In addition to the obvious academic benefits of attending Caltech, the close proximity to LA makes being a student here a fun experience socially. I’ve always joked to my friends that if not in class, at soccer practice, sleeping, or actively having a conversation with someone, then I’m listening to music. Now, while this may be a slight exaggeration, the underlying premise is essentially true, and one of the first things I did once I moved to LA was check out the concert scene.
As a native of Baltimore, Maryland, my hometown is not generally a hotspot for music artists. We will occasionally get some big shots at the Pier 6 Pavilion downtown or the Capitals stadium in DC, but after my semi-recent digression into “indie music,” I realized that many of the smaller artists I like were not making the trip East.
In addition to writing about all of these concerts in this blog post (that inevitably very few people other than I will read), I have also made a playlist with all of the setlists so that I can continue remembering these concerts long after they’ve finished.
LovelytheBand Pt. 1 (11/16/2021)
The Fonda Theatre
At the end of my first soccer season in 2021, I was about to go to sleep one night when I received a text from my teammate asking if I wanted to go to a Lovelytheband concert. Of course, my response was an automatic “YES”. In case you are not aware, Lovelytheband is a small indie hipster trio based in LA. They have one relatively famous song (“Broken”), but otherwise no one has really heard of them (BUT if you want to give them a listen 10/10 recommend, and here’s the playlist I made for my friends’s to prepare for the concert).
The concert was held at the Fonda Theatre in downtown LA. It was one of my first times being downtown at night, and it was neat to see such a wide variety of people from different ages and backgrounds in the venue. I did not realize that there were going to be any openers to the concert, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the singer Grady was going to perform first. I did not know his music too well, but there was one song of his, “kissing girls” that I really like. He was a very sweet and charming performer, rallying up the crowd with his charisma and dance moves (even though most of us did not know any of his songs). I was even inspired to check a few of his songs out after the concert.
The second performer was the band Canons, another LA indie pop band. I had never heard of this band, but I really enjoyed their performance. I was quite starstruck by the lead singer’s stage presence – her voice, the fit, her confidence – and the band had some very catchy songs.
However, Lovelytheband’s set was, of course, the night’s highlight. As essentially none of my friends had any idea who Lovelytheband was, it was really fun to be surrounded by people in the pit who were also mega fans (like me). They had some cool lighting and dramatic beat drops, and everyone around me was jumping up and down enthusiastically. Despite the fact that most of my friends did not know any songs, by the end of the show everyone was at least swaying a bit and bobbing their heads. The band closed with their hit song, and everyone went wild.
Chelsea Cutler + surprise Jeremy Zucker (11/09/2022)
The Wiltern
In an attempt to avoid traffic, we left for the concert extremely early and ended up getting there almost an hour before its start. We spent our extra hour sneaking into the pit (i.e. acting confident and convincing the ushers to give us wristbands) and exploring the theater. Upstairs, there was a hallway filled with pictures of past performers. There was a cool shot of Miley Cyrus and pictures from a past Sufjan Stevens concert.
There were two openers to the show: Arden Jones and Ayokay. I had never listened to either of them before, but I enjoyed both performances. Arden Jones is the same age as a college student, so it was cool to see someone my age performing (stark contrast from the STEM nerds we are surrounded by at Caltech). Ayokay does a mix of song writing and DJ-ing, so his concert was more of a musical experience than musical performance.
Finally, Chelsea Cutler took the scene. I recently learned that she played soccer and studied at Amherst, so, as a fellow soccer player, I was very impressed with her combination of academics, athletics, and insane musical talent (maybe I’ll be able to latch onto the soccer-to-pop star pipeline and you’ll catch me on Spotify in a few years). She had some really cool stage lights and backdrops (see above images), and, in addition to many of her popular songs, she performed my favorite song, “Crazier Things,” which is normally a duet with Noah Kahan.
However, the highlight of the night was a surprise performance by Jeremy Zucker (another LA-based musical artist). He and Chelsea Cutler are good friends and have written many songs together, so it was very heartwarming to see their friendship chemistry onstage during their performance. I remember remarking before the concert how epic it would be if Jeremy Zucker showed up, and I was very excited to have my absurd prediction come true.
Fletcher + Chappell Roan (11/17/2022)
Hollywood Palladium
After a particularly grueling Bi/Ch 110 assignment during my first term in 2022, my friends and I decided to take a study break and check for upcoming concerts in the area. While browsing we saw that there was a Fletcher concert for very cheap (< $30!), so, although we did not really know that many Fletcher songs, we decided that the price was a massive steal and immediately bought tickets. Ambitiously, we bought 4 tickets, thinking that we could easily convince other people to join us at the concert. However, we slightly miscalculated about the scale of the Fletcher fanbase, so we ended up having to beg some friends to join us at the last minute (don’t worry, they had fun in the end though).
