This Is the Way to Exit Your Youth

Emily Quintanilla finds at least 13 reasons why you’d not be bored at Wallows’ hometown show at the Forum.

By Emily QuintanillaOctober 15, 2024

WALLOWS with BENEE, Kia Forum, Inglewood, September 12, 2024.

A band’s homecoming can’t help but be special: musicians fresh-eyed from sleeping in their own bed, an audience studded with friends and family, and fans who have been singing along—in the mirror, in traffic jams on the 110 freeway—since the band’s earliest days. I’ve attended my fair share of such shows in Los Angeles, which are made extra special by the area’s iconic concert venues (the Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, the Greek Theatre, and more). Perhaps nobody appreciates their hometown stage more, though, than the indie rock band Wallows—and their sold-out performance at the Kia Forum in Inglewood confirmed it.

It was a month ago, the last night of the North American leg of their Model tour; between the beating sun of another heat wave and bodies bumping each other by the entrance, expectations ran high even with an hour and a half until doors opened. Eager fans had dawned Wallows merch from tours past for the occasion, representing the gamut of the band’s eras. The oldest, most faded shirts and hoodies were badges of honor that said, “I liked them before they were cool.”

The trio—comprised of Dylan Minnette (yes, the dude from 13 Reasons Why), guitarist Braeden Lemasters (also a Hollywood actor), and drummer Cole Preston—delivered a high-energy night. As they opened with “Your Apartment,” the lead single of their most recent album, I pushed and shoved to find an unobstructed view of my teenage idols (I’ve followed them since their first single, 2017’s “Pleaser”) and to feel my favorite lyrics thrum through the speakers. Phones jutted out around me; several excited girls zoomed in to immortalize pixelated versions of their favorite band members. Deeper into the set list, the crowd roared and jumped to old favorites such as “Scrawny,” a song recognizable to any fan from its opening guitar riff. Another crowd favorite, “Treacherous Doctor,” embodied the band’s spirit: Wallows delivers music you can scream to at a concert but also deeply relate to on a closer, more intimate listen. The crowd’s shouts noticeably strengthened at the song’s third chorus: “Love in teens and life in the twenties / Nothing much to look forward to / I can’t help but cry on vacation / Is this the way to exit my youth?”

Minnette and Lemasters double-teamed the night’s biggest surprises, beginning when the former unexpectedly climbed over the barricade to get to Stage B. On a platform set up in the middle of the Forum’s expansive pit, Wallows treated fans to acoustic performances of, among others, “Pictures of Girls” and “Let the Sun In”—the latter of which Lemasters, feeling the spirit of home, dedicated to his local Philz Coffee barista. One audience member was pulled onstage to sing—nervously—“1980s Horror Film” with him. (Lemasters later climbed up to the nosebleeds with his guitar for “Going Under.”)

The show closed with the band’s best-known singles, including the song that threw them into mainstream popularity, “Are You Bored Yet?” It was hard not to reflect on how just how far the three twentysomethings have come since the song’s release five years ago. They’ve gone from playing shows of 1,200 at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre (my first Wallows show) to selling out the Forum, a venue with a capacity of 17,500, as part of their first-ever arena tour. Wallows’ set was electric, but the real star of the show was their hometown audience, as Minnette gratefully disclosed in his introduction: “We really fucking care that we’re playing the Forum, and I can’t pretend we don’t. This is a huge deal for us. This is the childhood venue; this is the one for us.”

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Photo by contributor.

LARB Short Takes live event reviews are published in partnership with the nonprofit Online Journalism Project and the Independent Review Crew.