Tigers Jaw
Tigers Jaw sold out The Observatory in Santa Ana, playing through Lost on You, their seventh record, along with all of the hits the crowd wanted to scream back.
Artist: Tigers Jaw, Pool Kids, Bleary Eyed
Venue: The Lodge Room
Date: 6/8/2026
Tigers Jaw sold out The Observatory in Santa Ana on a Sunday night, and vocalist Ben Walsh took a moment to acknowledge it. The Scranton band noted it was their third time playing the venue, the last being alongside their friends Manchester Orchestra, and that this was their first time headlining it to a sold-out room. The crowd made sure it was worth the wait. Walsh and Brianna Collins led the band through a full set that wove new material from Lost on You, their seventh album out earlier this year on Hopeless Records, alongside songs that the room clearly knew by heart. The closing stretch had everyone screaming every word back. Stage diving. Crowd surfing. The whole thing.
Pool Kids supported, the Tallahassee math rock and emo quartet fronted by Christine Goodwyne, whose most recent album Easier Said Than Done on Epitaph Records has only widened an already devoted following. The band first broke through when Hayley Williams of Paramore shouted them out on Instagram, calling their debut what Paramore wished they sounded like in the early 2000s. That early cosign made sense and their live show confirms it to us. Goodwyne's stage presence is something else entirely, coming off the stage and into the crowd. She noted the Santa Ana crowd was considerably better than the LA crowd the night before at the Regent, which the room loved. As someone born and raised in Florida, it was great to see fellow Floridians showing how good the scene is in the Sunshine State.
Bleary Eyed opened the night. The Philadelphia noise pop and shoegaze outfit founded by Nate Salfi brings warm distortion and dreamy emo hooks to everything they do; a perfect temperature setter for what followed.
Marietta
Marietta, after a ten-year hiatus, sold out Lodge Room two nights in a row. The crowd gave it all back, non-stop stage diving, crowd surfing, and every word screamed back from start to finish.
Artist: Marietta, Snowing, Awakebutstillinbed
Venue: The Lodge Room
Date: 5/30/26
Marietta, sold out Lodge Room on a Friday night for the second of two consecutive sold-out nights. The Philadelphia emo band, back after a decade-long hiatus that ended with a reunion in late 2025, came in with the full force. Raw, passionate vocals over jangly guitar quintessential of midwest emo. The crowd surfing started early and never stopped. Neither did the stage diving. At one point they shouted out their parents who had flown in from Florida to watch the show, which added a sweetness to the mathy-chaotic night. When they hit "Cinco de Mayo Shit Show" and the room screamed back "I'm getting too old for this shit," it was one of those perfect concert moments.
Snowing supported, the eastern Pennsylvania emo outfit from the Lehigh Valley scene that gave us Algernon Cadwallader and Title Fight. They played an energetic-and-heavy set barefoot and in shorts, which felt ironic given their name.
awakebutstillinbed opened the night. Shannon Taylor's Bay Area project, rooted in the DIY scene of San Jose and Berkeley, started the night off right with an emo, math rock, and post-hardcore blend that has earned the band a devoted following. Heart-on-sleeve authenticity all night from the first chord.
Core memories were made that night.
La Dispute
La Dispute brought their No One Was Driving the Car tour to a sold-out Glass House. The room screamed back with raw poetic intensity the entire night.
Artist: La Dispute, From Indian Lakes, Flooding
Venue: The Glass House, Pomona
Date: 4/27/26
La Dispute brought everything to Glass House on a Sunday night. The Grand Rapids post-hardcore band, fronted by vocalist Jordan Dreyer, has spent two decades building a catalog rooted in literary storytelling and the kind of emotional precision that makes a room feel like it is collectively holding and cathartically relasing its breath. Their fifth album No One Was Driving the Car, out now, reckons with malaise and the looming weight of the present moment, and the live show carried all of that, and more. Dreyer spun across the stage with an intensity that matched every word, roses on his microphone standing against the chaos around him. When they played "King Park," the room erupted. During the set, Dreyer asked everyone to put their phones away for a song or two. Just be here. Just be human together. It was a rare moment of collective presence.
