2 Much Live Music: Leon Bridges, Widespread Panic, Violent Femmes, Hollywood Bowl Nights Jump Up July

It’s been a year since the late, great Bob Weir played his final shows alongside John Mayer, Mickey Hart, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti, and Jay Lane — with special sit-ins by Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson, Trey Anastasio, and Grahame Lesh — as Dead & Company celebrated The Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary over Jerry Garcia’s birthday weekend at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Though the band hasn’t resurfaced, the music of the Dead hasn’t stopped and likely never will, thanks to folks like Don Was. Aside from serving as president of Blue Note Records, the 73-year-old Detroit native has become a key figure in the Dead family, due to his service alongside Bobby in The Wolf Bros dating back to 2018.

Nowadays, Don can be found on the road with a band of seasoned musicians from his home state of Michigan, which he’s dubbed The Pan-Detroit Ensemble. This July, that collection of talent — comprised of Jeff Canaday (drums), Vincent Chandler (trombone), Steffanie Christi’an (vocals), John Douglas (trumpet), Wayne Gerard (guitar), Mahindi Masai (percussion), Dave McMurray (saxophone) and Luis Resto (keyboards) — coalesced inside the cozy confines of The Lodge Room in Highland Park.

The Ensemble explored several tracks from its 2025 release, Groove In The Face of Adversity, including distinctive covers of Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” Fat Freddy’s Drop’s “Midnight Marauders” and The Impressions’ “This Is My Country.” They even dug into Don’s own crate of songs and pulled out “You Asked, I Came” and “Carry Me Back to Old Morocco.”

But the highlight of the show (and the reason so many Deadheads showed up, tie dye and all) was the band’s 50th anniversary, “Detroiticized” recital of the Dead’s album Blues For Allah. The beloved combination of “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Franklin’s Tower” got many a foot shuffling inside The Lodge Room, with a boost from some particularly funky saxophone by Dave McMurray, whose resume includes recording credits with Bob Dylan. Vincent Chandler’s trippy trombone turned  “The Music Never Stopped” into a more psychedelic experience than even the Dead had envisioned. Dave slipped onto flute for “Sage and Spirit,” and the horn section stepped in for the vocals on the album’s title track.

Even after that record was complete, Don and company kept up a grateful groove, with Steffanie crooning to Jerry’s “Loser” and The Dead’s “Shakedown Street.”

If you haven’t yet caught Don’s latest endeavor, never fear; there are plenty of dates left, between headlining shows and appearances with Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival. 

Find tickets to a show near you here.

The opening night of the LA Phil’s orchestral season at the Hollywood Bowl was billed as a night of iconic works by American composers Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington. The bigger draw for this show, though — in my case, at least — was a song cycle from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Suffs.

Read more about the show at 2 Much Live Music, and find tickets to upcoming LA Phil performances here.

Two days before his 37th birthday, Leon Bridges was the one giving gifts to an intimate crowd on the rooftop of the Santa Monica Proper Hotel — specifically, new songs, in collaboration with J Lloyd and Lydia Kitto of Jungle, along with some blue swag shirts. 

Read more about Leon’s exclusive debut of Happiness Anytime at 2 Much Live Music.

There’s no shortage of great live music to be enjoyed for free in Los Angeles. Perhaps no venue does that better than the Skirball Cultural Center with its Sunset Concerts. This year, for the 29th edition of its summer series, the Skirball has kicked things up several notches, starting with a resplendent opening night featuring Cory Henry and The Funk Apostles.

Read more about Cory’s funky comeback at 2 Much Live Music, and find tickets to his upcoming “Gospel Brunch Experience” dates here.

The annual KCRW Festival at the Hollywood Bowl tipped off with an electro-infused double header of Bob Moses and Cannons, who landed in L.A. together to wrap up their joint Afterglow Tour.

Read more about the grand finale of this tandem run at 2 Much Live Music, and learn more about Bob Moses’ upcoming dates here and Cannons’ here.

Widespread Panic was one of the few acts that I had yet to check off my jam band BINGO card.

That is, until last month.

The boys from Athens, Georgia wrapped up their first West Coast tour since 2016 with three shows at The Orpheum Theatre — the first two of which I got to photograph and enjoy.

Read more about Panic’s long-awaited return to L.A. at 2 Much Live Music, and find tickets to the band’s upcoming dates here.

Motown came to Tinseltown in a major way with Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight. The two legends intertwined their respective tours at the Hollywood Bowl for two nights of a show dubbed “Just the Two of Us.”

