Photo Galley: Rilo Kelly at Frederik Meijer Gardens • Grand Rapids, MI
Rilo Kelly
Frederik Meijer Gardens
Grand Rapids, MI
September 14, 2025
Recap and photo by Curt Baran
“I think it’s going to be a special night. We’re playing in the Garden of Eden!”
It turns out that Jenny Lewis is a pretty good prognosticator. The Frederik Meijer Garden Amphitheater is a 2000-capacity music shell dropped inside a sculpture park. On Sunday night, with summer’s retreat in the back of everyone’s mind, a reunited Rilo Kiley did their best to keep Fall at bay.
Back in 2014, the band was peaking commercially, but internally, they were imploding. So when the internet began hinting that a reunion was in the making, well, fans collectively began losing their minds. So with only a career retrospective as their wares, the band has hit the road for a tour that has sold out almost immediately in most markets.
What was immediately apparent at the Fredrik Meijer Garden Amphitheater is that the years off have been quite kind to the band. Like their latest offering, the seventeen-song setlist was a trip through their catalog, each song executed with precision and professionalism without filing down any of the songs’ rougher edges. Both Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett’s voices were in excellent form. The former deftly delivered sumptuous versions of “I Never,” “It’s A Hit,” “Frug,” and “More Adventurous” as if they were written yesterday, and the latter was completely in the pocket during “Ripcord.” Pretty apropos considering they’ve named the tour “Sometimes When You’re On, You’re Pretty Fucking On!”
Category: Featured