From Indian Lakes preceded them with the kind of set that reminded everyone why Joey Vannucchi's blend of shoegaze, indie, and emo has earned a devoted following since the band formed near Yosemite National Park in 2009. Expansive, textured, and deeply felt.
Flooding opened the night. The Lawrence, Kansas trio fronted by Rose Brown draws from slowcore, noise rock, and post-hardcore in equal measure, breathy vocals giving way to dissonant, crashing guitars when the song calls for it. A perfect opening act for a night that demanded emotional endurance from start to finish.
Free Throw
Free Throw sold out The Observatory in Santa Ana on the Moments Before the Wind Tour, with Macseal, TRSH, and Wakelee.
Artist: Free Throw, Macseal, TRSH, Wakelee
Venue: The Observatory, OC
Date: 4/23/26
Free Throw sold out The Observatory in Santa Ana on a Thursday night. The Nashville quintet's sixth record Moments Before the Wind, out now on Wax Bodega, is their most mature work yet, a record about liminality, loss, and the particular vertigo of life in transition, and live, that emotional weight landed. Frontman Cory Castro led the room through gang vocals all night. Crowd surfers every song. This is stop twelve of a five-week North American run.
Macseal brought the Long Island band's signature blend of hooky emo and math rock their known for. Complex riffs, warmly melodic songwriting.
TRSH came in hot from Springfield, Missouri, their fusion of punk and Midwest emo landing with the kind of explosive energy that has earned them a reputation as one of the brightest young acts in the underground. Their latest record String Theory on Wax Bodega is out now and the live show is a thing of beauty.
Wakelee opened the night and pulled the crowd in immediately. The Brooklyn trio, identical twins Alex and David Bulmer alongside Elliot Shiang, brought emo-tinged indie warmth to the room. Gabe, their trombone player, hitting the nostalgia hard. They are currently putting the finishing touches on their second full-length record.
A great night for anyone who grew up on this music.
Remember Sports
Remember Sports broughtThe Refrigerator, their Saturn return record, to a packed Lodge Room on a Friday night, accompanied by Youbet and The She’s.
Artist: Remember Sports, Youbet, The She’s
Venue: Lodge Room
Date: 4/17/26
Remember Sports headlined a packed Lodge Room on a Friday night, fresh off a Joshua Tree show the night before and still full of energy for LA. The Philadelphia band's newest record The Refrigerator, out earlier this year on Get Better Records, is a Saturn return album in the truest sense: messy, cathartic, and honest in the way that only comes from having survived something. Live, that energy translated immediately. The crowd moved the entire set, the mosh pit finding its rhythm early and not letting go. Between songs, Carmen Perry joked that some of their older songs are now old enough to be underage drinking at parties, not quite 21 but getting there. The Linda Lindas were in the crowd, which felt exactly right.
youbet opened with the lo-fi indie rock warmth that has made them a cult favorite since their debut Compare and Despair in 2020. The Brooklyn-based project of Nick Llobet and Micah Prussack has a self-titled album dropping May 1st on Hardly Art, and the new material sounded sharp and confident.
The She's, a San Francisco band who have been making music together since their early teens, opened the night and set the tone perfectly.
Terror x Born x Raised
Terror played a free capsule release party in collaboration with Born x Raised at Superchief Gallery in Downtown LA, and ten minutes of pure mayhem followed. Pure LA Hardcore.
Artist: Terror, Born x Raised, DJ Olea
Venue: Superchief Gallery
Date: 4/15/26
Terror brought Los Angeles Hardcore to Superchief Gallery in Downtown LA on a Tuesday night for a free capsule release party with Born x Raised, the Venice-born streetwear brand that has been a love letter to this city since 2013. Free entry, a line around the corner by 5:30pm, and a room packed well past capacity by the time Terror took the stage. The collaboration made complete sense. Two institutions built on LA pride and uncompromising identity, finding each other in a warehouse in DTLA.
DJ Olea held it down beforehand while the room packed out. At some point the room found itself singing along to The Smiths. Singing “to die by your side, is such a heavenly way to die” next to the homie felt too real thinking about the mayhem that was about to unfold.
