)
Savannah Pope
GOLD-DIGGERS
Savannah Pope belts out a dramatic, theatrical form of hard rock that’s suffused with surreal lyrics about vivisected animal mutations and apocalyptic tidal waves sweeping the Hollywood rock scene under the waves. The singer’s flamboyant and brassy persona and colorful costumes are made for stadium concert stages, but she brings her larger-than-life sound and presence to the intimate bar Gold-Diggers. While Pope can wail operatically with her powerful pipes, she also switches gears occasionally for stranger songs such as the arty and mysterious “Mrs. Moreau” and the morbidly effusive power ballad “Rock ’n’ Roll No More.” She’s too weird to be labeled as a mere hard rocker, but she’s also too overtly glamorous to be lost among the crowd of meek, modern indie-rock singers. —Falling James
Above Ground: Presented By Dave Navarro & Billy Morrison
THE FONDA
Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, ex-The Cult) and Janes’s Addiction man Dave Navarro are putting on this Above Ground benefit for the second year, in the process raising funds and awareness for causes that help those suffering with mental health issues. “Suicide, depression, mental illness obviously affects people that aren’t in the music business, but we obviously were affected by Scott [Weiland], Chester [Bennington], Chris [Cornell] and others,” Morrison told us last year. The theme seems to be performing classic albums in their entirety — last year we got Adam & the Ants’ Kings of the Wild Frontier and the Velvet Underground’s debut. This time, we get The Stooges’ debut, and Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust… Guests include Billy Idol, Perry Farrell, Juliette Lewis, Wayne Kramer and more. But it’s all about the cause. —Brett Callwood
tue 9/17
Nas, Mary J Blige
HOLLYWOOD BOWL
Mary J. Blige and Nas on tour together? Sign us up. With Nas being one of the greatest MCs of all time and Blige holding that same weight in the R&B game, this show at the famous Hollywood Bowl will be an evening to remember. The Royalty Tour has been on the road all summer, ensuing instant nostalgia and a pure love for music in each and every city they hit. While Nas has a never-ending catalog of smashes, from “I Can” to “One Mic,” the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul brings her A-game with “I Can Love You” and “Love Is All We Need.” The two will undoubtedly conjoin on stage for their collaborative hits “Thriving” and “Reach Out.” One time for hip-hop! —Shirley Ju
Billie Eilish (Dan Regan)
Billie Eilish
GRAMMY MUSEUM
Billie Eilish is the most interesting voice working in popular music today. Unequivocally. Inescapably. She is that rarest of all possible stars in that she is at once immensely populist and intensely insular in her songcraft. Yes, she does write the hits – pulling into her voice everything from ASMR whispers to sound poetry — but they are hits that are so intimate that you can look out upon any of her audiences and watch them imbue those hits with their own deeply personal meaning in real time. Tonight she joins Scott Goldman and her producer / singer brother Finneas in conversation about private life, her new video for “all the good girls go to hell,” her September 28 debut on Saturday Night Live, and the creative impulses that have sculpted this singular voice into the work of art spazzing before you tonight. —David Cotner
wed 9/18
September Mourning (Curtis Noble Photography)
Smile Empty Soul, September Mourning
THE WHISKY A GO GO
Santa Clarita post-grunge band Smile Empty Soul have been kicking it since ’98 and now have seven studio albums (plus three EPs and a compilation album) under their belt.They’ve remained firmly in the underground, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impressive legacy and a loyal fanbase. Only singer and guitarist Sean Danielsen remains from the original lineup, but last year’s Oblivion proves that there’s still gas in the tank. Meanwhile, comic book-themed metal band September Mourning is a band very much on the up. “September” is a character portrayed by singer Emily Lazar — a reaper/human hybrid trying to give human souls a second chance of life. I mean, if that doesn’t entice you we don’t know what will. Anthea also plays. —Brett Callwood
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