Rilo Kiley: REALLY F**KING ON TOUR
Saturday, May 17th, 2025
7:00PM All Ages
After a long absence, Rilo Kiley—Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Jason Boesel, and Pierre “Duke” de Reeder—are back, with arms outstretched.
Over the years, a reunion “felt like a possibility, but it was never the right time,” explains Boesel. Eventually, “the emotional component and the interpersonal communication component all arrived into this place where it had a straight shot at reality.”
“Planning this reunion over these past months has been like reconnecting with family. We haven’t missed a beat,” says De Reeder. “The stakes are only to have a good time, to revel in this nostalgia. Getting to revisit and celebrate the music from that special time of our lives while experiencing it alongside a lot of people that lived it with us back when, and new folks alike.”
“It couldn’t have happened any sooner,” says Lewis. “It feels like now is the time to share that joy and love with each other and with everyone else.”
“For some people, Rilo Kiley evokes a formative, emotional time in life, when you were maybe grasping for your place in the universe. We were too,” says Sennett. “Reconnecting with those people is paramount to anything else.”
“It’s going to be wonderful for us, like going back to the purest version of yourself, that early ’20s place where everything is possible,” says Lewis. “You’re in a van and Jason’s got the map, Pierre is behind the wheel, and I’m on the shitty acoustic guitar in the bench seat working out a new song with Blake. I don’t think it’s ever been as good as that, when it was just us against the world.”
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Rilo Kiley was born from hunger, from the insatiable desire to write one’s own story. The band’s origins can be traced back to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, when Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett discovered a shared songwriting obsession and began performing together. After some starts and stops, a band was formed with Pierre “Duke” de Reeder playing bass. They called themselves Rilo Kiley, borrowing a name that came to Sennett in a dream.
Following a promising EP, Rilo Kiley got to work on their debut, 2001’s Take Offs and Landings. Self-recorded at home, the scrappy album offered a mix of Pacific Northwest-inspired indie rock and emo-adjacent angst, with a number of hushed and heartfelt tracks led by Sennett. Though their sound would evolve with time, Take Offs introduced many of the qualities that would define Rilo Kiley: clever and raw observations about life and death; evocative melodies that infuse deeper shades of meaning; and seriously great storytelling.
If Take Offs was a self-assured launchpad, 2002’s The Execution of All Things was a triumphant arrival. For their second record, Rilo Kiley headed to Nebraska to record with Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis alongside new drummer Jason Boesel. Here, Lewis truly becomes a generational songwriter, spinning interior mysteries regarding romance, depression, trauma, hope, and isolation into cathartic revelations.
The title of their third album, 2004’s More Adventurous, aptly reflects the band’s increasingly ambitious compositions. It was also a poetic reference to perseverance in the face of heartbreak, a reminder that the things that make you weep don’t have to make you weak. This sentiment guides Lewis as she addresses the failings of institutions large and small, from politics to marriage to religious morality.
By that time, Rilo Kiley was a beloved presence in certain corners of pop culture. The bandmates’ explored other musical outlets but reunited for 2007’s Under the Blacklight, a groovy, ’80s-tinged examination of humanity’s seedy underbelly. In 2013, they shared Rkives, a compilation of leftover treasures pulled from old cassette tapes and hard drives. In 2020, Rilo Kiley reissued their 1999 The Initial Friend EP.
Morgan Nagler
When you hear Morgan Nagler’s debut collection of songs under her own name, you’ll probably wonder how she seemingly appeared out of nowhere with such jaw-dropping melodies, lyrics that cut right to the heart, and her distinctively beautiful, plaintive howl. The thing is, she’s been hiding in plain sight for a minute now, waiting for the perfect moment to emerge from band names and behind-the-scenes co-writes with her truest musical statement yet.
With her bands Whispertown and Supermoon, and through Grammy-nominated collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Haim and Madi Diaz, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter has spent years honing her ability to craft tunes that are both heartbreaking and clever at the same time. It’s a gift that has made her a hugely in-demand co-writer – someone an artist will call in when they really want to get to the core of a feeling.
Earlier this year, reeling from a devastating break-up and turning to her guitar to sing her grief, Nagler began amassing a group of songs that instantly felt like the beginning of something important. It was time to share her stories, as herself.
“Cradle The Pain” is a preview of Nagler’s next chapter. Produced by King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas and mixed by Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Snail Mail), the song displays her poetic acumen, atop an instantly memorable melody. “I originally wrote this song as sort of a letter to one of my dear friends,” Nagler explains. “It’s funny how it’s often easier to cut to the core of truth when the message is disguised as being for somebody else. It has since taken on many new and personal meanings to me, currently serving as more of a mantra. I think we inherently know it’s all in our own hands, but the allure of not being accountable allows us to romanticize falling victim to the whims of fate. I am constantly needing the reminder that perspective truly is the key to life, and only we contain our own salvations. We have to just keep getting back on the saddle again and again. Cradle the pain, it’s all the same, it’s what you make of it.” The track also features a stellar backing band including both Thomas and Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) on guitar, and Josh Adams (Cat Power, Weyes Blood & Tim Heidecker) on drums.
Nagler will be sharing more music next year, and is putting finishing touches on an album. “This song is the first of a body of work I consider closest to home,” she says. After spending my childhood as an actor taking on alternate personalities, my young adult days writing and touring in various indie projects, and the last several years writing with and for other artists, I’ve compiled a personal collection of songs alongside my producer and co-writer Kyle Thomas. They will be released under my name for the first time, which is appropriate as I feel pretty raw and more like myself than ever. So in many ways, regardless of a lifetime spent in the trenches of creativity, this feels like a debut.”