Terror played three songs. Ten minutes of chaos. Stage dives. Two-stepping. One kid jumped off the rafters. They closed with "Stick Tight" and the room exploded. Formed in Los Angeles in 2002, Terror has spent over two decades as one of the most uncompromising forces in American hardcore, and this room felt every single one of those years. They return to Los Angeles and Pomona on May 7th and 8th.
Marc Maron
Marc Maron brought a night of music and comedy to a packed, standing-room-only Lodge Room, trading sets with Dana Gould, Blair Socci, and Lara Beitz.
Artist: Marc Maron, Dana Gould, Blair Socci, Laura Beitz
Venue: The Lodge Room, LA
Date: 4/13/26
Marc Maron packed Lodge Room to standing room on a Monday night, and the crowd showed up ready. The format was loose and alive — Maron, Dana Gould, Blair Socci, and Lara Beitz traded sets throughout the evening, with the Marc Maron & Friends band weaving in live music between them, the energy never dropping. Maron, whose second HBO special Panicked is streaming now, was in sharp form: smart, cutting, not shy about diving into geopolitics and the rise of fascism. The kind of funny that makes you look at the world and still laugh.
Gould, a veteran stand-up and former Simpsons writer, commanded the stage with ease. Beitz, whose special Stoppable is streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime, brought raw personal storytelling that landed hard. Socci rounded out the bill with material that made the room erupt and then look around at each other in disbelief.
It was a very funny night at Lodge Room.
Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard opened his Don't Settle North American Tour at a sold-out Lodge Room, delivering a moving, story-filled set and a surprise appearance from Olivia Vedder on 'Falling Slowly.'
Artist: Glen Hansard, Margaret Glaspy
Venue: The Lodge Room, LA
Date: 3/29/2026
Glen Hansard sold out Lodge Room and made it feel like the only room in the world. The Irish singer-songwriter, frontman of The Frames and one half of The Swell Season, has spent decades building the kind of catalog that lives inside people. His song "Falling Slowly," written with Markéta Irglová for the 2007 film Once, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The Broadway adaptation won eight Tony Awards. And yet, between songs, Hansard let us in. He shared how nervous he gets on the first night of a tour, no matter how many times he’s done it. Lodge Room was the first stop on his ten-date Don't Settle North American Tour, and the crowd treated it accordingly.
What stood out from side stage was how tight-yet-free the band. Their guitar tech was tuning up between songs, moving effortlessly. A highlight for me was when Hansard played "Falling Slowly." He brought out his friend Olivia, who turned out to be Olivia Vedder [?!] Eddie Vedder's daughter, to sing alongside him. With one of those choruses that just moves you.
Hansard talked between songs the way great storytellers do, generously and without performance. He spoke about his love for East LA, about playing an early show out here years ago. He said how he wanted to play the Echo Plex, but his management found him The Lodge Room as an upgrade, and he was grateful.
Margaret Glaspy opened the night solo on acoustic guitar, the Northern California songwriter's raw, sharp-edged songwriting a natural fit for what was to follow. It was a magical night.
Skullcrusher
Skullcrusher brought their And Your Song Is Like a Circle tour to Lodge Room on a Wednesday night, delivering a soft and devastating immersive set.
Artist: Skullcrusher, H. Pruz, Emily Yacina
Venue: The Lodge Room, LA
Date: 3/25/2026
Skullcrusher's set at Lodge Room was soft, immersive, and dreamy. Helen Ballentine moved between Nord and guitar with the unhurried ease of someone who has spent years learning exactly how much space a song needs to breathe. Her second record And Your Song Is Like a Circle, released last fall on Dirty Hit, is a meditation on grief and dislocation. Hearing the record live, those themes did not feel heavy so much as suspended, held in the air above the room. The sound was dreamlike in the truest sense: not vague, but precise in the way that dreams can be, where every detail feels significant and nothing quite resolves.
h.pruz opened their own set before joining Ballentine for the headlining performance, the two sharing the stage with the ease of a longstanding creative partnership. Emily Yacina opened the night, the Long Beach songwriter's bedroom pop landing with the delicate, unguarded quality that has defined her work for over a decade — the perfect temperature for what was to follow.
Emery
Emery brought the twentieth anniversary of The Question to a sold-out Glass House in Pomona, playing the record in full to a pit of elder emos that never stopped moving.