The concert itself was very fun! Chappell Roan was the opener, and although I had never listened to her music before, I really enjoyed her performance. After the concert I went home and listened to all of songs on repeat. One of my friends was coincidentally already a fan of her music, so she was super excited by the surprise opener. The concert was just held in an open theater, so unfortunately being vertically challenged hindered my viewing of the performers. After a few songs spent on tiptoes, my friends and I retreated to the back of the theater to stand on the steps so that we could see. There were lots of people around us dancing, and, as Fletcher is openly gay, the concert was filled with lots of queer people.
(A side note: I started writing this post years ago, and now, looking back on it, one of my greatest flexes is that I was into Chappell before she was popular)
Vance Joy (3/11/2023)
YouTube Theatre
We got to the concert a little late, so by the time we found our seats the opening act had already started. The opener was some country singer that I had never heard of, but his performance seemed pretty good. However, when the actual concert started, things got a lot more hype. Vance Joy was a very charming performer, and everyone was very taken by his Australian accent. He kept switching between guitars and ukuleles for each song, and we tried to guess which song was coming next by the instrument being used (most of the time we guessed wrong). He even provided some backstory to his songs, which made the whole concert experience more special than just listening to his songs on Spotify.
Vance Joy ended the concert with a throwback rendition of Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” The song got everyone onto their feet dancing, clapping, and singing, and one of the best parts of the performance were the trumpet solos from a girl in Vance Joy’s band.
Lovelytheband pt. 2 (6/07/2023)
The Novo
In all honesty, there are not that many Lovelytheband fans out there, but luckily, I have a lot of friends willing to agree to my (sometimes ridiculous) ideas. Somehow, I was able to convince three of my friends to join me for my second Lovelytheband concert. The opener was this rock band Beach Weather, and while we did not know them previously, their set was pretty good (and my friend still talks about their lead singer and guitarist to this day). The other opener was Ava Maybee, who I really like, but unfortunately we missed her set.
Personally, I think Lovelytheband’s finding it hard to smile album is their best one, and I was not the biggest fan of their newest album, if we’re being honest (which we were there to see). However, the concert itself was really fun. One of my friends promised he would learn all of the lyrics to at least one song, and he dutifully screamed aloud to all of the lyrics to “Sail Away” with the rest of the crowd. I was even able to convert him to be a Lovelytheband fan outside of concert preparation, and he recently told me that he’s considering buying tickets to their most recent tour for their new album (he didn’t end up doing it, but it’s the thought that counts)!
Mt. Joy (8/26/2024)
The Greek Theater
Held in the middle of soccer preseason, this concert was a nice break from the daily exhaustion of LA heat and double practices. Mt. Joy is one of my absolute favorite bands, and it was an incredible experience to see them live. Their main singer, Matt Quinn, has insane vocals, and he is just as good live (if not better) than in the recordings. Also, while the whole band was undoubtedly fantastic, the pianist, Jackie Miclau, stole the show with her incredible solos.
Declan Mckenna (11/3/24)
The Novo
At soccer practice one afternoon, one of my teammates asked me if I wanted to join her for a Declan McKenna concert. She had preemptively bought two tickets, hoping to convince another person to join her. Given that (1) the tickets were pretty cheap (~$30) and (2) I was Declan McKenna fan, I agreed to go. Though, to be fair, I did not actually know most of his songs, so I did have to do some research before the concert. Funnily enough, on my way out to the concert I ran into one of my suitemates, and he asked where I was going. I invited him to join us at the concert (tickets were still cheep), and, surprisingly, he said he might meet us there. Right before Declan’s act I turned around and my suitemate was standing behind me! The concert was really fun, and I even found some new songs of Declan’s that I really loved (Feat. “Humongous”).
Del Water Gap (11/19/2023)
The Fonda Theater
This was probably my favorite concert ever. Del Water Gap (aka Holden Jaffe) was my top artist in the 2023 Spotify Wrapped, which was kind of impressive considering I only really started listening to him in July …. (He was also my top artist for 2024 Spotify Wrapped… ). The concert was held at my favorite concert venue, the Fonda, and my friend and I were able to sneak onto an upraised platform in the pit for a perfect view of the stage. We knew the lyrics to pretty much every song on the setlist, and we had so much fun jumping along with everyone around us. At one point in the concert Holden Jaffe got a little too excited on stage and accidentally knocked over one of his power cords. While he waited to get the power back on he did live ‘Q and A’ with the audience, which was pretty entertaining. I would 100% attend many more Del Water Gap concerts in the future (and have already made it to at least one more :))
Lizzie McAlpine (6/18/2024)
The Greek Theater
Years ago, before Lizzie McAlpine became really famous, one of my high school friends introduced me to the song “Pancakes for Dinner,” a sweet ballad about falling in love over the simple things (like pancakes for dinner).