Read more about these nostalgic evenings at 2 Much Live Music, and get your tickets to see Smokey here and Gladys here.

Less than 24 hours after Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight brought Boomers out to the Bowl, Boris Brejcha tapped into an entirely different generation with a vibe that was anything but Motown. The German DJ swapped out soul and R&B for his own brand of minimal tech house.

Except, in this case, he paired that minimalism with an entire orchestra for the first time in his career.

Read more about Boris’ bill with his friends Frieder & Jakob at 2 Much Live Music, and find tickets for more of his shows around the world here.

Violent Femmes may not be an L.A. band, per se, but that didn’t stop the Milwaukee folk punkers from making themselves right at home inside The Bellwether in late July. With John Sparrow on drums (including a charcoal grill) and Blaise Garza on seemingly everything else — from alto to baritone saxophone, to banging on a box — the original duo of Gordon Gano (lead vocals, guitar, fiddle) and Brian Ritchie (backup vocals, bass) spent four nights celebrating 45 years as a band, with variations to the shows along the way.

Read more about how the Femmes kicked off their anniversary tour in downtown L.A. at 2 Much Live Music, and scope out dates and tickets for shows near you here.

The Hollywood Bowl got down to brass tacks in every which way — with an emphasis on “brass” — on the final Wednesday of July. Between Tower of Power and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, there was no shortage of wind to keep Angelenos cool amid a roiling heat wave.

Pres Hall tipped things off with their iconic demonstration of institutional New Orleans jazz. With band leader Ben Jaffe setting the pace on standup bass, the band transformed the Bowl into a bayou bash, with tracks like “Didn’t He Ramble,” “Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing,” “Keep Your Head Up,” and a cover of “Rich Woman” by Li’l Millet and His Creoles.

That opening period wouldn’t have been complete without a proper second-line performance, which Pres Hall did to the tune of “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

Once they were done marching out, Tower of Power slid in for a soulful and funky set of their own. No spate of early mic malfunctions could stop lead singer Jordan John from crooning his heart out to “I Like Your Style” and “Soul With a Capital ‘S’.”

As those obstacles subsided, the band’s classic Oakland sound shone unabated through dance-demanding tracks like “Soul Vaccination” and “Don’t Change Horses (In The Middle of a Stream).” Midway through, Emilio Castillo, the founder of Tower of Power, took a moment to reminisce about the group’s 59-year journey and the song that started it all, “You’re Still a Young Man.”

Emilio then led the band through a medley anchored in “Diggin’ on James Brown,” before Tower of Power wrapped up the night with a run of “So Very Hard to Go,” “What Is Hip?” and “Soul Power.”

Catch Tower of Power on tour, with more information about dates and tickets here. Find tickets to Pres Hall’s shows here.

Kim Gordon at Pacific Electric made for, perhaps, the most perfect pairing of artist and venue from the month that was. What better place for the Sonic Youth co-founder and renowned art rocker to play in L.A. than amid the grungy warehouses of the Arts District — albeit adjacent to David Chang’s renowned restaurant, Majordomo.

Read more about Kim’s latest entry into the “noise rock” pantheon at 2 Much Live Music, and find tickets to her upcoming shows here.

It felt fitting for St. Vincent to end her run of orchestral shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

And not just because her hit song, “Los Ageless,” is about the very city that this world-renowned venue overlooks, though that bit doesn’t hurt. There’s a shared sense of theatricality and grandeur that seems to bind Annie Clark to the Bowl, thereby making it a no-brainer for the final stop on this ambitious endeavor.

Having Anoushka Shankar — the daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, and a spectacular sitarist in her own right — open the evening only added to the lore.

Once St. Vincent took the stage, with Jules Buckley conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra behind her, she gripped the audience’s full attention and didn’t let go until her 90 minutes were up. Between her captivating vocals and the orchestra’s dramatic arrangements, songs like “Violent Times” and “The Bed” took on a quality befitting a James Bond film.

Though St. Vincent let the orchestra handle all the instrumentation on some tracks, she couldn’t be denied her signature guitars. She crashed into crunchy tones on “Black Rainbow,” went gentler on “Now, Now,” ramped her way into a proper solo on “Live in the Dream,” and ended the evening back on her bright red axe for “Paris is Burning.”

