You'll be hard pressed to find a more high-quality big-time pop show this year — or any other, for that matter — than the one going down out at the Ford Amp this Wednesday. Britpop band-of-the-people Coldplay is so good that even the most hardened rock dudes readily admit to getting mild heart-flutters when anything from Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head or X&Y pours forth from the speakers like healthy liquid candy.
But what some folks may not already know is, female-fronted Cali quartet Rilo Kiley is easily among the best pop-rock outfits to come along since Fountains of Wayne. Savvy local scenesters fell in love with the band a couple of years back when they played a sold-out Orpheum gig, and still more tumbled to the band's talent when hooky single "Portions for Foxes" (from last year's More Adventurous) got some airplay and landed the group on the hipper late-night talk shows.
Rilo Kiley has yet to break big, however, so this may be your last chance to get in on the ground floor, before this coveted support slot intensifies the buzz, lead singer Jenny Lewis' forthcoming solo album goes all stratospheric, and we have to wait two additional years to hear new RK material, or see them perform "The Execution of All Things" live.
Coldplay w/Rilo Kiley, Wednesday, Sept. 14 @ Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa. 8 p.m.; $35/$50/$70.
SCOTT HARRELL
This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2005.