It’s spring equinox Saturday night here in the People’s Republic of Berkeley on 21 March, and the people are fired up for Jesse Welles’ triumphant return to the Bay Area. The truth-telling troubadour from Arkansas has been winning hearts and minds across the nation with his wry, sharp-edged musical critiques of America’s decline. Welles is fast becoming the new voice of a generation, and many fans will say he’s already reached such status, as seen in social media comments from the “Welles wolves” whenever he’s on tour.
The 33-year-old singer/guitarist’s Middle Earth Tour of 2025 saw Welles sell out two nights at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium in November, where he was symbolically coronated when 85-year-old folk music legend Joan Baez sat in for duets on Welles’ “No Kings” and Bob Dylan‘s “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright).” Now his Under the Powerlines Tour of 2026 finds Welles selling out increasingly larger venues, in this case the 1,400-capacity UC Theatre near the western edge of the University of California–Berkeley campus.
There’s a cathartic feeling that comes from seeing a traveling troubadour with a message of empathy and compassion that most of the country’s political leaders lack. Welles has thereby rapidly become viewed as a man of the people and as one of America’s most endearing voices. Thus, it was fitting that Ambrose Kenney Smith from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (another band of the people) sat in on harmonica when Jesse Welles’ tour hit Australia over the winter.
Indie rock/alt-folk singer S.G. Goodman opens the show, backed by a full band to give the Kentucky songwriter a vibrant sound. The title track from 2025’s Snapping Turtle album features a sparse arrangement and a dreamy, surreal vibe, showcasing Goodman’s emotive voice. The sound grows deeper on “I Can See the Devil”, as the snare hits harder with spacey, reverbed guitars on a bluesy tune about walking past that devil into the sunshine. The crystal clarity of the shimmering guitars showcases how crisp the sound is here at the UC Theatre, which has become one of the Bay Area’s top venues in its first decade.
The setbreak music includes classic rock cuts like the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version of “Woodstock” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider”, keeping a groovy vibe going as fans hit the bars. The independent venue run by the nonprofit Berkeley Music Group also features fresh local beer from the likes of Fieldwork Brewing, Faction Brewing, and East Brother Beer Company, a refreshing change of pace from the bland offerings at most comparable venues.
Jesse Welles taps right into the current zeitgeist when he opens solo acoustic with the sarcastic “Sometimes You Bomb Iran”, winning big cheers in solidarity with a song he actually released last June. When he sings “Flip Miss Tulsi, get the war machine rolling,” it feels like he wrote the song just weeks ago. The reference to how the former darling of the political revolution jumped the shark from opposing regime change wars as a Fellow at the Sanders Institute to supporting them as a Trump regime sycophant is a prime example of what a savvy lyricist Welles is. When he sings, “Same playbook as two thousand and three, Looks familiar to you, looks familiar to me,” he wins another cheer for rhyming truth to power in a way few artists will dare.
“The Great Caucasian God” features more savvy insights as Welles sings “Don’t you know atomic power is God’s atomic shower,” before going on to name-drop the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents from the 1990s that foreshadowed the federal overreach of the current era. The satirical “Join ICE” is another fan favorite in which Welles adds harmonica, further fueling the Dylan comparisons. Yet the reason it works so well is precisely because of Welles’ sincerity.
“The List” finds Welles singing about the infamous Epstein files and again foreshadowing the Trump regime’s march to war. “Whistle Boeing” is another winner with Welles referencing the Boeing airplane whistleblower scandal before taking the greedy healthcare industry to task in “United Health”.
The audience is delighted and enraptured with each song, as Jesse Welles’ topical tunes keep hitting the mark. “The Poor” is one of the hardest-hitting songs in the repertoire, as Welles ramps down the satire for a bluesy lament that clearly comes from personal experience. One need not have grown up poor to empathize with those who continue to struggle in America’s rigged economy, and Jesse Welles’ empathy and compassion are on impressive display here. It’s a song that hits deep in the feels thanks to his impassioned delivery and lyrics like, “It ain’t the price gouging / And it ain’t the inflation / It ain’t everyone above ya tryna make a buck from ya / And screwin’ the whole congregation…”
The set moves to another dimension when “The Poor” concludes with a flash of lights and a surge of full rock power as Welles is joined by his bandmates to form a quartet, as a giant American flag backdrop is revealed behind the stage. It’s a move that could be viewed as mirroring Bob Dylan’s stage design on his 1966 European tour. Yet, its use feels more like it emphasizes the patriotic nature of Jesse Welles’ rebellious dissent against the corrupt powers that be. The raucous “Domestic Error” feels like it could be a Highway 61 era tune, but with modern lyrics that reference CIA spooks, the hypocritical drug war, and White House greed.
“Philanthropist” takes jet-setting oligarchs to task before the band rocks out on “Red”, an infectious take down of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their tribalistic politics with lines like “There’s a deep swamp and I’ll drain it, For my people are in danger, Who would have ever thought the Deep State, Were the National Park rangers.”
Jesse Welles is on a roll and keeps it going with “God, Abraham and Xanax”, satirizing Big Pharma and imperialist militarism before ad-libbing “1-2-3-4, We don’t want your fucking war!” It’s a popular sentiment that boosts the energy level even higher on a song that’s become a showcase for the band to stretch out, with Welles tearing it up on lead guitar. The smoking jam leads into a scintillating take on Black Sabbath‘s “Paranoid”, with Welles again shredding melty hot riffage to inspire the enthusiastic audience further.
