Banks’ lavish show Tuesday night at the Hollywood Palladium was a lot of things — a celebration of her acclaimed new album “III,” a hometown blowout and, as it turned out, a poetry reading.
The artist, born Jillian Banks and reared in the San Fernando Valley, took a break a few songs into her set to share the poem “Ode to the Grey Zone.” “I initially wanted to call my album [that],” she said. “But then I thought that’s kinda fucking pretentious, so I skipped that idea. But I wanted to share the poem with you guys tonight.” And she did, ending with the final line: “You need to remember that whenever one road seems too long, answers to unanswered questions lie in your unwritten songs.”
She brought her written songs to life in a set that included all but three songs from her 13-track new album, starting with “Till Now.” A couple of older songs, including “Drowning,” earned a huge reception from the crowd — rousing cheers were not in short supply on this night — as she was flanked by backup dancers. Banks later was accompanied by a string quartet.
Kevin Garrett opened the night with a laid-back set that included a cover of Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over.”
Banks setlist: Till Now, Fuck With Myself, Stroke, Drowning, Waiting Game, Contaminated, Hawaiian Mazes, Alaska, Propaganda, Poltergeist, Underdog, Sawzall, Better, Gemini Feed, Godless, The Fall, Gimme, This Is What It Feels Like, Beggin’ for Thread