Billy Strings brought his “A” game to L.A. for a pair of sold-out California crowds at the Kia Forum in Inglewood. Strings had a busy weekend between the shows and dropping his new video single “Stratosphere Blues / I Believe In You” from the forthcoming album Highway Prayers. If it wasn’t for the relative youth of Strings and his whip-crack sharp backing band of clockwork bassist Royal Masat, versatile fiddler Alex Hargreaves, banjo player Billy Failing, and mandolin maven Jarrod Walker it would be easy to worry that they’re heading for a breakdown at this pace. Luckily, they’re a well-oiled and maintained machine with plenty of miles to spare on their collective road life.
Friday, August 23rd
“Seven Weeks In County”, from Strings’ aforementioned upcoming release, galloped off the face of the Earth when the psychedelic section detached and wandered through inner and outer space before settling back into the song’s framework. As exploratory as the instrumental break in “County” was, it had nothing on the adventurous “Home Of The Red Fox” that followed before morphing into Johnny Horton‘s “Ole Slew Foot” for a crisp, clean pick.
“In The Mourning Light” showcased Strings’ mournful voice at its melancholy finest, but the ensuing “Red Daisy” was all kinds of raw boot-scootin’ bluegrass. Keeping the tempo high and the energy higher it was time for everyone in attendance to answer Billy’s invite to “Meet Me At The Creek”, a go-to inlet to psychedelic improvisation for nearly a decade now. The “Creek” jam melted into an oddly satisfying bluegrass take on The Doors’ “Hyacinth House” before rounding back into “Creek” with some of Jim Morrison’s poetic lyrics jumbled in for good measure.
After that wild psychedelic jam, Billy and the band recentered themselves by gathering centerstage for some old-timey singin’ into the can to finish out the first set. “East Virginia Blues”, “Freedom”, and “Feast Here Tonight (Rabbit In A Log)” received the decidedly classic bluegrass treatment before the sweaty Strings and the band retired backstage to refuel, refresh, and maybe reset their minds for the second set to come.
Set two got things going with Billy’s wise-beyond-his-years take on pacing oneself, “California Sober” before the darkness of the Bad Livers tune “Pretty Daughter”. Strings and company quickly knocked out an invigorating “Hellbender” and morose “Love and Regret” before sinking their teeth into the heart of the second set, a dynamic threefer of Frank Wakefield’s “End Of The Rainbow” and Strings’ own “Taking Water” and “Ice Bridges”.
Billy Strings — “California Sober” > “Pretty Daughter” (Bad Livers) — 8/23/24
[Video: J E]
After the soul-baring “Love Like Me” it was time for a quick nod to some of the true pioneers of the “newgrass” movement of the seventies, like the namesake New Grass Revival and its tune “Whisper My Name”. Though time was starting to run short, Strings and his bluegrass brothers-in-arms had time for one last fiery twofer of “Fire Line” and a quick spin on “Reuben’s Train” before they had to take the first night bows.
The faithful who filled the audience, mind you, weren’t about to let Billy Strings slink off into the night without some sort of encore and they got a pair of them, the sweetly done yet still menacing Alice In Chains classic “Nutshell” and the fierce “Wargasm”. The brutality of the closing ballad may have left audiences a little rocked and shellshocked, but the formidable Billy Strings faithful were ready to return for another round of sonic shellacking on night two.
Billy Strings — “Nutshell” (Alice In Chains) > “Nutshell” — 8/23/24
[Video: J E]
Billy Strings — Kia Forum — Inglewood, CA — 8/23/24 — Full Audio
[Audio: BigAIK]
Setlist: Billy Strings | Kia Forum | Inglewood, CA | 8/23/24
Set One: Seven Weeks In County, Home Of The Red Fox > Ole Slew Foot (Johnny Horton), In The Morning Light, Red Daisy, Meet Me At The Creek > Hyacinth House (The Doors) > Meet Me At The Creek, East Virginia Blues (Traditional), Freedom, Feast Here Tonight (Rabbit In A Log) (Traditional)
Set Two: California Sober > Pretty Daughter (Bad Livers), Hellbender, Love and Regret, End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield) > Taking Water > Ice Bridges, Love Like Me, Whisper My Name (New Grass Revival), Fire Line > Reuben’s Train (Traditional)
Encore: Nutshell (Alice In Chains) > Wargasm
Saturday, August 24th
A one-two opener of “Dust In A Baggie” and the instrumental jam “Charlie’s Birthday Breakdown” got things off to a fast-paced flatpickin’ start for night two of Billy Strings at the Forum. It wasn’t long before fingers were limber and by song’s end it was off to the races for Strings and his coterie of sharp shooting players. The following trio of Strings and company-penned tracks “Be Your Man” and the second two-fer of the night, “The Fire On My Tongue” and “Bronzeback”, showed the crew’s intent to give the night two crowd all they could handle.
