Photos and review by Jennie Book
@jenniebookphotography

When Ruel played The Warfield in San Francisco on April 5, 2026, at the center of the stage stood a single, mysterious glowing door. It had been there during the sets of openers Chelsea Jordan and Mercer Henderson too, leaving the crowd to wonder how it would be used. Turned out that Ruel would of course make his grand entrance through it among smokey lighting, a reveal that left his fans at the front screaming.

Ruel opened the show with “Only Ever,” pulling the audience in right away with his rich vocals. Backed by his tight band, a guitarist and drummer stationed on opposite risers, he moved back and forth across the stage with the ease of a pro who’s been doing this since age fifteen.

The 23 song set unfolded over about an hour and a half, and was a great mix of singalong hits and slower more moody tracks, plus some new songs from 2025’s album Kicking My Feet and upcoming June 2026 release Kicking & Screaming. We got “Not What’s Going On” and “Wild Guess” for energy, plus fan favorite “Dazed & Confused” which kicked off a full-house singalong, a fun shared experience for everyone who’s been singing it since it was released in April 2018.

Things got quieter about halfway through the set when Ruel took a seat at the piano and played Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make you Love Me,” a wrenching song that was a hit back in the day and has come around again through Teddy Swims and now Ruel. He also talked about his mom a little bit and played “No News Is Good News” and “Even Angels Won’t” stripped down on the piano, which both added another layer of intimacy and sincerely to the night.

The band returned and the energy got dialed back up, and we got “Free Time,” “Want U Around,” and “Face to Face” which kicked things into high gear and got people back to singing and dancing. At one point he asked the crowd how many were Spanish-speaking, and hoots rang out and hands shot up, and Ruel apologized for the Spanish he was about to bring, but then did a great job with the intro in español on “Wild Guess.”

The main set closed with “Painkiller,” a great track with great energy that felt like it could be the end of the show, but Ruel came back out for a 3-song encore which included “Japanese Whiskey,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” (an interesting choice that I’d love to hear him talk about,) and “Kicking My Feet.” After those three, Ruel and the band said goodnight, the lights came up, and people filed out happily, primed and eager to hear his new 10-track album when it’s released in June.

This tour finished its North American run in Los Angeles at The Palladium on April 8^th, but you can keep up to date on all future events and current info at www.oneruel.com and @onerule.