Over the next few years, Lizzie became much more famous, and my friends I were pretty excited to hear that she was coming to LA. After waiting in horrible Ticketmaster lines, we were finally able to get reasonable tickets for the concert, and the experience was a lot of fun! Her newest album was super low-key, and she spent most of her concert sitting on a little stool on her homey cabin-like stage setup. Her guitarist seemed to be having the time of his life while playing her songs, and the whole concert had great ambience!
girl in red (6/29/2024)
The Greek Theater
In case you were not aware of the pop-culture references to girl in red, according the Urban Dictionary, ‘Do you listen to girl in red?” is a “discreet way of asking a girl if she likes girls/is gay.” While this stereotype is not universal, LGBTQ+ individuals did make up a significant portion of the concert attendees, and my straight male friend that came to the concert definitely stood out.
My younger sister had gone to the girl in red concert in Maryland a few weeks prior, and she had told me that Marie (the girl in red) was great live. However, this did not quite prepare me for just how fun the concert ended up being. As a bit of a surprise to myself, I ended up knowing way more songs than I expected, and I spent most of the concert jumping up and down and singing along (in comparison to my friends who were much less enthusiastic in their reactions). In the middle of the concert some of the stage equipment started malfunctioning, so Marie just started chatting with the audience and making up silly songs on the spot to sing acapella. She was very funny and did a great job defusing the unfortunate situation.
Niall Horan and Del Water Gap (7/26/2024)
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Read this blog post to hear more about this one 🙂
Glass Animals (9/14/2024)
The Kia Forum
This concert was completely unexpected, but it ended up being a fantastic experience. Glass Animals is one of my all-time favorite bands, so when they released ticket sales in previous spring, I excitedly tried to buy some. However, prices were REALLY EXPENSIVE (at least by my standards: > $100), so I unfortunately, had to pass. Now, flip forward about five months to the day of the concert, and it was a completely different story. Sitting in the locker room before a soccer game, I heard one of my teammates mention that she was going to the Glass Animals concert after the game and another teammate chimed in that she was going to look for last minute tickets after the game. Buoyed by this last minute attempt, I decided to join in on the search, and I checked ticket prices once our game ended. Surprisingly, I was able to find seats for $28!! I rushed to buy them, but while I was walking across the field towards the locker room my seats disappeared. Devastated, I thought that this was the end. HOWEVER, one of my teammates was able to secure $46 seats for us to go. In the end, in addition to three of my teammates who had bought tickets in the spring, another six of us got last minute tickets to go the concert. It was a really fun concert, and I had an absolute blast. Inspired by our success story, I set some notifications for future concerts to check last minute for cheep tickets again 🙂
Lauv + Alexander23 + Surprise Jeremy Zucker! (10/2/2024)
The Greek Theater
During COVID I had a really big Lauv phase where I made a playlist with all of my favorite Lauv songs (which was honestly most of his songs) and pretty much listened to it nonstop. I also was a big Alexander23 fan, and his most famous song, “I don’t know you yet,” was actually the first song I ever learned on the guitar. However, in all honestly, most people have not ever heard of Alexander23, so I have had some trouble convincing people to go to an Alexander23 concert with me. So, when I heard he was opening for Lauv, and one of my friends actually asked me if I would go, of course I agreed! Unfortunately, due to traffic we ended up getting to the concert a little late, so I missed the first few songs of Alexander23’s opening act. However, the ones I did see I were great. His whole set was completely acoustic: just him, his guitar, and a mic. During one of his songs I remarked to one of my friends that it would be great if Jeremy Zucker made a surprise appearance, as he, Lauv, and Alexander 23 have this very silly song called “Cozy” that they wrote together.
Later in the show, Lauv said he had a special guest coming that “we weren’t ready for,” and I joked again that it could be Jeremey Zucker. At the end of the concert, it turned out that I was right, and all three of the boys came on-stage to perform their song together (I was freaking out the whole time). Then, even crazier, as we were walking outside I saw Jeremy Zucker walking through the crowd RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I turned around and started following him (like a creep, I know) and then Alexander23 BUMPED INTO ME. It was all so surreal, and I made sure to take a stalker photo for evidence that I was in close proximity to two of my favorite artists.
Fletcher and Maude Latour (10/9/2024)
The Greek Theater
Months ago, my friends and I tried to buy tickets to this concert, but the prices were out of our budget (upwards of $70…). On a whim, the day before the concert we were eating lunch and decided to check out last minute ticket prices. We were shocked to see that they were only $15! We got very excited about going, but then I realized that I had a soccer game that day. At first, I thought my game was away, and after doing the math, we realized there was no way we would make the concert on-time. At the end of lunch we said goodbye and sadly parted ways, disappointed that we could not attend the concert.
