Audacy’s KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas
w/ The Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, 311, Sublime, Jimmy Eat World, Franz Ferdinand, Awolnation, The Linda Lindas, Bby
The Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
Saturday, December 14th, 2024
Review/Pics: Manuel Gay
Ho ho ho! Santa was early this year and brought a whole bag of distorted guitars and banging drums to the annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show. On Saturday December 14th I was lucky to make it to the 33rd annual KROQ Xmas concert. Previous editions over the years have featured myriads of legendary bands and artists like Rage Against The Machine, Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, System Of A Down among many others. This year’s line-up was a great one and included The Smashing Pumpkins as main headliner.
Before the festivities kicked off most of the bands took to the Red Carpet.
Bby
Bby (pronounced “baby”) came all the way from London to get the ball rolling and showcase a few songs from their newly released debut album titled 1. The Forum wasn’t full yet, but the early birds in attendance loved what these five guys brought to the stage. I particularly enjoyed their opening song “Breathe”.
The Linda Lindas
Next up was LA local next-big-thing The Linda Lindas which have been making a name for themselves for the past couple of years by performing at Coachella or opening for Green Day and The Rolling Stones. Emphasis on the fact that band members range from 14 to 20 years old! – Hello? 14 years old! What were you doing at 14? Certainly not playing the SoFi Stadium or The Forum… I know I wasn’t. Anyways……. The Lindas played mainly songs from their new album No Obligation and their energy filled up the arena.
Awolnation
Awolnation was then introduced by Kevin Klein and Ally Johnson (of the Klein & Ally show, obviously). I knew the massive hit “Sail” just like any other human being who hasn’t lived under a rock for the past ten years but wasn’t familiar with their whole discography. I have to say that I liked what I heard and what I saw. I thought their music leaned more towards a more electronic-pop sound, but I can see how their music pleases a rock crowd as well. Live rendition of “Run” was great!
Franz Ferdinand
Some songs or records leave a mark on you, and they trigger memories anytime you’ll hear them. Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled album automatically brings me back to my high school years, back when “Take Me Out” was the best thing on heavy rotation absolutely everywhere. I had not seen them live in fifteen years or so and I was thrilled to see that the Scottish band is still as good as they were in my memories. “No You Girls” was incredible and Alex Kapranos is a hell of a showman. You should run to see them if you haven’t already.
Jimmy Eat World
It seemed that I was getting stuck in those high school years when Jimmy Eat World was announced next. I didn’t feel alone in this situation however as the entire Forum sung “The Middle” with passion, as if it was our anthem for the night. “Pain”, “Sweetness” or “Bleed American” were received with pretty much the same level of enthusiasm. Kudos to the Arizonian band for putting “Christmas” in “KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas” as they treated us with the only Christmas song of the evening and covered Wham!’s “Last Christmas”.
Sublime
Sublime was one of the bands I was the most excited about seeing and I was also curious to see how Jakob Nowell was going to do, walking in his late father’s shoes. Sublime turned out to be my favorite act of the evening. The bass was so loud that you could feel it in your bones. Jakob’s voice was fantastic and did great justice to his father’s work. I was happy to see DJ Product behind the turntables – he’s one of the original members of (hed) P.E., another band I love.
In terms of crowd pleasers, they delivered all we could ask for “Santeria”, “What I Got’, “Doin’ Time”. At some point a big old rottweiler came on stage at some point and laid down on its back, hoping for some belly rubs. Sadly for him, none of the band members stopped playing to fulfill his demands.
311
Another band yet I was excited to see was 311. I had never seen them live and I had no idea what I had been missing out on all this time. Not only the band puts on a great show, but the setlist was killer. Other than the hits that I really appreciated, we got their cover of The Cure’s “Lovesong”, which was incredible. Each band had very cool visuals playing on the screen behind the stage, but 311’s was my favorite. It was essentially a trip through the solar system, which helped making nice pictures.
Beck played next but didn’t allow for press to shoot shim on the red carpet, nor cover his set so I won’t say much about it, other than he played all his hits and the crowd seemed happy about it. Happier than the press, for sure.
The Smashing Pumpkins
Then it was time for the moment everybody was waiting for: The Smashing Pumpkins. It wasn’t their first rodeo; they had played a few KROQ Christmas shows in past years. Despite the nature of the festival-style event, they managed to perform a decent 14-songs setlist which included all their classic tunes, some recent work and a handful of covers, including David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”.
It happened to be my third time catching them over the past two years, but it was my first time seeing them since Kiki Wongo took over Jeff Schroeder’s third guitar duty. I loved Jeff and wasn’t familiar with her, but I have to admit that she can play.
To sum it up, it was a great night of live rock which met all of my musical expectations. My only regrets are that I couldn’t shoot Beck and that The Smashing Pumpkins only allowed photographers from the soundboard. Shooting a band from across an arena is NOT fun. However, I knew this from previous experience, so it wasn’t a big shock either.
I had missed this KROQ annual show on previous years, but I’ll make sure to make it a tradition to attend religiously for the years to come. And if you’re in LA area, I believe you should too.