Billy Strings — “Dust In A Baggie” > “Charlie’s Birthday Breakdown” [Pro-Shot] — 8/24/24
A trio of covers—Loy Clingman‘s “Ain’t Nothing To Me”, Red Allen and The Kentuckians‘ “Hello, City Limits”, and Seattle grunge progenitor Mother Love Bone’s “Crown Of Thorns”—shot out of their collective instrumental arsenal, the last of which was paired with Strings’ original “Enough To Leave”. One of the less-discussed factors of Strings’ success as a marquee live act is the sheer volume of material he covers in each show.
Barely 45 minutes into the first set of night two, eight songs were already expertly executed, completed, and passed. The next several tunes—including originals “Everything’s The Same” and “On The Line”—as well as a host of covers like Mel Tillis’ “Walk On Boy”, Betsy Lane Shepherd’s I’ll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers”, the traditional “Train 45”, and Cousin Emmy‘s “Ruby” came and went like a murders row of fast and furious musical bombardments. By the time Strings slowed things with an emotionally charged acapella rendition of Charles Wesley’s gospel-tinged “And Am I Born To Die?” the crowd and band rightfully earned the resultant setbreak.
Billy Strings — “I’ll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers” (Will S. Hays)”, “On The Line” > “Train 45” (Traditional) > “Ruby” (Cousin Emmy) — 8/24/24
[Video: butteredamigo]
Billy Strings — “Am I Born To Die?” (Charles Wesley) — 8/24/24
[Video: hipchc]
Nearly 45 songs into the two-night run, there was still an entire second set and encore yet to go. Not ones to waste even a few seconds of precious performance time, Strings and his bandmates fired up the last full chunk of songs with a more bluegrass take on The Byrds’ “Hickory Woods” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Whispers Of The North” than either author intended before dipping into their own catalog with “Watch It Fall”.
A free-flowing mix of covers including “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town”, “Black Mountain Rag”, and longtime band buddies Greensky Bluegrass’ “Reverend” blazed by alongside originals “This Old World”, “Thirst Mutilator”, and “So Many Miles”. That “Miles” served as a lovely partner when paired with John Hartford‘s “I’m Still Here”, which surprisingly included a tease from the prefab ’60s band The Monkees.
With some gas still left in the tank, the band managed to squeeze in one last cover, Jimmy Martin’s “Tennessee” before wrapping up their fourth and final set of the Kia Forum run. The band made one last trip back to the Kia Forum stage for the jam-packed weekend, finishing the run with genre forefather Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys‘ “The Gold Rush” and finally “Secrets”.
In a world of reductive concepts like “shrinkflation” and the lack of bang for your buck in ever-rising ticket prices, there is an incredible return on investment in a single ticket to see Billy Strings do his thing. It’s one of the many reasons Strings has developed such a devoted fanbase, and their fervor is as well-deserved as the praises heaped upon the band as they took their final bows at the front of the stage.
Billy Strings is set to take a well-deserved monthlong break from the road until his sold-out Renewal festival in Buena Vista, CO on September 27th and 28th. While he’s away, revisit Strings’ entire summer tour on nugs. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]
Setlist: Billy Strings | Kia Forum | Inglewood, CA | 8/24/24
Set One: Dust In A Baggie > Charlie’s Birthday Breakdown, Be Your Man, The Fire On My Tongue > Bronzeback, Ain’t Nothing To Me (Leon Payne), Hello, City Limits (Johnny Elgin, Benny Martin), Crown Of Thorns (Mother Love Bone) > Enough To Leave, Everything’s The Same, Walk On Boy (Mel Tillis), I’ll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers (Will S. Hays), On The Line > Train 45 (Traditional) > Ruby (Cousin Emmy), And Am I Born To Die? (Charles Wesley) [1]
Set Two: Hickory Wind (The Byrds), Highway Hypnosis, Whispers Of The North (Gordon Lightfoot), Watch It Fall, The Train That Carried My Girl From Town (Traditional) > Black Mountain Rag (Leslie Keith), This Old World, Reverend (Greensky Bluegrass), Thirst Mutilator > I’m Still Here (John Hartford) [2] > So Many Miles [3], Wait A Minute (Johnny Rivers), Tennessee (Jimmy Martin)
Encore: The Gold Rush (Bill Monroe) > Secrets
[1] Billy Strings solo acapella
[2] w/ “Last Train to Clarksville” tease
[3] Billy Failing on lead vocals
The post Billy Strings Closes 2024 Summer Tour With Wild L.A. Finale [Videos/Audio] appeared first on L4LM.