However, minutes later I realized that my game was actually at home, and thus we could attend! By the time I bought tickets they were down to $14, and the concert was totally worth the (brief) heartache! We were mostly excited for the Maude Latour opener, and she was great! We knew all of the lyrics and were belting them out to the mostly-empty theater (not many people come for the openers…).
There was also a second opener, Slayyyter, who was a hyperpop artist with Lady Gaga-esque vibes. Her set took an interesting turn at the end… but she had a great stage presence. Finally, Fletcher went on stage, and she was great. We did not quite know all of the Fletcher songs (as we were mostly there for Maude), but it was fun to bop along with everyone. It was pretty cool to see how Fletcher had progressed as an artist from when we saw her the first time, two years prior.
Wasia Project (10/16/24)
The Fonda Theatre
I don’t know if you have ever watched the show Heartstopper, but if you have, you would definitely recognize Will Gao (Tao from Heartstopper) who is one-half of the brother-sister due that composes Wasia project.
I started listening to Wasia project when I got COVID last year (which you can read about here), and I was absolutely thrilled to learn that they were performing in LA and had affordable tickets. While this concert was my third Wednesday concert in three weeks (perhaps a bit excessive …. I know…), it was totally worth it! The second opener, Sabrina Sterling, was fantastic, and her voice+guitar duo was haunting (and she was super young too!). The main attraction, though, did not disappoint! Olivia Hardy (the other half of Wasia Project) has the most incredible vocals, and Will Gao is not only an insane pianist but can also sing! The concert was at the Fonda (my favorite venue), and my friend and I snuck on the balcony to get an elevated view of the stage. I had to much fun jumping and singing along with the crowd around me in the pit!
Declan Mckenna Pt. 2 (11/20/2024)
The Fox Theater Pomona
Earlier in this year, AXS had a “bring your boo” sale, so my friend (who I attended my last Declan Mckenna concert with) asked me if I would be down for round two. We roped in one of our friends who found another “boo,” and we all carpooled to the venue. During a fun-sing-along on the way to the concert, we were inspired to buy tickets to go to another concert together (Briston Maroney and Peach Pit) in June 2025. The theater for this concert was a cute venue in Pomona, and because we had general admission tickets, we were able to stand in the pit.
The concert was fantastic! Declan Mckenna was a great performer, and his effusive energy brought everyone in the crowd to their feet. In the pit, we all were dancing and jumping, especially excited when he sang his first banger, “Why Do You Feel So Down.” For the rest of the concert we had a blast, scream-singing, dancing, and jumping along to the beat.
Hana Bryanne and Story Slaughter (12/14/2024)
Permanent Records Roadhouse
In all fairness, before agreeing to go to this concert I had no idea who either of the artists were. However, I had been roping one of my friends into coming to random concerts with me for years, so when she kindly asked me to please join her at this concert, I felt that I had to agree. The concert was held at this this record store/bar called Permanent Records Roadhouse, and the concert was supposed to be a “Christmas Special.” I did some studying-up on the two artists, and I was pleased to have been able to recognize every song that both artists played.
Hana Bryanne is a small, indie artist from LA who is few years older than I am. She performed her opening act with just her guitar, and her soulful lyrics, fun guitar riffs, and charming stage personality made for a great starting act. She stuck around after the concert, and we chatted with her a bit about our Spotify Wrapped. When I told her that two of my top artists were Del Water Gap and Maggie Rodgers she told me, “looks like you’re a child of divorce,” (Del Water Gap originally was a band with Holden Jaffe and Maggie Rodgers, but now its just Holden).
The main act was Story Slaughter (yes, that’s her real name) and her accompanying band. She performed her own music during the first half of her act, and she was quite fun and got the crowd moving and clapping along to the beat. Many of her friends were in the audience, and everyone was cheering her on.
The second half of the concert was only Christmas songs. Story Slaughter and two of her band members performed one of their original Christmas songs, “Baby God,” which I actually loved. They also covered some standard Christmas songs to get the audience singing along, and one of Story Slaughter’s friends came up from the crowd to close out the concert by singing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” with her. The concert was a ton of fun, and, because it was in a record store, we were able to stand right next to the stage and meet the artists afterwards! I definitely plan on coming back to this venue before I leave LA.
Ultimately, while there are many fun activities to pursue in LA, attending concerts has been one of my favorite off-campus adventures during my time at Caltech. I hope to attend a few more before I graduate, and I will forever treasure these memories.
