Molly Bergen

It was a very strange lineup at the Bootleg Theater on Friday night containing two bands that had completely opposite sounds. April Smith and the Great Picture Show drew from the past directly creating a sound that was heavily influenced by jazzy cabaret songs and ragtime while Tunng had imagined......

Friday night Pains of Being Pure at Heart played to a full house at the Echoplex. Riding the wave of hype generated from last year's self-titled debut, these guys have managed to shake off their nerves and put together a charming set. They are no longer five bashful kids. There......

Last night SoCal favorites The Soft Pack played a headlining show at the Echoplex after a long national tour. "It's so good to be home!" announced guitarist Matty McLoughlin at the beginning of the set. As homecomings go it wasn't the most raucous due to the fact that the band......

Saturday night was the first of three sold out shows for Florence and the Machine at the Wiltern. Quite a triumph for anyone, but the fact that Florence Welsh (the brains and lungs behind the operation) has pulled it off at the tender age of 24 on the merits of......

Last night the Music Box offered a refuge from the words like "exit polls," "deficit," and "job creation." Within its dark painted walls people could grab a drink, talk with their friends, flirt with their dates, and be absorbed by the charm of two pop bands without a single mud-slinging......

Last night Iceland's latest musical import, Seabear, finally made it to Los Angeles headlining a gig at the Troubadour. The seven-piece indie-folk band stood on the stage beaming, ready to win the hearts and minds of the small crowd that had gathered on a Tuesday night. With two albums under......

Over the weekend the enigmatic Sufjan Stevens showed off his latest album The Age of Adz for two nights at the Wiltern. The good news was that after a prolonged absence and a frightening illness, the gifted songwriter was back. The bad news, Stevens has no interest in continuing to......

Last night the El Rey Theater pulsed with excitement. Between its glowing red walls the sold out crowd thrummed with speculation as the shards of crimson light that fell from the chandeliers illuminated their impatient faces. It was the first headlining show Sleigh Bells had ever played in LA, and......

Last night Scottish natives Frightened Rabbit spent their last night in Los Angeles in grand fashion at the Mayan Theater. The strangeness of the choice of venue was not lost on the band. Looking up wonderingly at the walls festooned in plaster carvings, like something out of Indiana Jones, the......

Last night a man in a white jumpsuit with a giant ZZ Top beard, sunglasses, and a bandanna walked out on the stage with a powder blue guitar and grinned at his audience as the faint strains of "When You Wish Upon a Star" faded from the speakers. One would......