The lineup for the 26th Annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas was announced this morning on the station’s Kevin & Bean show, and the bill is yet another wide-ranging star-studded roster featuring AWOLNATION, Chris Cornell, Cold War Kids, Twenty One Pilots and much more.
Night one will be held on Dec. 12 at the Forum in Inglewood, with performances by AWOL, Bastille, Cage the Elephant, Disclosure, Foals, Halsey, Silversun Pickups, the Struts, Twenty One Pilots, Weezer and X Ambassadors.
Dec. 13, night two, will feature Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Chris Cornell, Cold War Kids, Elle King, Fall Out Boy, George Ezra, James Bay, Of Monsters and Men, Panic! at the Disco, The 1975 and the Neighborhood.
We’ll be particularly amped to see Twenty One Pilots, who’ve blown us away at several festivals this year and earned a place one our Best Live Acts of 2015 list. We knew they were on a serious upswing two years ago, when spastic singer Tyler Joseph was climbing to the top scaffolding at Outside Lands, a massive early-day crowd in the palm of his hand. Now, on the strength of a tremendously well-received new album and a wildfire of word-of-mouth, the dynamic Ohio duo have kicked into a level of perfect harmonic equilibrium between riotous energy and razor-sharp showmanship. They tore the absolute hell out of their Sasquatch 2015 performance, and are clearly on a sharp upward trajectory.
Also appearing are English rock band the Struts, who recently made mainstream radio their bitch with “Could Have Been Me”. No word yet on whether Disclosure will bring along some surprise guests to showcase material from their latest offering Caracal, which features collaborations with Lorde, Sam Smith and the Weeknd.
Then there’s Elle King, whose single “Ex’s & Oh’s” is the equivalent of the goddamned Macarena by now. But she’ll be in good representative company in female rockers with Ashley Frangipane, better known by her stage name, Halsey, whose single “New Americana” is another inescapable hit.
Tickets will go on sale first to KROQ street team members at noon on Friday via Ticketmaster.com. Proceeds from the shows will benefit Para Los Niños, a non-profit family service agency that helps at-risk children get out of poverty through educational opportunities and support, and the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, which provides a safe after-school environment for hundreds of boys and girls in South Central Los Angeles.
