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Brought the Darkness Home to The Wiltern
May 4th, 2026 Review by Shane Pase
Thursday night April 23rd at the Wiltern felt like a proper LA homecoming. She Wants Revenge, the darkwave duo of Justin Warfield and Adam 12, rolled into their hometown theater for what turned out to be one of the more meaningful shows of their two-decade career — packed house, two live debuts, a tribute to a fallen friend, and a 20th anniversary celebration all wrapped into one evening.
The night opened with Rosegarden Funeral Party, a three-piece whose guitar and bass-heavy post-punk sound was a smart way to ease the crowd into the night’s darker headspace.
Lead singer and guitarist Leah Lane was an immediate standout — she had the kind of stage presence that makes you lean in, throwing out powerful lyrics one moment and flashing a big, genuine smile the next. She looked like she was having the time of her life up there, and that energy was contagious.
The crowd warmed to them quickly, and rightfully so. House of Harm followed with a set that leaned into alternative indie territory with streaks of dark emo woven through it. Both bands did exactly what a good opener should do — they connected with the room and got everyone in the right headspace for what was coming.
By the time She Wants Revenge took the stage, the Wiltern was ready. The production team had fog machines working overtime — and we’re not talking a tasteful wisp here and there. This was San Francisco Bay-level fog, rolling across the stage and spilling out into the first several rows of the floor. Combined with the moody lighting, it gave the whole room this hazy, almost cinematic quality that suited the band perfectly. You half expected a noir detective to walk through the haze and light a cigarette.
They opened with “Black Liner Run“ before moving into “Sister“ and “Written in Blood,” easing the crowd into the set’s emotional arc. Warfield commands a stage in a way that’s hard to fully describe in print — he’s deliberate, almost unhurried, and his baritone fills the room with a weight that matches the material. He’s not a frontman who bounces off the walls, but he doesn’t need to be.
There’s a lineage of performers who understood that stillness and intention can be more commanding than constant movement — Jim Morrison owning a stage without ever seeming to try, Dave Gahan turning every song into something that felt deeply personal, Michael Hutchence drawing an audience in with little more than presence and a look. Warfield fits comfortably in that tradition. There’s something about the way he carries himself that seems to genuinely connect with the crowd on a level beyond just appreciation for the music — fans are drawn to him, almost magnetically, in a way that goes beyond the songs themselves. He doesn’t chase the audience. They come to him.
The band worked through a deep and well-balanced setlist across the night, hitting “These Things,” “Sarah Says,” “Someone Must Get Hurt,” “A Little Bit Harder,” “Now,” and “Your Love,” before “Disconnect,” and “Rachael” kept the momentum rolling through the middle of the set. The Wiltern’s sound suited them well — the low-end on tracks like “Your Love“ was felt as much as heard, the bass pushing through the floor while synthesizers layered in above it.
One of the evening’s more emotionally charged moments came when the band paused to pay tribute to Greg Foreman, better known as Mr. Pharmacist, who had passed away just three days before the show. Warfield brought out a picture of Greg and placed it on the side of the stage, saying that was where Greg would always be. It was a quiet, sincere moment in the middle of what had been a high-energy night, and the crowd responded with real warmth. The kind of moment that reminds you these aren’t just performers going through a set — there are real friendships and real losses behind the music.
The band also acknowledged the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, which got a strong reaction from a crowd that clearly has deep roots with that record. Twenty years is a milestone worth recognizing, and the setlist drew from across their catalog in a way that made the anniversary feel genuinely celebratory rather than just nostalgic.
Then came the surprises. Mid-set, the band debuted two new songs — Do No Harm and Gossip & Drugs — both making their live debuts on this night. Before launching into Do No Harm, Warfield addressed something head-on: the long-running perception that She Wants Revenge is strictly a dark, brooding band without a dance bone in their body. He wasn’t having it. He announced that Do No Harm was, without question, a dance song, and he made it clear that he expected the Wiltern to become one massive dance floor for the duration of it.
The song delivered on that promise — it carried a distinct EDM-influenced vibe, a noticeable departure from the band’s usual sonic palette, but it worked. The crowd responded enthusiastically, and honestly, watching a room full of darkwave fans suddenly find themselves dancing to something that wouldn’t sound out of place in a club set was one of the more fun moments of the night.
Adam 12 also took a moment to address the new music more broadly, telling the crowd that the band has an enormous amount of material ready to go — so much, in fact, that it would blow fans’ minds. That’s a bold claim, but given what the two new songs suggested about where they’re headed, it’s hard to be skeptical.
The back half of the set moved through Red Flags and Long Nights, These Things Happen in Threes, Black Wax Our Love, and Out of Control before arriving at the inevitable closer. Tear You Apart ended the night the way it always does — with a room full of people who have known every word of that song for twenty years singing it back at the stage. Some songs just have that kind of staying power, and in a live setting at full volume, it still hits.
She Wants Revenge put on a show Thursday night that covered a lot of ground — anniversary celebration, emotional tribute, new music previews, and a greatest hits run through a catalog that holds up. The fog-drenched Wiltern was the right room for it. It was a great show without a doubt.
SHOW PHOTO GALLERY
by Shane Pase Photography
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SID 260503 | TRACI TURNER | EDITOR
