{"id":294327,"date":"2025-10-11T09:44:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T09:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/294327\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T09:44:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T09:44:34","slug":"rilo-kileys-deep-ellum-show-brought-back-the-2000s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/294327\/","title":{"rendered":"Rilo Kiley’s Deep Ellum Show Brought Back the 2000s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRIlo Kiley formed in Los Angeles in 1998.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Andrew Sherman<\/p>\n

One generation slowly withers; another generation blossoms.<\/p>\n

So it is in this season of bands of a particular vintage \u2014 the halcyon, analog days of the late 1990s and early 2000s \u2014 finding their way back in front of audiences. Forget semaglutides: The drug of choice for the late 40s and early 50s crowd, these days, is nostalgia.<\/p>\n

How else to explain the faintly rapturous faces populating the floor and the balcony of The Bomb Factory<\/a> Thursday night? Tote bags slung over shoulders, T-shirts and posters fervently gripped as the band of the hour, Rilo Kiley<\/a>, filtered out onto the stage for its first Dallas appearance in 17 years.<\/p>\n

The quartet \u2014 Jenny Lewis<\/a>, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder and Jason Boesel \u2014 is filled out by a fifth member on this tour (multi-instrumentalist Harrison Whitford), but performed as if no time had passed.<\/p>\n

The roughly 90-minute set was no more and no less than it needed to be, a handsomely mounted reminder of this group\u2019s wonderfully durable songs, delivered to an audience only too happy to sing along at top volume, individually lost in a haze of remembrance.<\/p>\n

Kicking off with \u201cThe Execution of All Things,\u201d the title track of its 2002 sophomore LP, the Los Angeles-based band slipped easily into its groove, situated on a stage decorated only with a backdrop of lights that shifted between static and undulating.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 vocals have lost a touch of sweetness with time, the honey now mixed, appealingly, with a bit of grit, while Sennett\u2019s own tenor is a tad more frayed. However, the unavoidable concessions to growing older suit the songs, which were always a finely calibrated blend of cynicism and hope to begin with.<\/p>\n

The deadpan wit of Rilo Kiley\u2019s songbook was a delight, as the group worked its way through staples like the strutting \u201cThe Moneymaker,\u201d the swooning, Phil Spector-ish \u201cI Never\u201d and the blackly comic \u201cIt\u2019s a Hit\u201d (\u201cBut it\u2019s a sin when success complains \/ And your writer\u2019s block, it don\u2019t mean shit \/ Just throw it against the wall and see what sticks \/ Gotta write a hit, I think this is it,\u201d goes one chorus).<\/p>\n

Given the fact the band has no new material to promote, the night\u2019s setlist was more or less distributed evenly across the back catalog, with only the group\u2019s 2001 debut, Take Off and Landings, getting short shrift.<\/p>\n

The band was also in a buoyant mood: \u201cShit, Blake, this is great,\u201d Lewis said near the evening\u2019s midpoint. Knowing shrieks erupted across the room at various points as long-loved songs were offered up (the opening notes of \u201cI Never,\u201d in particular, proved pleasing). Rilo Kiley, in this latest iteration, felt a bit brawnier and more discursive \u2014 its songs tend to rely on precise turns of phrase and sly grace notes, so to hear the band play them with a bit more bite \u2014 \u201cThe Moneymaker,\u201d for instance, didn\u2019t bounce so much as stomp Thursday, but the effect worked in the song\u2019s favor \u2014 was a pleasant surprise, somewhat shaking off the cobwebs.<\/p>\n

The gathered also didn\u2019t hesitate to take over completely: The last verse of \u201cWith Arms Outstretched,\u201d a penultimate track from The Execution of All Things, was sung with little prompting from Lewis, who wore a happily bemused grin as she watched the fans sing for her.<\/p>\n

It was a fitting embodiment of the mood inside The Bomb Factory, a long-hoped-for reunion finally transpiring, and a fresh chance to bask in the fond memories associated with the songs filling in the air before us all in the here and now.<\/p>\n

See more photos from Thursday\u2019s show:<\/p>\n

\"\"David Bazan is the primary songwriter and singer for Pedro The Lion.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pedro The Lion hails from Seattle and played a tight, sweet set to open the show.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fans sang along with pure joy filling The Bomb Factory.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jenny Lewis did not hold back last night.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rilo Kiley created intricate soundscapes along with their signature indie rock sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sennett also leads the side project The Elected and took his turn on lead vocals as well.<\/p>\n

\"BandRilo Kiley had a long break but put the band back together earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jenny Lewis was all over the stage playing guitar, keyboard and bass as well as lead vocals.<\/p>\n

\"\"Blake Sennett was on fire at The Bomb Factory.<\/p>\n

\"\"The fans got their money\u2019s worth and more as the band played all the classics.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rilo Kiley have had heavy TV\/film placements in shows like Grey\u2019s Anatomy and Weeds.<\/p>\n

\"WomenJenny Lewis had a successful solo career and remains a defining voice in indie rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIlo Kiley formed in Los Angeles in 1998. Andrew Sherman One generation slowly withers; another generation blossoms. So…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":294328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,89977,1596,12079,2136,4185,358,132131,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-294327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-concert-reviews","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-nightlife","12":"tag-photos","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\/115354892924667651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294327","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=294327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}