{"id":472111,"date":"2026-09-22T17:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T17:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472111\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T17:36:08","slug":"rilo-kiley-will-play-hollywood-forever-and-ohana-festival-in-under-24-hours-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472111\/","title":{"rendered":"Rilo Kiley will play Hollywood Forever and Ohana Festival in under 24 hours \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year and a few months after Rilo Kiley\u2019<\/a>s first live show in 17 years, the Los Angeles indie rock darlings play Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday, and less than 24 hours later, take the stage at Ohana Festival<\/a> in Dana Point on Sunday, Sept. 27.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s kind of the band\u2019s new normal, bassist Pierre de Reeder says on a recent call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re just kind of taking it as it comes these days,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve just had such a great, amazing nostalgic run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did our thing and came back together last year, and continuing it was a little bit of taking it like it is,\u201d de Reeder says of the 40-some shows Rilo Kiley played in 2025 and the 10 more the band has done this year. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Oh yeah, great, we\u2019ve established this thing.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is in the same vein. It came up, this opportunity. First Ohana, and then Hollywood Forever after that. That\u2019s fantastic. They\u2019re back-to-back. So we just said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rilo<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley, seen here circa 2008, reunited this year 17 years after its last tour. The comes to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for shows on Oct. 14 and Oct. 18. (File photo)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jenny<\/p>\n

Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley performs on the Stardust stage during the Just Like Heaven music festival at Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on May 10, 2025. The band will perform Oct. 17 at Gallagher Square at Petco Park. (Associated Press)\n<\/p>\n

\"Blake<\/p>\n

Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis of the Los Angeles indie rock band Rilo Kiley perform at the Grove of Anaheim in Oct. 2007. Rilo Kiley is reuniting for its first show in more than 15 years at Just Like Heaven Festival in Pasadena on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Photo by Kelly A. Swift\/For the Orange County Register)\n<\/p>\n

\"Indie<\/p>\n

Indie rock band Rilo Kiley, including, from left, Pierre de Reeder, Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett and Jason Boesel are seen here circa 2005. They reunited this year 17 years after their last tour. The comes to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for shows on Oct. 14 and Oct. 18. (Photo by Wendy Lynch)\n<\/p>\n

\"Blake<\/p>\n

Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley performs during the Just Like Heaven Music Festival on May 10, 2025, in Pasadena. The band will perform tonight Gallagher Square at Petco Park in San Diego. AP\n<\/p>\n

\"Guitarist<\/p>\n

Guitarist Blake Sennett and drummer Jason Boesel of Rilo Kiley perform during the Just Like Heaven Music Festival on May 10, 2025 in Pasadena. The band, which reunited this year 17 years after its last tour, comes to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for shows on Oct. 14 and Oct. 18. (AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello)\n<\/p>\n

\"Rilo<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley\u2019s Jenny Lewis performs during weekend two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Zilker Metropolitan Park in Austin, Texas. The band will perform this Friday at Gallagher Square at Petco Park. (Photo by Jack Plunkett\/Invision\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

\"Blake<\/p>\n

Blake Sennett, left, Jason Boesel, center, and Jenny Lewis, right, of Rilo Kiley perform during the Just Like Heaven Music Festival on May 10, 2025, in Pasadena. The band, which reunited this year 17 years after its last tour, comes to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for shows on Oct. 14 and Oct. 18. (AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley, seen here circa 2008, reunited this year 17 years after its last tour. The comes to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for shows on Oct. 14 and Oct. 18. (File photo)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis<\/a> has played Ohana twice as a solo artist, but the rest of the band \u2013 guitarist Blake Sennett<\/a>, drummer Jason Boesel and de Reeder \u2013 have not.<\/p>\n

