Author Archives: Sean McCracken

Some lineups only come around once, and on Friday night, Los Angeles got one of them. Iron Maiden is celebrating 50 years as a band with their Run For Your Lives World Tour; Megadeth is out on what they have said will be their last-ever tour; and Anthrax joined the bill for only a handful of the biggest North American dates, Los Angeles among them. Three bands that helped build heavy metal, all on one stage, in a stadium full of fans who knew exactly how lucky they were to be there.

On September 25, Iron Maiden headlined the first of two sold-out shows at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. They were supported by Anthrax and Megadeth. Traffic had other plans for me, and I did not make it into the stadium in time to see Anthrax. By every account, I missed something special. Joey Belladonna and company kicked the night off with “Caught in a Mosh,” got the pits going early, and put fans in the right mood for the mayhem to come. Anthrax has been one of thrash’s great live bands for more than four decades, and from what I heard, they proved it all over again.

They were followed by Megadeth, who delivered an amazing, high-energy set. Dave Mustaine and the band ran through “Devil’s Island,” “Hangar 18,” “Sweating Bullets,” “Tornado of Souls,” “Symphony of Destruction,” and “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.” Fans sang along to every song. Knowing this is Megadeth’s farewell run made every one of those songs hit a little harder, and the crowd treated it like the send-off it is.

Then Iron Maiden came out, and it was like a tidal wave of sound. They hit hard and fast from the opening “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and never let up: “The Number of the Beast,” “Powerslave,” “2 Minutes to Midnight,” “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” and “The Trooper.” During the third song, “Killers,” a giant Eddie emerged and tried to attack the band members with a massive axe. They were flipping him off and running under his legs to dodge him. This made for a really fun show.

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There are rock stars, there are pop stars, and then there’s “Weird Al” Yankovic—a 66-year-old accordion player who has spent more than four decades turning other people’s hits into punchlines, and who can still fill an arena on a Saturday night.

On September 19, he brought his Bigger & Weirder 2026 Tour to a packed Honda Center in Anaheim, California. If you grew up wearing out a cassette of Dare to Be Stupid or a burned CD of Running with Scissors, this was the kind of night that makes you feel about twelve years old again—in the best possible way.

Opening the night was Puddles Pity Party, the seven-foot sad clown with a voice that has no business coming out of a clown. Puddles opened things up with a fun set of covers and original music, and for three of the songs, he had fans come up and join him on stage—which, if you’ve ever seen his act, is half the fun.

He played “Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About,” “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island,” and a cover of “Under Pressure.” The whole set was amazing. His lounge-act style of recreating songs—part crooner, part performance art, all deadpan—makes it fun for the whole crowd, and by the time he walked off, the arena was warmed up and ready.

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Some lineups look good on a flyer, and lineups that make sense the second the first act starts, and this one was the second kind. On August 21, Little Stranger headlined the Observatory OC in Santa Ana, the Orange County stop on their Broken Hearted Boys Tour, and they brought along three acts who have been turning up on each other’s records for years. Tropidelic, Jarv, and Damn Skippy supported them—four sets, one extended crew, and a room that never really cooled off in between.

Damn Skippy kicked things off with a ton of energy, setting the mood for the night and really getting everyone moving. The Carolinas rapper does not ease into anything—he came out at full speed and had the early arrivals on his side before most of them had found a spot on the floor. Jarv was up next and kept that momentum going. The Brooklyn MC and producer works in a classic boom-bap style without ever sounding like a museum piece, and by the end of his set, he had us ready for the next two bands.

Tropidelic came next, and they are always an exciting set—this night was no different. The six-piece out of Cleveland runs reggae, hip-hop, and horn-driven funk together in a way that should not work as smoothly as it does, and frontman Matthew Roads spends the whole set making sure nobody gets to stand still.

The set included “Follow Your Nature,” “New World,” “Sunny Days,” and “Same Hat,” with collaborations “Pressure” with Nahte and Skippy, “Movie Star” with Jarv, and “Holiday” with Little Stranger. That is the thing about a bill like this one—the guests are already in the building, so the collabs actually happen instead of getting name-checked from the stage.

