Twin Peaks Bring Ragged Rock & Roll Energy to Just Like Heaven

If Just Like Heaven Festival needed a jolt of pure, unfiltered rock and roll chaos, Twin Peaks delivered it in full. The Chicago band has built a reputation as one of the most reliably wild live acts in indie rock, and their set at Brookside at the Rose Bowl was proof that reputation is very much earned.

From the opening chords of "Irene," it was obvious this was going to be a physical set. Twin Peaks plays like a band that's genuinely having the time of their lives up there, guitars slashing through "Holding Roses" and "Shake Your Lonely" with a loose, garage-rock swagger that had the crowd moving within minutes. "Getting Better" brought one of the biggest singalongs of the set, the kind of hook that sounds simple on record but turns into a full-throated crowd chant live, and by the time they tore into "Walk to the One You Love," fans up front were already a tangle of elbows and grins.

The band leaned into their catalog's range, too, pulling from records like "Down In Heaven," "Sweet '17 Singles," and "Wild Onion" to keep the set constantly shifting gears, a scrappy, punk-adjacent burst here, a warmer, more melodic turn there. "Butterfly" and "Blue Coupe" showed off the songwriting chops underneath all that raw energy, while "Tossing Tears" and closer "Wanted You" brought the set back to full throttle. A genuinely special moment came when V.V. Lightbody and Free Range joined the band onstage, adding extra texture and turning an already electric set into a proper collaborative jam that felt spontaneous in the best way.

Twin Peaks' sound is built on feel as much as precision, and the mix let that come through honestly, a little grit on the guitars, drums that hit like they meant it, vocals that occasionally cracked with the effort of belting through a full-throttle set in the afternoon heat. That imperfection is the whole point with a band like this, and the crowd responded in kind, forming impromptu circle pits and crowd-surfing waves that rippled across the grounds. It was scrappy, sweaty, and completely alive.

Few bands on this year's bill brought as much sheer physical energy to their set as Twin Peaks did, and that's exactly why they've become such a beloved fixture on festival bills like this one. If you get the chance to catch them live, go in ready to move — and don't be surprised if you leave with a new favorite deep cut, a few new bruises from the pit, and a permanent grin on your face.

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