Photos and review by Jennie Book
@jenniebookphotography

Arlo Parks brought her Desire Tour to the Bellwether in Los Angeles on September 18, 2026, touring her third album, Ambiguous Desire. Parks has a big talent for writing and singing about all kinds of feelings: jealousy, uncertainty, loneliness, and the complicated business of caring about someone. Her newest tracks dive into all of these, and she brought them all to life onstage with lots of energy and big smiles.

The Bellwether was dark dark dark, and this photographer at one point turned camera iso to 20000 and dropped shutter to 1/60, a new record. So the stage for photos was not great, but for atmosphere and the crowd it was fantastic. Super moody, nicely placed LEDs, and an electronics table set up right in the middle so that Parks and her two bandmates could all work on it at the same time when she wasn’t moving back and forth around the stage, looking like they were DJ-ing, but clearly doing something more complicated.

The set was about 21 songs and kicked off with “Heaven” and “Jetta,” and included other favorites like “Pegasus” and “Eugene.” Towards the end we got “2SIDED,” which was great to hear live. The night ended with “Get Go,” and it was clear the crowd didn’t want to leave. Agewise the fans were all over the map, with female Zs lining the barricade, but then some retirees upstairs in the balcony having a great time too.

In chatting to the crowd between songs, Parks said she’s been living in Los Angeles for the last four years, and talked about how she had lots of supporters at the show who she called her “anchors.” She seemed very appreciative of her fans, and her radiant smiles said she was truly happy to be there performing. She talked about how “healing isn’t linear, we’re all doing our best,” and how she has a “beautiful community of people around music.”

Arlo Parks puts on a great show, and the tour continues in North America through the very beginning of October, then heads to the UK. You can get all the latest everything here at arloparksofficial.com.