{"id":272202,"date":"2025-10-02T15:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272202\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:37:09","slug":"a-reunified-rilo-kiley-revels-in-gratitude-ahead-of-return-to-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272202\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reunified Rilo Kiley Revels in Gratitude Ahead of Return to Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bands reunite for a multitude of reasons: financial, emotional, cultural, occasionally even artistic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What stands out about the reunion of Rilo Kiley, a beloved, influential indie rock quartet from Los Angeles<\/a> that drifted apart over a decade ago, is how it seemed to happen gradually and suddenly, not unlike its initial dissolution.<\/p>\n

The four members of Rilo Kiley \u2014 Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder and Jason Boesel \u2014 last released an album in 2007 (Under the Blacklight). In the years immediately afterward, once the Blacklight promotional cycle wound down, it was hinted that the band was, if not explicitly breaking up, certainly drifting toward a hiatus.<\/p>\n

To wit: Lewis ventured out on her own just ahead of Blacklight\u2019s release with 2006\u2019s Rabbit Fur Coat, and followed Blacklight a year later with 2008\u2019s Acid Tongue. Sennett, for his part, started up a side project called The Elected, which also released its sophomore album, Sun, Sun, Sun, in 2006.<\/p>\n

Contemporary interviews with Sennett, in particular, suggest, shall we say, a studied indifference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that if Rilo Kiley were \u2026 hmmm \u2026 a human being \u2026 hmmm \u2026 he\u2019s probably laying on his back in a morgue with a tag on his toe,\u201d Sennett told Consequence in April 2011, ahead of The Elected\u2019s third album. \u201cNow, I see movies where the dead get up and walk. And when they do that, rarely do good things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis confirmed Rilo Kiley was no more in 2014 (a year in which she released her third solo album, The Voyager).<\/p>\n

Sentiment like Sennett\u2019s 2011 comments is why news of Rilo Kiley\u2019s reconstitution earlier this year was met with mildly incredulous shock and elation. It wasn\u2019t that the band had suffered some fatally impossible split, but rather, it simply dissipated as its individual members\u2019 focus turned elsewhere.<\/p>\n

To commemorate the band\u2019s return, Rilo Kiley released the rather slyly titled compilation How We Choose to Remember It, a fitting acknowledgement of everyone\u2019s perspective on nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Sennett\u2019s present assessment of Rilo Kiley is, to put it mildly, radically different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no one who was desperate or needed this reunion,\u201d he said from a recent Chicago tour stop. \u201cWe came to it slowly, and I think, authentically, and I think it\u2019s more meaningful for that. \u2026 We wanted it to transcend business, and just be a meaningful thing for us individually and for the fans or the people who were moved by the music. It was a very gradual thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley will bring its reunion to Dallas and Deep Ellum on Oct. 9, for the band\u2019s first concert here in 17 years. The foursome will take the stage less than two miles from the venue it last headlined here in June 2008, the then-Palladium Ballroom.<\/p>\n

Sennett, now 51 years old, is a key architect of Rilo Kiley\u2019s signature, influential sound, having written or co-written with Lewis every track on all four of the band\u2019s studio albums.<\/p>\n

The alchemy conjured by Sennett and Lewis \u2014 a blend of vulnerability, beauty and cynicism, shot through with candy-coated melodies and stylistic verve on songs like \u201cSilver Lining,\u201d \u201cThe Execution of All Things\u201d or \u201cPortions for Foxes\u201d \u2014 has proved both durable and empowering for legions of young artists in their wake, such as Haim<\/a>, Japanese Breakfast<\/a> or Harry Styles.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Rilo Kiley is touring solely on the strength of that back catalog, as the most recent tune currently at its disposal is 18 years old. Sennett described seeing venues full of fans singing along \u2014 some of whom weren\u2019t even alive during Rilo Kiley\u2019s initial existence \u2014 as \u201csuper gratifying.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s humbling,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see people have listened to that stuff and it has stood the test of at least the last 20 years or so. That\u2019s not by design; it\u2019s by virtue of us trying to write music that we believed [in]. We weren\u2019t thinking, \u2018Let\u2019s make sure we can tour on the strength of our back catalog in 25 years.\u2019 We were just like, \u2018Let\u2019s write shit that\u2019s real and [that] we love.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That intuitive understanding of bucking the algorithm and reveling in humans making music for other humans has yielded the band the rare opportunity to grasp a sense of their legacy in real time. Call it a chance to be appreciated while it still means something and to witness a retreat, of sorts, from the preferred modern method of concert attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the outset, you think, \u2018Oh, that\u2019ll be neat. It\u2019ll be cool to play for people,\u2019\u201d Sennett said. \u201cBut you don\u2019t think that this person is going to hold up a sign that says, \u2018I named my child Rilo,\u2019 or whatever it is \u2014 you don\u2019t think that. You just think it\u2019s binary: Should we do Rilo Kiley ever again? In the moment it was asked of me by Duke [Pierre de Reeder\u2019s nickname] and Jenny, I was like, \u2018Yeah, let\u2019s do it. Let\u2019s try that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you get out there and go, \u2018Oh my gosh, this is meaningful.\u2019 There was a time, pre-social media, where we existed that was [a] generally more simple time \u2014 it just was. Social media has done a lot for people, but it\u2019s also caused a lot of chaos and FOMO, you know? To look and see everybody without their phones standing there, it\u2019s something I am savoring, and I cherish that it\u2019s still sort of how more or less our original fans are choosing to perceive the show \u2014 to not record it, for the most part, and to just savor it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with any band\u2019s reunion, thoughts will inevitably turn to what lies beyond.<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley has scheduled tour dates through the end of October, including a stop at the Austin City Limits Music Festival for weekend two, and a lone 2026 slot for next June\u2019s Primavera Sound in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

The more sanguine fans might be fervently wishing Lewis and Sennett were sitting on a pile of as-yet-unrecorded material.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we\u2019re pretty in the moment,\u201d Sennett said, ever-so-slightly deflating that particular bubble of hope. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019d reached the point that we\u2019d want to talk about anything more than the moment. I think that has been part of the alchemy, which is just let\u2019s not plan any more than we have to and reach any farther. We\u2019re just kind of letting it be what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that might sound like dancing around the answer, Sennett says it with as much earnestness and thoughtfulness as he\u2019s displayed throughout the conversation.<\/p>\n

To hear him describe the depth of feeling elicited by embarking on this reunion, there is a sense, for however much the fans are moved by seeing the four members of Rilo Kiley together again, it\u2019s just as powerful \u2014 if not more so \u2014 on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to believe the really significant relationships in your life are ones you\u2019re meant to have,\u201d Sennett said. \u201cI\u2019m 100% sure that the three other people in Rilo Kiley are three of those [for me]. I\u2019m grateful we had this time to be apart and then come back together and sort of trade notes on what we\u2019ve learned in the intervening years. I love those dudes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a part of my family \u2014 for better or for worse. You know, you get older, and you go \u2026 life is long, and if you do it right, it\u2019s a varied experience. Those dudes definitely made my life better, and Rilo Kiley definitely made my life better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley will perform on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 8 p.m. at The Bomb Factory, 2713 Canton St. Tickets are available starting at $77.59 on axs.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bands reunite for a multitude of reasons: financial, emotional, cultural, occasionally even artistic. What stands out about the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,132130,1596,141257,1149,4185,358,132131,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-272202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-concert-previews","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-history-nostalgia","12":"tag-interviews","13":"tag-rock-music","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-touring-artists","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115305319321154328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}