Guitar Kids and Synth Kids, Steve Lacy Brings Oh Yeah to the Hollywood Bowl

Steve Lacy will play the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m., the Los Angeles stop on his 27-city Oh yeah? tour and his first tour since 2022.

The run is promoted by Live Nation, and mxdwn reported that it opened September 27 in Minneapolis and ends November 30 in Vancouver. It is his first tour since the Give You the World Tour wrapped in 2022. TicketNews lists the 8 p.m. start for the Bowl date. No opening act had been announced when mxdwn published.

What Oh Yeah Is and Who Is on It

Oh yeah? is Lacy’s third studio album and his first in four years, with 10 tracks, according to mxdwn, which quotes Sony Music describing it as “a record for guitar kids who love synths and synth kids who love guitars.” Collaborators include SZA, Erykah Badu and Cecile Believe. The title track plays over the end credits of Spider-Man, Brand New Day, which Velvet covered at its premiere.

FLOOD’s review, by A.D. Amorosi, names Matt Martians, his former bandmate in The Internet, as co-producer, with SZA on “Is It Cool?” and Badu on “Pure Colour.” FLOOD hears “a warmer, looser sound” and says the record sees him “move way beyond the reach of The Internet.”

What Critics Are Saying

The reviews have been warm, with different emphases.

Danielle Jason of 34th Street, the University of Pennsylvania arts magazine, reads the album as turning inward on heartbreak and uncertainty and calls Lacy “both an artist’s artist and mainstream star.” She singles out “nothing,” stripped to acoustic guitar and voice, and “nice shoes / in your world,” a nine-minute two-part song first released in 2025 as a three-minute track. The review names Marius de Vries for additional production and Matthew Castellanos for songwriting, and says gritty guitar and bass lines run through almost every song.

Sydney Peterson of Beats Per Minute wrote that the 39-minute record has a sound “so cohesive and distinct it could only come from Lacy,” and also calls “nice shoes / in your world” a standout. Peterson traces the Compton native’s rise from The Internet, which he joined at 16, and from production work with Kendrick Lamar, Solange and Blood Orange before he turned 21, through the breakout single “Dark Red” in 2017 and “Bad Habit,” which spread on TikTok in 2022.

The first official single was “the feeling,” the album’s third track, according to 34th Street.

Where the Bowl Falls on the Tour

Lacy’s California dates come close together. The tour list published by mxdwn runs as follows.

- Thursday, November 19, Gallagher Square at Petco Park, San Diego - Saturday, November 21, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles - Tuesday, November 24, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco

Earlier stops included Radio City Music Hall in New York on October 10, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, follows on November 11. mxdwn reported in August that several dates had already sold out.

The Bowl holds 17,500, Billboard has noted. Lacy’s night arrives at the end of a busy November there, after Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean on November 8 and the Jonas Brothers’ two nights on November 18 and 19. He is also on the bill for Camp Flog Gnaw at Dodger Stadium the weekend before.

Practical Details

Steve Lacy plays the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m. TicketNews reported that tickets are on sale through the venue box office, and several tour dates had sold out by August, so check the Bowl calendar and confirm the price at the point of sale. Door times and an opening act had not been published in the sources Velvet reviewed.