The set feels like it’s telling a story about our crazy, mixed up world as the theme continues on the bluesier “War Is a God”, with Welles lamenting humanity’s incessant warmongering as he sings “Maybe war is a God / And we’re just super superstitious / It’s gonna take a lot of blood / ‘Cause boy, are we religious.”
The newer “Masks Off” (released just this past December) expresses further anger about the current political culture, as Welles calls out the insanity in no uncertain terms: “All the masks are off and they don’t even try / They know that you know that they know / And they don’t even mind it / All the masks are off and they’re getting lazy / They think yer so damn stupid / They think yer so damn crazy.” The song features another hot jam with a big organ solo before Welles rips on lead guitar, even tapping fiery leads on his acoustic guitar in the Eddie Van Halen style for a sensational moment that drives the point home.
The mid-tempo “Malaise” brings the energy level down a notch, but keeps the heartfelt vibe going as Welles sings out with a passionate voice about missing” the meeting of the interdimensional committee.” There’s some sweet slide guitar on the tune that sounds like it could be a lost classic from the early 1970s, except that it references having missed the 1980s. “It Don’t Come Easy” kickstarts the dance floor as the band rock a melodic groove with crisp piano and more hot slide guitar, while Welles sings about navigating the “problematical darkness of an arcane world.”
The energy level surges again with the scintillating “Horses”, the lead track from 2025’s Middle. It sounds like a companion to Dylan’s “Hurricane” from the mid-1970s, but with lyrics that address universal socio-political angst. When Welles sings, “You know the harder you think / The deeper you sink / The tighter your grip / The further you slip” over one of his most irresistibly radiant grooves, there’s a catharsis that makes a body wanna dance it out. That, in turn, feels like releasing “the weight” he sings of holding on to in the chorus. The only flaw is that the song ends too soon, since it conjures a magnetic energy that feels like it wants a big guitar solo like the ones in “Masks Off” and “God, Abraham, and Xanax”.
A heartfelt cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” brings the main set to a jubilant conclusion. It seems like it’s been longer than it has since the entire show has been played at such a high level that linear time starts to dissolve, because everyone feels so in the moment. It feels like an old-time spiritual revival as the audience stomps for an encore while chanting, “Je-SEE, Je-SEE!” The UC Theatre has become a sonic temple in the Church of Rock ‘n’ Roll, with Messenger Jesse Welles presiding.
An extra-special moment follows to start the encore, as Joan Baez appears to join Welles again for a heartwarming and truly inspiring duet on his increasingly anthemic protest song “No Kings”. Welles debuted the song last summer, but after Baez sang it with him at the Fillmore in November, they quickly reconvened to record a new version with expanded lyrics, which was released in December. It’s filled with poignant lyrics that hold hope for a better world and call for rebellion against the fascist Trump regime, moving the audience to sing along to lines like “No more dying for the causes / No one asked for, no one needs / And no kings, no kings, No kings…”
For anyone who ever wished they could have come of age during the sociocultural revolution of the 1960s, there’s an inspiring sense that the movement remains very much alive with Welles and Baez singing out for People Power against “the forces of Old and Evil”. Baez is probably dismayed that the struggle for peace and harmony continues six decades later, yet she must feel renewed hope for the current generation in her team-up with Welles.
“Let It Be Me” is another standout song in the encore, in which Welles sings about not wanting to be let down by anyone or anything besides himself. He goes on to confess that all he ever wanted was to die young, but he “didn’t have the guts / And songs needed sung.” These songs do need to be sung, for there’s a message in Jesse Welles’ music that’s been in short supply with the Orwellian decline of the media in the 21st century. “Turtles” is a charmer too, with an environmental subtext, as Welles sings of how the animals “don’t need a whole lot / They need clean water / And clean air / About the same things as we need up here.”
Welles concludes the evening with “War Isn’t Murder”, a no-holds-barred song that exposes the crass normalization of war in our sick society. “War isn’t murder, there’s money at stake, Girl, even Kushner agrees it’s good real estate, War isn’t murder, ask Netanyahu, He’s got a song for that and a bomb for you,” Welles sings. The pointed critique of foreign policy raises a valid question: why hasn’t Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, already been brought in for questioning about his conflicts of interest in the Middle East?
The fact that a folk rocker like Jesse Welles is providing more insight on corruption in the White House than most mainstream media outlets is a revealing commentary about how far America has fallen in this foul year of our lord 2026. Yet it’s also a testament to how the rebellion against the Trump regime’s fascist assault on the American Republic is alive and well in pop culture.
One week after the UC Theatre show, Joan Baez is one of the headlining acts at the flagship rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, for the national “No Kings” protest day, where she joins Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Bruce Springsteen, Jane Fonda, Tom Morello, and Maggie Rogers. Baez and Morello join Rogers for a timely rendition of Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin'”, a testament to the song’s resonance for more than 60 years. It also highlights the impressive journey Baez has kept going as a performer and activist – singing anti-war songs like “With God on Our Side” with Dylan in 1963 and still at it in 2026 with Welles, Rogers and Morello.
Jesse Welles is primed to keep it going too, including at the Hudson River Fest in New York on 21 June, where he’ll headline an event founded by Pete Seeger in the 1960s that also includes Warren Haynes, Margo Price, Grahame Lesh, Daniel Donato, and Leah Song from Rising Appalachia. Recently announced dates at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on 5-6 October suggest Welles could also be returning to San Francisco for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival the preceding weekend. The political revolution can use all the musical inspiration it can get, which makes it a blessing that Jesse Welles is touring hard as one of pop culture’s most inspiring new voices.