Neither has the band played Hollywood Forever, which hadn\u2019t yet started booking regular live shows on the cemetery lawn by the time Rilo Kiley played its last performance in 2008 before reuniting in May 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never even seen a show there,\u201d de Reeder says of the cemetery lawn concerts. \u201cI\u2019ve seen them at the Masonic lodge there, but, yeah, I\u2019ve never seen that in the outside so I\u2019m really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohana, which runs Friday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Sept. 27, marks 10 years since Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder created the annual festival held at Doheny State Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cJenny and everybody that I\u2019ve talked to has said it\u2019s such an incredibly welcoming and lovely festival,\u201d de Reeder says. \u201cFestivals can be all over the place, you know. This has consistently rated five stars. So that\u2019s another one we\u2019re looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview edited for length and clarity, de Reeder talked about what it\u2019s been like to be welcomed back by fans around the world, how he first met Sennett in middle school in San Diego, and how a Canadian TV and comedy star helped get Rilo Kiley in the recording studio for the very first time.<\/p>\n

Q: Rilo Kiley played a pair of small shows in San Luis Obispo and Ojai to launch the reunion, and then a huge show at Just Like Heaven festival. What were those like?<\/p>\n

A: I mean, it was just like old times but on another level. We didn\u2019t know what to expect crowd-wise, you know. I didn\u2019t know if our demographic was just going to be everybody our age or a little bit younger, and that would be the sea of people that we\u2019d see.<\/p>\n

I was walking around San Luis Obispo, and I saw some kids who, like, back in the day I would have said, \u2018Those kids are going to go to the show.\u2019 But then, \u2018Yeah, they\u2019re too young.\u2019<\/p>\n

But then I see those kids at the show, so it turned out to be this crazy multi-generational thing. It was beautiful and unexpected that there were people that had seen us back in the day, and there\u2019s a bunch of new people who have never seen us, and had been looking forward to seeing us.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d accrued just a sense of love that we got over our absence. It was really special right out of the gates. And going from a smaller theater in San Luis Obispo, then we played the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, which is amazing. And then what was, I think still is, the biggest show we\u2019ve ever played at Just Like Heaven.<\/p>\n

Q: That kind of reception and the ability to play when you want must have made touring today a more comfortable thing.<\/p>\n

A: Yeah, it\u2019s certainly more quote-unquote comfortable now. Just because it\u2019s a bigger show and all that stuff. Starting out, as every ambitious band knows, you\u2019re just out there doing the grunt work. You\u2019re in a van, crammed in there, driving all hours of the night and day. Chasing, if you get the chance to be on a bigger tour, a bus and trying to get to the next town.<\/p>\n

Those are awesome and amazing memories, and I wouldn\u2019t trade them for anything. As it progresses, you make a little bit more, and you\u2019re able to get a better van, and eventually get to a bus. And it\u2019s just crazy.<\/p>\n

For us, there\u2019s never a logarithmic rise. There\u2019s always a steady progression. We kept working. We circled the country, and like, truly the first time ever, there\u2019s 20-, 40 people. The next time out was 100 and something. Just a very steady incremental rise until we stopped in 2008.<\/p>\n

Q: Now it\u2019s growing more again?<\/p>\n

A: What\u2019s interesting when I said that about the accrued love, it\u2019s as though that was a trajectory, a straight line that just kept going in our absence. And then we\u2019re back where it might have been at the point we started last fall. That was really cool.<\/p>\n

Q: You mean it continued to rise in your absence, and you just hopped back on the line 17 years later?<\/p>\n

A: I mean, this is just postulating, but imagine that line being a steady increase from our start to our end in 2008. As I said, that line just kept going up, and where it would be in 2025, it feels like we hit that. We didn\u2019t miss a beat in between.<\/p>\n

And so the fact that it all happened, it\u2019s pretty magical.<\/p>\n

Q: There were definitely a lot of teary eyes around me in the crowd when you played Just Like Heaven. And everyone was singing, which I guess you could hear on stage.<\/p>\n

