It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and no, we are not talking about Christmas. We are talking about concert season.

As prep for the holiday season, we, Trista Verne ’23 and Julianna Ortiz ’23, decided to buy concert tickets to see new artists that we hardly know. We both decided upon Ella Jane and Dora Jar because they were both performing at the Troubadour theatre and we have heard nothing but good things about both of them.

The first out of the two was Ella Jane. We had originally heard of her from TikTok and a few friends at Rosary. Charlotte Jordan ’23 said, “Ella Jane is a great artist and I couldn’t recommend her music enough. If you like Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers, then you would love Ella Jane. “

It was our first time at the Troubadour and we walked around the entire theatre. It was very small but super cozy, which gave it a very intimate vibe. Ella Jane had an opener named Alix Page. Even though we did not know any of her songs, we greatly enjoyed her setlist.

We knew very few Ella Jane songs as well, but still had a blast during the show. She even covered “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry, which was a major throwback. After hearing Ella Jane live, we both have been listening Ella Jane non-stop; overall, she was a great performer and we had a great time.

The second artist we saw was Dora Jar. Overall, we had a lot more fun at her show, solely because her music was more upbeat and she was more interactive with the crowd. We heard about Dora because she had opened for Billie Eilish’s recent tour, and after seeing what a great performer she was, we bought tickets to her self-titled tour.

As experienced Troubadour goers, we decided to show up to the venue around the same time the previous opener had started. However, this was our biggest mistake. We ended up missing about half of the opener’s set. The opener Sam Austins and his band was a very pleasant surprise, and we thoroughly enjoyed their music and engagement with the crowd.

While we were waiting for Dora to perform, Billie Eilish, Jesse Rutherford, Dylan Minette, and Lydia Night surprisingly walked into the theatre. It was surreal to be in the same room as so many celebrities, and we loved seeing Billie being supportive of her previous opening act.

Although we only knew Dora’s most popular songs, she was so great at performing that we had fun the entire time. She ran and jumped all over the tiny stage, and even stood up on the speakers. Her style of music is an eclectic-pop version of Lorde’s music mixed with Fiona Apple. We highly recommend seeing her in concert if you enjoy this style of music and want to see an energetic show.

In other news, we want to give a shoutout to the amazing man who is in charge of valet at the La Peer Hotel where we parked. He was always ready to crack a joke and put a smile on our faces. So if you ever decide to go to a concert at the Troubadour, you must park at the La Peer Hotel.

Although we only stayed two nights, we had the best time ever and will be looking for more new artists performing at the Troubadour. This just goes to say, even if you do not know the artist or their songs, you can still have a great time and discover a new artist you might actually enjoy.