23 January 2020, Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA

The Brandification continues. (Retro-posting March 2026)

Here was Brandi in full band mode for me to snap pics of at last. Her Joni Mitchell Blue tribute at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA two months earlier was strictly no phones or cameras and I had sat way way back, lucky at all to get a seat. Brandi had begun 2020 optimistically with a huge schedule of shows, had in fact just done a series at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and was about to head to Mexico for her annual “Girls Just Wanna” weekend festival (which to this day I have never attended), and this was Grammy Week in Los Angeles so she made an unforgettable stop at the Hollywood Palladium, one of the most unfiltered rock and roll Americana shows I’ve ever witnessed. I was “in” with some Brandi fans by then, on the Facebook group, and scored a ticket through another fan, and we pressed ourselves to the front of the stage for the unobstructed view we had to have.

I’m surprised when I re-visit the setlist for this show that it was relatively short, compared with other Brandi Carlile concerts I’ve attended. It felt much more monumental. I knew at least one person there who was just in town from Australia for post-NAMM and pre-Grammy business, who was astonished by how incredible a show Brandi and her band put on. It goes down as one of her best I’ve ever seen. “Raise Hell” indeed.

Fangirling at the Grammy Museum, October 2019

Since the Costa Mesa show six months before I had been following Brandi Carlile more devotedly and had been to her appearance at the Grammy Museum with Tanya Tucker, whose Grammy-nominated album she had produced, met her outside the museum after and as I was grabbing my fabulous selfie with her I heard myself say in full fangirl mode, “I love you so much!” I still wonder where that came from, I mean, I barely knew her. But she really does engender this kind of crazy girl crush thing, musically and personally, because Brandi’s whole shtick has, it seems, always been to make you feel like you truly know her.

Looking back on these early times in my Brandification is fascinating, to have witnessed an artist who is such a force of nature evolve, develop, rise in recognition and acclaim seemingly so rapidly. But I know that for Brandi and her longest-time fans it has been a long journey. I’m just glad I finally hitched a ride.

This Palladium show really was a fun show to photograph! No distractions from fancy sets or back screens or technical wizardry. Just a lot of movement, great hair, smiles and guitar hellraising.