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On August 7 Rebelution headlined the first of 3 nights at the Pacific Amphitheatre, another in a great season at the OC Fair. Skip Marley and Niko Rubio supported them. It was one of those Costa Mesa evenings that makes you glad you bought the ticket—warm but not hot, a breeze coming in off the coast, and the smell of fair food drifting over the hill behind the amphitheatre. People were in their seats early for this one, which does not always happen at the fair, and you could tell from the parking lot that it was going to be a good night.

Niko Rubio started things off. This was my second time seeing her, and she was just as amazing as I remembered her. I love her mix of different music genres. She is a Mexican and Salvadoran American artist out of Southern California, and she pulls from dreamy alt-pop, mariachi, and old-school R&B without any of it feeling forced.

It all works even better live than it does on record. She played songs “Sunday Girl,” “Savior Girl,” and “Ring Ring” from her recent EP. Her band was tight, her voice carried all the way to the back rows, and she had the early crowd on her side within about two songs. If you have not heard her yet, go find “Ring Ring” and the newer “Sunday Girl” material. She is only going to get bigger from here.

Next up was Skip Marley. He came out, and from the first note, he was making the crowd move. He played his original “Lions,” as well as Bob Marley covers “Exodus” and “Is This Love.” With every song he played, you could see and hear the feeling in it, and all the fans were singing along.

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Some concerts you plan your whole summer around. Others land on a random Wednesday in the middle of the OC Fair, and those are the ones you end up talking about for weeks. July 29th was the second kind. Cypress Hill rolled into the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa with 35 years of hits behind them and absolutely no interest in taking it easy, and Los Angeles’ own Ozomatli got there first and set the bar high. Two bands from the same city, two completely different sounds, one crowd that never sat down. If you skipped this one because it was a school night, you missed the best party in Orange County.

The show was part of the OC Fair’s Toyota Summer Concert Series, which is still one of the best deals in Southern California—your concert ticket gets you into the Fair, so you can spend the afternoon eating things you would never eat anywhere else and then walk straight into an 8,000-seat amphitheatre. By the 7:30 downbeat, the place was packed, loose, and ready to go.

Ozomatli opened things up with the unique blend of genres that really makes for an amazing show. Three decades in, the LA collective still throws salsa, cumbia, hip-hop, funk, reggae, and rock into the same song and makes it sound effortless. They played great songs like “Tus Ojos,” “After Party,” “Como Ves,” and “O Le Le” that had people singing and dancing throughout the venue.

The horns did most of the heavy lifting, the rhythm section never let up, and the crowd figured out pretty quickly this was not a set to spend in the beer line. They closed out their set playing out into the crowd and interacting with the fans—drums, horns, and all, straight down the aisles. It is their signature move, and it still works every time.

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There’s a certain kind of summer night that only rolls around a few times a year—warm air, a breeze drifting through an open-air amphitheatre, and a lineup that keeps the good vibes flowing from the first act to the last. Saturday, July 11, was one of those nights. The Elovaters brought their brand of reggae-rock to the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California, for one of the largest headlining shows they’ve ever done, and from the opening note to the final singalong, it lived up to the moment.

The show landed as part of the Pacific Amphitheatre’s Summer Concert Series, the stretch of shows that turns the OC Fairgrounds into an open-air stage every summer. With the fairground lights flickering on and the California air finally cooling down, it was hard to picture a better setting for a night of feel-good reggae. By the time the first act hit the stage, the place was already buzzing.

The night kicked off with Afroman, who set the tone with a set full of humor and easygoing charm. He cracked jokes and talked about some of the things he’s gone through recently between songs, keeping things loose and personal in a way that had the crowd on his side right from the jump. When he rolled into fan favorites like “Lemon Pound Cake” and his signature “Because I Got High,” the whole place sang every word right back to him. It was the kind of opener that warms a crowd up without ever trying too hard—a good time, plain and simple.

Next came The Hip Abduction, and they carried that energy straight into the evening. The Florida seven-piece has a sound all their own, blending reggae, world rhythms, and pop into something built for exactly this kind of setting. They ran through songs like “Some Say the Ocean,” “Pacific Coast Highway,” “Chasin’ Waves,” and “We’ll Be Alright,” and by the time they hit their stride, the crowd was up and dancing. You could really feel the energy building—horns, harmonies, and grooves rolling off the stage as the sun dropped behind the amphitheatre. It was the perfect bridge between Afroman’s laid-back opener and the headliners waiting in the wings.

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