Show Reviews

Columbia filled The Blue Note on Saturday night to see Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors for their first visit to mid-Missouri. Holcomb and company are currently on tour in support of their latest album Medicine which released on January 27. A blend of folk, bluegrass, and soul known as Humming House began the night. This […]

Touring behind his first album in nearly seven years, José González took the stage of the Paradise Rock Club, toting his beautiful acoustic guitar and a young lifetime’s worth of beautiful songs. The Swedish folk singer’s voice was cool and expressive voice as weaved tunes both new and old, transfixing the spellbound, packed-like-sardines audience of […]

It’s been an interesting year for Yonder Mountain String Band, to say the least. Last April the members of the “jam grass” band had a bomb suddenly dropped on them when frontman and mandolin player Jeff Austin announced his departure unexpectedly. The news seemed to hit Jeff’s three bandmates as hard as it hit the […]

Colin Meloy walked onto the stage at the hallowed Beacon Theater and stood in the spotlight. He started the show on his own, the conspicuous frontman plucking the cords to aptly placed and titled set-opener ‘The Singer Addresses His Audience.” It’s a coy distinction to say it’s his band, but Meloy accepts the responsibility with […]

A wide ranging variety of musical styles were on display at the Brooklyn Bowl, often times within the same song, as a trio of bands took to the venues stage. Opening things the Brooklyn based Shinobi Ninja performed a blender approach to genres, immediately evident as everything from hip-hop to reggae to metal were on […]

Tuesday In conjunction with the DVD release of Interstellar, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche kicked things off with an otherworldly display of percussive prowess on a drumset not dissimilar to the one he used in the Delta Faucet ad. Only instead of banging waterspouts, he’s got a gigantic, metallic onion skin spiral, a redshift/blueshift siren item, […]

Since his debut album, Cheese, was released in 2011, Belgian hip-hop artist Stromae has found huge success in Europe. His success in the U.S. has been slowed due to his songs being predominantly in the French language. Nonetheless, Stromae is starting to make ripples in the American music scene. In 2013 he released his hit […]

Marco Benevento arrived in Boston recently to deliver a set of music that touched on many aspects of the veteran pianist’s career. Playing nearly two hours with the Marco Benevento Trio, the keyboardist was augmented by Dave Dreiwitz (Ween; Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) on bass, and Andrew Borger (Norah Jones, Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco) on […]

It only takes one listen to the new record Cosmetics from ‘super group’ Diamond Rugs to be won over by their cheeky charm. Which is why it was a bit of a disappointment to catch them at the start of their current tour on a recent Friday night at Bowery Ballroom. Unpracticed and disengaged, it […]

Excuse the cliché, but if there is one act right now whose music can truly be considered a gumbo of styles, it’s the New Orleans Suspects. Collectively the members of this NOLA supergroup have played with the likes of James Brown, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Neville Brothers and the Radiators among others, and the […]

“We’re growing up. We’re growing up.” Words uttered on the studio version of British punk rockers Palma Violets’ song “Last of the Summer Wine” off the band’s debut CD 180, but also perhaps a bit of foreshadowing of the group’s maturity leading into the release of their much anticipated sophomore album Danger in the Club […]

Blackberry Smoke touring in support of their fourth album, Holding All the Roses (which debuted at Number 1 on the top Country albums chart) was all smiles and swagger as they hit the stage in Boston; exuding not a cockiness but rather a quiet “we will never have to sleep in the van again” confidence. […]

When Dave and Phil Alvin reunited for the Grammy nominated Common Ground last year, it gave longtime fans of the duo the warm and fuzzies. A collection of Big Bill Broonzy covers was what brought them back together to record their first studio collaboration since the 1980s. At a recent show at Brooklyn’s Bell House, […]

Cuba is ninety miles from Florida. Over eleven million people live on the island but for most Americans, it has always been a place off-limits since the first embargo was imposed back in the early 1960’s. But all that is about to change as the political environment starts to shift and we may now start […]

On March 21st at Brooklyn Bowl jazz-rock trio Soulive ceremoniously concluded its 6th annual Bowlive residency in stellar fashion with a little help from their friends. The brainchild of Bowl owner Peter Shapiro, Bowlive has evolved into a must-see event at the iconic flourishing venue. Soulive invites different special guests on each night and one […]

It’s a measure of their respective willingness to experiment that the shows Gov’t Mule perform with John Scofield can take on such totally distinct character. The initial night in Port Chester, New York might be seen as the great guitarist sitting in with The Mule, as the latter offered their inimitable blend of vintage originals, […]

In a lot of ways SXSW is like making a big meal for the whole family. Whether you’re a band, filmmaker, journalist, official SXSW staffer, or even just a fan of it all trying to make a plan, it feels like we spend months and months preparing for the weeklong event only to devour it […]

Photo: The Residents get weird at The Paramount Anyone thinking that the final two days of SXSW would bring out massive crowds may have found some relief in the rain that stuck around for much of Friday, which seemed to scare off some of the throngs. However, the rain didn’t stop a myriad of acts […]

Once again the Heartbreaker Banquet returned to the dusty old Western town of Luck, Texas on Willie Nelson’s ranch outside Austin. Since 2012 this one-day event has functioned as an exclusive, invite-only offshoot of SXSW. Each year the organizers bring in a consistently impressive lineup composed mainly of established acts within the Americana and alt. […]

Wednesday marked the first full day of big unofficial parties at SXSW, and in true Texas fashion a previous forecast of rain actually became a perfect sunny day. Perhaps it was due to the fact that many people were still at work or maybe just weren’t dedicated enough to kick things off so early, but […]