St. Vincent also took the opportunity to “get loose” in front of an audience that she facetiously referred to as “just friends and family” in her adopted hometown. She gallivanted around the Bowl’s massive stage during “Digital Witness,” waved around a cigarette while singing “Los Ageless,” and got slap-sticky on “New York,” tossing popcorn, splashing herself with patrons’ drinks, and offering up hugs and quips galore as she strode from the catwalk into the garden section.

As of now, St. Vincent will be off until February 2027, when she’s slated to return to performing in New York City. Find tickets to that show here.

The anniversary of GD60 brings back not only bittersweet memories of Bobby’s final public performances, but also the reminder that Phil Lesh wasn’t around to partake in that grand commemoration. The beloved bassist of The Grateful Dead passed away before those Golden Gate Park shows came together, at the age of 84 (on my birthday, no less).

With The Dead once again top of mind, let’s officially welcome Phil into The Charcoal Club. Credit to my buddy Brandon Weil for providing one of his original photos as a reference.

You can find the original work in my shop, along with posters and prints.

For all the latest updates, follow The Charcoal Club on Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads and Facebook, and visit our website.

Also, if you’re interested in commissioning me for a custom piece, reach out!

The rising star of alt-country kicks off the North American leg of her Heavy Petal Tour in the heart of Koreatown. Expects a night full of Americana — including bluegrass and folk — buoyed by Sierra Ferrell’s flawless voice.

Get your last-minute tickets here.

The 29th edition of the Skirball’s Sunset Concerts series concludes with a double-headed family affair. Annie and The Caldwells are set to bring their brand of disco soul from Mississippi to Southern California. The Campbell Brothers, on the other hand, will lean into gospel music infused with the power of pedal and lap steel guitar.

Entry is free — including exhibits inside the center.

After selling out the Rose Bowl on their North American stadium tour in 2025, Rufus Du Sol are back stateside for another run. This time around, the Aussie dance group’s visit to L.A. will revolve around five dates at The Forum, split up by a trip to San Francisco for a headlining set at Outside Lands.

Pick up your Rufus tickets here.

Get ready to dance the night away to the sultry sounds of salsa, flamenco and Catalan rumba with Gipsy Kings. Spain’s recent World Cup win ought to lend some additional celebratory spice to the occasion.

Grab your tickets to see this multigenerational band here.

Judy Collins rose to prominence in the 1960s for singing songs written by Joni Mitchell and Stephen Sondheim, but her voice is all her own. Nearly 70 years into her career in entertainment, the Seattle native is calling it quits.

But not before her Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour, which lands at The Ford in early August.

Find all the tickets you’ll need right here.

Take it back to the ‘90s with back-to-back nights of Counting Crows at the Hollywood Bowl. Beyond “Mr. Jones,” “Round Here” and “Long December,” the Berkeley-based alt-rockers are back in the game with 2025’s Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, as well as their own HBO documentary, Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately?

Get re-introduced to Counting Crows with tickets here.

Everyone’s favorite English ginger brings his Loop Tour to Inglewood for a singer-songwriter extravaganza. Ed Sheeran is sure to pull plenty from his latest release, 2025’s Play, while also digging deep into his catalog of well-worn hits.

Find your way into Ed’s stadium run here.

Two Hall-of-Fame acts collide for one legendary night at Intuit Dome in Inglewood. Between the smooth R&B stylings of Lionel Richie and the dynamic funk of Earth Wind & Fire, this show is sure to start a party inside the high-tech home of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Find tickets to this night of nostalgia here.

John Mellencamp is back on the road, and he’s brought all the highlights from his catalog with him. The 74-year-old formerly known as “Cougar” will have the Hollywood Bowl singing along to his songs of the heartland — from “Jack & Diane” and “Hurts So Good” to “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”, “Wild Nights” and more — when his Dancing Words Tour — The Greatest Hits comes to Southern California.

Don’t miss your chance to hear John dust them all off. Get your tickets here.

The 24-year-old American Idol contestant-turned-festival-headlining pop star returns to Crypto.com Arena for two nights of high notes and spectacular theatrics. While Benson Boone’s own tour promo has poked fun at the slings and arrows he’s suffered during his rise — with quips like “Backflips & Magic Included” and ‘The One-Hit Wonder’ - The Whole Internet” emblazoned on ads — there is, indeed, so much more to the Washington state native’s talents than what’s gone viral so far.

Check out tickets here.

What’s better than one legend of classic rock at the Hollywood Bowl? How about two? That’s what revelers will get on August 13, courtesy of The Oneness Tour, with Santana and The Doobie Brothers sharing the bill.

