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Ever since their split in the early 2010’s, I’ve pined over never having had the opportunity to catch Rilo Kiley live. In the early aughts, there were few bands more influential on my indie music journey than Jenny Lewis & co. Their 2001 debut LP Take Offs and Landings is an influential and timeless masterpiece whose themes continue to resonate – it’s an album that personally continues to be on high rotation and one that I recommend frequently to others. I’m also largely convinced that Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted” was directly influenced by “Pictures of Success” (just listen to that bridge). Their breakout came in 2002 with their sophomore LP The Execution of All Things. Of note, I largely credit “A Better Son/Daughter” with helping to drag me out of my monumental existential crisis of 2024. This was followed by their major label debut More Adventurous which gained them an even larger audience, especially with pop gem “Portions For Foxes”. In that era, Jenny Lewis kicked off her solo career with the rootsy Rabbit Fur Coat and that was pretty much the beginning of the end. But that’s all in the past.
The band officially reunited earlier this year with their performance at the Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena followed by the release of their career-spanning “greatest hits” album That’s How We Choose to Remember It. This was shortly followed by the announcement of their When You’re On You’re Really F**cking On reunion tour that officially hit The Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park on Saturday, August 30th. With Labor Day weekend marking the official end of summer, it was a perfect way to celebrate the sun-drenched (but with a lingering ache) musical stylings of Rilo Kiley. They started off their set upbeat with early discography tracks “Execution of All Things”, “Wires and Waves”, and “Spectacular Views”, with Lewis switching off between bass guitar and keyboards all while delivering her emotive vocals like no time has passed at all. As I left the stage area to view the rest of the concert from the crowd, I’m pretty sure I spotted The Wonder Years’ Dan “Soupy” Campbell who I know has gone on the record to express his admiration for the band. The band continued to perform tracks from across their discography, including “It’s A Hit”, “A Better Son/Daughter”, “Portions for Foxes”, and Blake Sennett-fronted track “Ripchord”. During a break in the set, Lewis took some time to give the Jersey shore some props and then referenced the infamous incident that happened recently at the Korn concert at MetLife stadium. During “With Arms Outstretched”, a touching moment occurred when the crowd took over singing the final chorus of the song. For their encore, they performed a trio of bangers starting off with Take Offs and Landings track “Always”, followed by “More Adventurous”, and closing out with an extended version of “Pictures Of Success”. I pine no more, thank goodness.
Rilo Kiley will be continuing on tour through the fall with their last show happening in LA. See all of their upcoming tour dates here. Listen to “Pictures Of Success” from their debut LP below and keep scrolling to see more photos from the show including opener Natalie Bergman.
