Rilo Kiley Reunion Tour Kickoff: Concert Review, Set List

Midway through Rilo Kiley’s reunion tour kickoff at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo on May 5, Blake Sennett carefully scanned the GA pit. “I was wondering what our fans would look like in 2025,” the singer-guitarist said. He motioned over to his bandmate, Jenny Lewis. “She’s right. You really look the fucking same.” 

When Rilo Kiley last performed, George W. Bush was president, Michael Jackson was still alive, and a brand new AMC show about a high school chemistry teacher turned crystal meth cook had just premiered a few months earlier. In other words: This band hasn’t played together in a really long time. 

In the 17 years since that last tour — in support of Under the Blacklight, the major-label breakthrough that doubled as their final album — their fervent fanbase has only expanded, a fact that was painfully obvious at the Fremont on Monday evening. “Has anyone here ever been to a Rilo Kiley show before tonight?” Sennett asked. “I don’t believe some of you …. Unless you were three.”

Since Rilo Kiley broke up, Lewis has established herself as an indie rock icon, with a successful solo career that spans several acclaimed albums and an opening gig for Harry Styles in 2021. But she’s often asked in interviews about the possibility of reviving the beloved band she and Sennett formed in Los Angeles in 1998 — and fan speculation only increased in 2023, when she toured with the Postal Service for the 20th anniversary of Give Up. 

“I’m open to it, for sure,” Lewis told me. “It just has to be the right alchemy and the right timing. I think we owe it to each other to play those songs again, because that’s the magic of being in a band. It’s just the four people in a room and the energy that creates.”

That magic and energy was palpable throughout the evening in San Luis Obispo, to the extent that a celebratory pink champagne cake from the nearby Madonna Inn was briefly brought onstage. “I wanted to cut it up and give it to you,” Sennett told the crowd, biting into the Barbie pink frosting. “But… liability issues.” Added Lewis: “This is what happens when you come out of retirement. You get cakes.” 

Lewis, Sennett, bassist Pierre De Reeder, and drummer Jason Boesel kicked the evening off with a stab of nostalgia, straight to our slumbering hearts: the title track to their 2002 breakthrough, The Execution of All Things. It was chill-inducing to hear those opening notes in total darkness as they entered the stage, ready to start this new era.

Lewis was beaming the entire night, raising her Modelo and toasting the crowd in her navy polka dot dress, sparkling tiara, white ruffle socks, and black patent Mary Jane platforms. She moved frequently around the stage, including stops at the Wurlitzer, where she delivered blissed-out performances of “Silver Lining” and “I Never.” 

During the latter, a devastating cut from 2004’s More Adventurous, she humorously ticked off each confession with her fingers: “Cause I’ve been bad/I’ve lied, cheated, and stolen/And been ungrateful for what I have.” Lewis’ voice hasn’t aged one bit, and sounded exactly as it does on the records we’ve been loving for all these years, waiting for this night to come. 

Sennett was equally joyful, tearing through his own songs (“Dreamworld” and “Ripchord”) and delivering several searing solos (Lewis’ heartbreaking ballad “Does He Love You?” culminated in a jam, with Sennett standing on top of Boesel’s drum riser). It was a bummer to miss Sennett’s dreamy “So Long,” but hopefully it will show up on future set lists this tour, alongside other Execution tracks like “Capturing Moods.” (The lines “And l don’t mind waiting/if it takes a long long time” would feel especially appropriate.) 

It’s no secret that Lewis and Sennett, who previously dated, have had their differences over the years. One can’t help but think of 2011, when Sennett bitterly told a journalist that if he were to think of Rilo Kiley as a human being, “He’s probably laying on his back in a morgue with a tag on his toe. Now, I see movies where the dead get up and walk. And when they do that, rarely do good things happen.” But they’ve clearly left any discord firmly in the past, and you could feel a rekindled friendship between the two, laughing and adding onto each other’s quips in between songs. 

Before the classic “Portions for Foxes,” Lewis told Sennett her pedal wasn’t working, and she might have to use another. “It’ll rip either way,” he said, encouraging his bandmate. They had some other false starts and mishaps here and there — which is to be expected after all these years — but they handled it all with total charm. When Lewis flubbed “Paint’s Peeling,” she told the crowd, “Well, shit. You can’t win them all!” 

The band turned back the dial even further for the encore, whipping out the whimsical “Frug” from their very first, self-titled 1999 release. (This is the part of the review where I mention that I’ll never get over Lewis devoting an entire song to a scene from her film Troop Beverly Hills — more songs like this in the future, please?)

They then closed with the fan favorite “Picture of Success,” from 2001’s Take Offs and Landings. Stretching to nearly seven minutes, that tune showcased Lewis’ songwriting powers early on, and basically served as the blueprint for countless female indie songwriters to come: “I’m a modern girl but I fold in half so easily/When I put myself in the picture of success.”

“This went by really fast,” Lewis told the crowd. We felt the same. 

 Rilo Kiley Set List

“The Execution of All Things”
“Wires and Waves”
“Silver Lining”
“Spectacular Views”
“The Moneymaker”
“Dreamworld”
“I Never”
“It’s a Hit”
“Paint’s Peeling”
“Close Call”
“Does He Love You?”
“Ripchord”
“With Arms Outstretched”
“A Better Son/Daughter”
“Portions for Foxes”

Encore:
“A Man/Me/Then Jim”
“Frug”
“Pictures of Success”