A: That\u2019s awesome. Looking out and seeing that everybody\u2019s singing, that\u2019s something that was different. Everybody\u2019s singing every word, every song, you know, pretty incredible. And yes, it seemed like a lot of tears. I got a lot of exactly what you said. People, like a big dude with a huge beard, just weeping. And man, that\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

Q: I want to ask you about first meeting Blake in high school or middle school.<\/p>\n

A: We met in eighth grade? Yeah, think eighth grade. We were 14.<\/p>\n

Q: Was that here in L.A. or in San Diego?<\/p>\n

A: San Diego. I remember the exact sort of moment. In PE, in soccer, and we were on the same soccer team. I was a pretty good soccer player, and Blake was just funny, always following me around and [he\u2019d] hold onto my shirt like, \u201cI\u2019m following you; where you are going!\u201d<\/p>\n

We just sort of clicked. Something clicked immediately. We became fast friends, best friends, and we hung out all the time. And we both had some musical inklings. I played a little bit of guitar already. He played drums a little bit. And we started recording little things on four-tracks.<\/p>\n

Q: Then in the \u201990s, he\u2019s living in L.A. and starts writing and singing together with Jenny? How\u2019d you join up with them?<\/p>\n

A: Blake moved to L.A., and I was still in San Diego and just visiting a lot. I\u2019d come a lot. And I remember him saying, \u201cI started playing with this girl, and she\u2019s just amazing, and we played some coffee shops and it was just great.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said we had this history of four-tracks and eight-tracks, so I would meet Black and Jenny and we\u2019d hang out, and then we started recording little songs on the thing. It just very naturally started out by tinkering. I just kind of came into the scene because of my association.<\/p>\n

And we didn\u2019t really form the band still for \u2013 I mean, that\u2019s like \u201994-ish [Rilo Kiley formally started in 1998]. That was just tinkering around. I finally moved up to L.A. in \u201996, and Blake and I got a place together. It still took a little while, but eventually it was like, \u201cLet\u2019s just do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was this moment where we began to play and we went to their jam space in this house on Wilton that was just all band people. We played some songs, and it was just like, \u201cWhoa, this is cool. This is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: You recorded Rilo\u2019s first album in the house in Echo Park where you and Blake lived?<\/p>\n

A: Yes, largely. The very first thing we did recording-wise was we played our first show, and Dave Foley [of \u201cKids in the Hall\u201d and \u201cNews Radio\u201d] was there. And we became friends with him. He was such an awesome dude, and over time he\u2019s like, \u201cHave you guys recorded anything?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019ll pay; I\u2019ll find something.\u201d<\/p>\n

So we found a place, and we recorded a first batch of songs. Out of that batch, the only that made it onto an actual record was \u201cThe Frug.\u201d There was another song, \u201c85,\u201d I think we did in some studio. But the rest we did in our living room. We had a little recording set-up.<\/p>\n

We invested in some stuff. We had our 8-track cassette, and we got the cheap poor-man\u2019s version of ProTools. That was just when digital started to happen.<\/p>\n

Q: That\u2019s a good place to segue to your other career as a producer, engineer and mixer. You\u2019ve got a studio in Highland Park now, I think.<\/p>\n

A: 64sound is the flagship studio I\u2019ve got up here, and we make a lot of records, busy all the time. We\u2019ve got these other little production places, making records there and other people making records there.<\/p>\n

Q: Playing in a band and playing, or working, in your own studio must be fun in their own ways. What do you love most about the recording studio work?<\/p>\n

A: I mean, it\u2019s great. You get to be an objective member of the band. Even if I\u2019m just engineering, I\u2019m sort of in a producer role. Most of the time it\u2019s great because you get to objectively listen, and take control of the sounds. It\u2019s such a communicative environment, and everybody\u2019s open and discussing.<\/p>\n

I get to, from my vantage, be like, \u201cOh, that was amazing. What if this happened? That thing you did over there, let\u2019s try that again over here.\u201d You just get to be creative. It\u2019s being creative with opinions and having all these great musicians collaborating with you on it. So it\u2019s really, really fun to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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