Join The Oneness with tickets here.

The Connecticut jam rockers return to the Greek for a third time, in their first proper L.A. swing since 2024. This time around, Goose figure to work in tracks from their latest album, 2026’s BIG MODERN!, which sees Rick Mitarotonda, Peter Anspach, Trevor Weekz and Cotter Ellis transport their musical improv to the 1980s with math rock and new wave vibes.

Tickets are available here.

Folksy singer-songwriters on acoustic instruments are all the rage these days. Just ask Noah Kahan, who will go from selling out the Hollywood Bowl in 2024 to filling the Rose Bowl with Busyheads this August. The charming New Englander will have plenty of help too, with Gigi Perez and Annabelle Dinda on the undercard.

Make your way to Pasadena with passes purchased here.

The Hollywood Bowl will host a three-headed monster of Southern rock when Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Black Crowes and Whiskey Myers come to town. This show will come as a convergence between three separate headlining tours that all share a celebration of roots rock.

And, of course, a love and admiration for the guitar wizardry of Derek Trucks.

Grab your tickets here.

It didn’t take long for Angine de Poitrine to sell out their L.A. debut shows at the Teragram Ballroom. The mysterious math rock duo from Montreal has already announced (and sold out) a pair of return dates at The Wiltern in December.

If you can’t wait until then (and even if you can), get your tickets now and here.

Long before Lenny Kravitz came along, The Guess Who made “American Woman” an unmistakable radio hit. Now, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman are back together, for the first time in 23 years, to reclaim their place among rock n’ roll royalty.

Find tickets to their show at the Greek Theatre here.

Mt. Joy may be Philly-born, but these indie rockers now rest their heads in L.A. Technically, that means their upcoming shows at the Greek Theatre will be hometown affairs.

However you count ‘em, get your tickets to see Mt. Joy here.

Two years ago, Dave Grohl came out of hibernation to surprise the Weekend 2 crowd at Coachella with some Foo Fighters classics during Gustavo Dudamel’s set with the LA Phil. Now, they’re turning that cameo into a full-fledged headlining concert to conclude a four-night run celebrating Gustavo before he officially steps into his new role as the Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic.

Get your tickets to this rockin’ farewell to Dudamel here.

What do you get when you put The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, TV Girl, Chromeo, The Rapture, Feist and more on the same lineup, and throw in some sweltering San Gabriel summer heat? 

The answer: Just Like Heaven, which is now a tentpole event on the calendar for just about every Millennial in Southern California.

Snag your passes to JLH here.

Believe it or not, it’s been a quarter century since Train broke out with Drops of Jupiter. To celebrate, the San Francisco pop rockers have enlisted Barenaked Ladies and Matt Nathanson for their Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years in the Atmosphere Tour.

Secure your tickets to their show at the Greek here.

If you haven’t yet been to the Blue Note in Hollywood, August is a great time to start. The last week of the month will feature two nights of double headers with Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra — proof that he’s a wizard beyond Oz.

Find tickets to all four shows here.

Last year, David Byrne turned in two nights of Who Is The Sky? at the Dolby Theatre. This time, the former frontman of Talking Heads is taking his band hiking up the hill, to a much bigger venue, for two nights of their unique concoction — part one-man show, part concert, all incredible — at the Hollywood Bowl.

Be sure to catch David burning down the house with tickets here.

Olivia Rodrigo has organized a helluva lineup for a good cause. She, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Garbage, Katseye and more will bring plenty of power to Daisy Chain Fields, for the purpose of raising money for non-profits that advocate for women and girls. Special guest appearances by Stevie Nicks, Sarah McLachlan and Yeah Yeah Yeahs leader Karen O only figure to kick the whole event up several notches.

Conscious Chicago hip hop lands in L.A., courtesy of Lupe Fiasco. The rapper’s show at the Palladium comes as a warmup for his Back to Basics Tour, which will see Lupe join Gym Class Heroes and B.o.B. across 19 cities this fall.

Get your food and liquor wherever you’d like, so long as you get your tickets here.

Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Travis Barker (blink-182) and CJ Ramone (Ramones) will join forces as Cretin Family for a special 50th anniversary tribute show to The Ramones at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

John Travolta is set to host a bill that will also include a double-feature screening of Carrie’s and Travolta’s new film about the band, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, as well as a guest DJ set from the artist Shepard Fairey and other surprise appearances.

Snag your tickets to this special night here.

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