Artist: Emery, As Cities Burn, The Classic Crime
Venue: The Glass House, Pomona
Date: 3/3/26
Twenty years is a long time to carry a record, and Emery made it feel like no time at all. Playing to a completely packed Glass House on a Tuesday night in Pomona, the band moved through The Question (2005) front to back. A few tracks they stripped back to acoustic, the way they were originally written, which gave the room a moment to breathe a belt before the intensity came back around.
The crowd banter was half the show. Emery checked in on everyone's backs, asked who had work in the morning, expressed genuine disbelief at how packed a Tuesday night in Pomona could get. It felt less like a anniversary tour and more like a reunion with people who grew up on the same records.
Then came the new song. Midway through, the breakdown hit and the band dropped into Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" — the pit immediately lost it, bodies moving, the room understanding exactly what was happening. And then to close: "Alright y'all, we're closing with The Wall. Y'all don't get a choice." The crowd roared because it was exactly what everyone wanted anyway. The pit exploded one last time.
As Cities Burn
As Cities Burn brought twenty years of existential post-hardcore to a sold-out Echoplex, playing through Hell or High Water for a sold out room with The Classic Crime and Emery (headling).
Artist: Emery, As Cities Burn, The Classic Crime
Venue: Echoplex, LA
Date: 3/1/26
As Cities Burn played a sold-out at the Echoplex on March 1st. This one was special for me. As Cities Burn was one of my favorite bands growing up. Between them and mewithoutYou, they captured the existential angst many kids socialized in youth groups in the early-to-mid 2000s.
I had not seen them since Cornerstone in the early 2000s. Twenty years later, they played exclusively through their third record Hell or High Water (2009). For only a three-piece, they felt sounded unnaturally full. Cody's guitar work and voice carried enormous weight, raw with emotion, and the creative liberties they took with song transitions kept even the most familiar moments feeling alive. Between songs, Cody pulled the room into big existential questions: the human condition, why we're here, what these songs are about. For anyone who grew up with this band, it was nostalgic and healing in a way that's hard to articulate. The crowd felt it too.
The Classic Crime opened the night, with Seattle's Emery closing it out on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of their sophomore record The Question (2005), a seminal post-hardcore album that defined a generation. Three bands from different corners of the country — Louisiana, Seattle, and beyond — sharing a stage for a room full of people who grew up on exactly this music.
They play Glass House in Pomona on March 3rd.
June Youngblood
June Youngblood played a final show in LA to debut her first record We Never Talked at Healing Force of the Universe, a night of open-tuned guitar, aching lap steel, and lyrics that made the whole room feel beautifully, willingly sad. An artist worth watching closely.
Artist: June Youngblood, Levi Gillis, Barry Archie Johnson
Venue: Healing Force of the Universe (LA).
Date: 2/26/26
June Youngblood celebrated her debut LA record release of We Never Talked at Healing Force of the Universe, one of LA's beloved independent record shops, and the intimate setting felt exactly right for the occasion. Playing guitar with open tunings full of jazz-inspired inversions and chord colours that feel simultaneously earthy and sophisticated, her playing is a quiet revelation on its own. A lap steel player alongside her added an aching americana yearning to the sound that made everything hit harder. But it's the lyrics that stop you cold, heartbreaking and direct in equal measure, the kind of songwriting that makes you feel seen without asking permission. She sold cassettes too. The following week she packed up and moved cross country to New York, making this her last LA show for a while, a bittersweet send-off for a CalArts graduate and an artist worth keeping your eye on.
Levi Gillis played a three-piece set before her, and Barry Archie Johnson opened the night alone on acoustic guitar, both setting a warm tone for what Youngblood would deliver.
Boycott Home Depot
On February 22nd, community members of the Community Self Defense Coalition rallied at three Home Depots simultaneously across LA, calling on a boycott of Home Depot for its complicity in ICE raids targeting jornaleros in their own parking lots.
Boycott Home Depot, Cypress Park
02/22/26
On February 22nd, community members showed up at three Home Depots simultaneously across Los Angeles County: Cypress Park, Westlake, and Torrance. The coordinated action was organized by the Boycott Home Depot Coalition, the Community Self Defense Coalition, and the Northeast Los Angeles Alliance for Democracy. Signs, banners, musical instruments, and a car caravan moving through each parking lot with an audio recording documenting the names and numbers of those taken.
