The joy of covering pop music in Southern California is that there is just so much of it. That’s also the worst thing about it, too.
Each year we head out to stadiums and arenas and theaters and clubs to check out hot new acts, legends with long legacies, and festivals packed with every flavor of music imaginable.
Yet there’s always one more you wish you could have caught. And sifting through the highlights of the year can be painful. Does Pearl Jam at the Kia Forum make the Top 10? Lana Del Rey’s headlining turn at Coachella? Vampire Weekend at the Hollywood Bowl?
All were great. Alas, none made the cut.
Music reporters Peter Larsen, Holly Alvarado and Charlie Vargas were out there, all night and sometimes all day in 2024, and here present their top concerts and festival sets in no particular order.
Peter Larsen’s Top 10
Chappell Roan, one of the breakout stars of Coachella in April 2024, performs at Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, California in August. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)Chappell Roan and Raye at Coachella, Empire Polo Field, Indio: Look at us, cheating with a two-fer right off the bat. But Chappell Roan with her drag queen aesthetic and catchy synth-pop songs and the British modern soul singer Raye were two of the biggest breakouts of the festival this year. Roan, we wrote at the time, felt “like she’s about to get much bigger fast,” and after Coachella, she went supernova on the festival scene. Raye, whose art is classy cool to Roan’s trashy fun, deserves to do the same. See the Coachella reviews of the days they performed here and here.
Bruce Springsteen, right, performs with E Street Band members Jake Clemons on saxophone and drummer Max Weinberg, rear, during the first of two sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday night April 4, 2024. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Kia Forum, Inglewood: Eight years after his last Southern California shows, Springsteen returned with a roar, playing three hours and 20 minutes of hits and deep cuts in the first of two sold-out shows at the Forum. The man is 75 now and who knows how many more times we’ll get this chance. Don’t pass it up if it comes. See the review and photos here.
Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hunter performs with the band at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)Kraftwerk at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles: This German electronic band has influenced pop, rock and dance music for more than half a century. These days the group doesn’t tour so much as do residencies here and there, which is how it came to Los Angeles for nine nights in May, playing a different one of its classic albums and hits every night. We caught night three and the album “Trans-Europe Express,” and would have gladly gone to more, time and money permitting. Kraftwerk returns in 2025 to play at Coachella. See the review and photos here.
Missy Elliott speaks during a party celebrating her birthday at Jerry Moss Plaza in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)Missy Elliott at Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles: We’re accidentally in a run of shows by artists who haven’t played Southern California in a while. For Elliott, a star since the ’90s, the rarity was even more extreme. Her two sold-out shows at Crypto.com Arena in July were mind-blowingly great nights of music, dance, fashion. Call it art because that’s what it was in every sense of the word. See the review and photos here.
The Rolling Stones perform at SoFi Stadium on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The Stones will play a second concert at Sofi Stadium on Saturday. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)The Rolling Stones at SoFi Stadium, Inglewood: Mick and Keith are both 81 now, so there’s hope for Bruce Springsteen and his fans, we suppose. The ever-rolling Stones remain an astonishing, ageless (wrinkles aside), reminder of just how terrific classic rock ‘n’ roll can be. Start me up? When’s the last time the Stones weren’t in the driver’s seat, key in the ignition, revving up the motor? (In 2024, Southern California also enjoyed great vintage rock from artists including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Jeff Lynne’s ELO, too.) See the review and photos here.
Two weeks before PJ Harvey played the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles she is seen performing at the Salt Shed in Chicago on Sept. 30, 2024. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)PJ Harvey at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles: Polly Jean Harvey came to L.A. with a new album, “I Inside the Old Year Dying,” an adaptation of her 2022 novel-in-verse – written in the ancient Dorset language of her English home county. It’s heady stuff, a mythic trip to an in-between world of magic and myth, but fans were right there with Harvey as she played the full album before slipping into older favorites. British post-punk band The The did the same thing in 2024, playing its new album in full before doing the old stuff. We approve this trend. See the review and photos here.
Joni Mitchell played her first Southern California shows since 2000 when she sold out the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19-20, 2024. She’s seen here on Saturday. (Photo by Randall Michelson / LN-Hewitt Silva)Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles: After a brain aneurysm nine years ago, the thought that Joni Mitchell might never again play live felt very real. But after years of rehab and recovery, and the support of Brandi Carlile and many other musicians who love her, Mitchell played two nights at the Hollywood Bowl in October, singing 27 songs over three hours in what anyone who was there will forever remember as a magical night of music and emotions. See the review and photos here.
Sting performs at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)Sting at the Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles: Sting shook things up for his Sting 2.0 Tour in 2024, shedding the larger bands he’s built in recent years in a return to a power trio format like his former band the Police. Add to that the tour played smaller theaters — five nights at the Wiltern in November — and the show felt fresh, more powerful in its music and emotional heft than any he’s played here of late. See the review and photos here.
Sabrina Carpenter performs on stage during the second day of the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)Sabrina Carpenter at Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles: Sabrina Carpenter caught a ton of love for her strong set at Coachella in April, but the real deal — her Short ‘N Sweet Tour — made an even bigger impression when it reached Los Angeles for three nights at the end of November. Carpenter’s confident, sexy performance and terrific production design made this perhaps the flashiest spectacle after Missy Elliott’s shows this year. Add to that a surprise guest turn with Christina Aguilera and this was one for the year if not the ages. See the review and photos here.
Billie Eilish performs at the Kia Forum in the first of five nights there for Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in Inglewood on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation Entertainment)Billie Eilish at Kia Forum, Inglewood: This year, before Billie Eilish turned 23 on Dec. 18, she won her second Oscar, guested with Lana Del Rey at Coachella, released a new album “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and came home to Los Angeles on Dec. 15 to launch a five-night run of sold-out shows at the Kia Forum. There’s a confidence and sophistication ever-growing for this young woman with an old soul. Few stars have brighter futures. See the review and photos here.
Holly Alvarado’s Top 10
Tyler, the Creator (pictured performing at the Coachella Stage during the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club on April 13, 2024 in Indio, California) headlined his Camp Flog Gnaw festival at Dodger Stadium in November. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella)Tyler, The Creator at Camp Flog Gnaw, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles: Some might say 2024 was the year of Tyler, The Creator — and they’d have a strong case. The Los Angeles rap icon dominated the charts with “Chromakopia,” his latest record, which spent three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. He headlined this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with a jaw-dropping set, celebrated the 10th anniversary of his beloved Camp Flog Gnaw festival with a sold-out weekend at Dodger Stadium and expanded his Golf Le Fleur brand to include clothing, shoes, perfumes, and even bedding. His headlining set on Nov. 16 was a vibrant celebration of his evolution, featuring lush green aesthetics, new tracks, and a gathering of what Tyler calls “hip-hop’s greatest weirdos.” See the review and photos here.
Doja Cat performs during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Sunday, April 21, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)Doja Cat at Coachella, Empire Polo Field, Indio: Doja Cat closed out Coachella 2024 with a performance that cemented her status as one of pop music’s boldest visionaries. Her set leaned heavily on tracks from her 2023 album “Scarlet,” blending provocative themes with flashy visuals. From the moment she and her dancers appeared as sasquatch-like creatures for “Demons” and “Tia Tamera,” it was apparent this wouldn’t be your typical festival set. By the finale, she’d taken things to a mesmerizing level: dancing in a mud pit on a satellite stage. See the review and photos here.
Doechii performs during Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw music festival at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 16, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)Doechii at Camp Flog Gnaw, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles: ...
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