The Cypress Park Home Depot is my local Home Depot. I have been showing up there on Fridays as part of the broader the Community Self Defense Coalition’s rapid response patrol, helping to be a presence to ward off ICE who has been targeting our jornaleros (day laborer) neighbors.
Since June 2025, over 40 day laborers have been abducted by ICE from this parking lot alone. Home Depot has not only failed to protect them. They have actively worked against the IDEPSCA day laborer center that has operated on their property for over 25 years. They installed noise machines emitting painful high-pitched sounds to drive people away. They filed eviction notices against the center that has served this community since before most of us were paying attention.
But the Boycott Home Depot action is one piece of a much larger architecture. The coalition organizing this work is part of a broader network of over 80 organizations across Los Angeles building what organizers call popular power, the kind that doesn't dissolve when the march ends. There is a difference between mobilization and organization (see video by Kwame Ture below). Mobilization gets people in the street. Organization builds the relationships, structures, and sustained pressure that can actually win. What is happening at the Cypress Park Home Depot is both.
The rally ended in Confluence Park with speeches from IDEPSCA, Union del Barrio, Malaya, a Filipino diaspora movement, and coalition organizers. The message was clear: Home Depot is not a neutral party. They are a corporate actor colluding with the fascistic machinery of deportation, and the community will not let that go unanswered.
Sudan Archives
Sudan Archives closed out her BPM North American Tour at a sold-out Fonda with dueling violins, a voguing runway, and an exhilarating politically-charged futuristic performance.
Artist: Sudan Archives, Cydnee with a C
Venue: The Fonda Theatre, LA
Date: 2/20/26
Cydnee with a C opened the last night of Sudan Archives' BPM North American Tour with a set that felt like a transmission from somewhere in the future. Backed by her producer Aktion Jackson and a dancer wielding fire and lights, her futuristic K-pop and drum and bass fusion had the sold-out Fonda locked in before the headliner even took the stage.
Then Brittney Parks arrived. Sudan Archives' solo set was ethereal and visceral all at once, drawing from 80s influence, experimental jazz, and club beats while carrying something unmistakably her own, a computer-ish, tech-tinged sound that felt alive. Midway through, she brought out Cain Culto for dueling violins on "KFC Santería," and the moment I was waiting for: Fuck Trump, Fuck ICE, Free Palestine. I had first heard that line from DJ Phatrick, who produces with Bambu and the Beatrock crew (See our coverage here).
The crowd was euphoric. Kilig in the truest sense. Later, Brittney asked the crowd to give her a runway, came down off the stage, and vogued. The crowd followed. Someone waved a Palestinian flag. It was one of those nights that reminds you exactly why live music matters and how artists can use their art to raise political consciousness.
Nathan Evans and Saint PHNX
Nathan Evans and Saint PHNX brought their first ever US show to a sold-out Lodge Room, delivering sea shanties and a little of Scotland to Los Angeles.
Artist: Nathan Evans and Saint PHNX, Erin Durant
Venue: Lodge Room, LA
Date: 2/18/26
Nathan Evans, backed by Glasgow brothers Saint PHNX, played a sold-out Lodge Room for their first ever US show, and the room gave them a welcome worthy of the occasion. Evans blew up in 2021 posting sea shanties on TikTok and the crowd lost it when that viral moment arrived live. The night was full of families and kids, and Evans leaned into it completely, bringing a young fan up whose favorite song was "Arabella" and playing it for them on the spot.
Saint PHNX drummer Alan Jukes played the entire set standing up, which gave the performance an intensity and physicality that changed the energy of the room entirely.
Erin Durant opened the night alone at the piano, delivering ballads that settled the room into something warm before the Scottish contingent took over. A genuinely joyful night.
VENNA
Venna sold out Lodge Room a month in advance for Valentine's Day, setting the mood right delivering a live saxophone set full of R&B warmth and electric intimacy.
Artist: VENNA, NAMI
Venue: Lodge Room, LA
Date: 2/14/26
NAMI opened the night with a live band set that set the Valentine's Day mood immediately, at one point pulling his partner from the crowd, holding her hand and singing directly to her, the room collectively melting. Venna then took over, the London-based saxophonist and producer and Grammy-winning collaborator with Burna Boy, Wizkid, Snoh Aalegra and dozens more, playing live saxophone backed by a full band through the entire set.
Venna had sold out Lodge Room a month in advance and the room earned every bit of that anticipation. The crowd was full of lovers and the energy matched: electric, warm, and deeply felt. There is something about live saxophone on Valentine's Day in a sold-out room that just makes sense, and Venna understood the assignment completely.
Long Beach Dub Allstars
Long Beach Dub Allstars are what became of Sublime after the passing of Bradley Nowell, and at Lodge Room they proved three decades later the spirit is very much alive.
Artist: Long Beach Dub Allstars, Bedouin Soundclash
Venue: Lodge Room, LA
Date: 2/13/26
Long Beach Dub Allstars brought their full ensemble to Lodge Room on February 13th and the room felt every person on that stage. Born from the legacy of Sublime and the reggae-rock movement that defined Southern California, the band has spent nearly three decades blending reggae, dub, ska, punk, and hip-hop into something that belongs entirely to Long Beach. That spirit was fully alive on Thursday night.
The crowd danced from start to finish, the kind of loose, joyful movement that only happens when the music is working exactly as intended. Bedouin Soundclash delivered a tight three-piece set before them, warming up a room that was clearly already ready. A night that smelled exactly like Southern California, in every sense of the word.
Pete Rock
Pete Rock, the legend, brought a sold-out Lodge Room to a full celebration of hip hop history, preceded by Monalisa's moving J Dilla tribute set.
Artist: Pete Rock, Monalisa
Venue: Lodge Room (L.A.)
Date: 2/4/26
Pete Rock, one of the greatest producers of all time, took a sold out Lodge Room on a tour de force through hip hop history. Rock spent the better part of three decades merging jazz into the DNA of hip hop, working alongside Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G. Common, and dozens more. The crowd was a party from the first beat, moving and celebrating the opportunity to witness history.
Monalisa opened the night with a J Dilla tribute set that set the tone immediately, a reminder of the lineage before the legend himself took the stage.
Mother
MOTHER brought seven artists and Mary Steenburgen to Lodge Room for an intimate evening of songs and stories celebrating the fullness of motherhood shaping music today.
Artist: Caitlyn Smith, Lucie Silvas, Jillian Jacqueline, Cam, Ashley Monroe, Maggie Rose, Melissa Fuller
Venue: Lodge Room, LA
Date: 2/3/26
MOTHER, presented by Live Nation Women in partnership with FAM, brought an intimate evening to Lodge Room honoring the mothers shaping music today. Hosted by Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen, the night wove together songs and stories from Caitlyn Smith, Lucie Silvas, Jillian Jacqueline, Cam, Ashley Monroe, Maggie Rose, and Melissa Fuller — a room full of Nashville's finest celebrating what it actually looks like to chase a creative life while raising children. Industry people, family, and friends packed the room for an evening that moved fluidly between laughter and tenderness, stories of motherhood interspersed with performances that made clear why every artist on that stage deserved to be there.
Midwife
Midwife brought her "Heaven Metal" to a hushed Lodge Room, closing a night of handmade instruments, cascading pedal boards, and haunting sounds that had no business being as beautiful as they were.
Artist: Midwife, Amulets, Pedestrian Deposit
Venue: Lodge Room, LA
Date: 2/2/26
Midwife silenced Lodge Room on February 2nd in the best possible way. Madeline Johnston's "Heaven Metal" — emotional music about devastation, as she describes it — landed with full force, her voice filtered through a rotary phone handset that gave everything a hypnotic, nostalgic ache, like grief heard through a wall. Sparse, devastating, and completely absorbing.
The night built perfectly toward that moment. Pedestrian Deposit opened as a duo playing a handmade branch-like stringed instrument that felt pulled from a Tolkien forest. Amulets followed with over 100 pedals arranged across two levels, building immersive drone soundscapes from cassette loops and live guitar. The two briefly shared the stage, the room suspended between them, before Midwife took over and finished the job.
