Show Reviews

Annie Clark, the enigmatic artist known as St. Vincent, returned to Boston’s MGM Music Hall on Thursday, September 5, to showcase her latest album, All Born Screaming. The show, a tour de force of musical artistry and theatrical performance, would naturally leave the audience spellbound. From the moment Clark dramatically emerged on stage, silhouetted within a towering arch, it was clear that this was no […]

Pearl Jam returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time in almost two years on Tuesday night, September 3rd. They have been supporting their strongest album in years, Dark Matter, produced by Andrew Watt. Watt most recently helped the Stones find their groove with Hackney Diamonds, which similarly featured some of the band’s best […]

Fans flocked to a new, one-day festival called Fool in Love, held in the parking lots adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The August 31, 2024, event was loaded with legendary performers, including Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Santana, Smokey Robinson, Al Green, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, and many more. The ambitious lineup drew thousands […]

Mercury Rev has delivered their first original material album in nine years with Born Horses. The album is dense, cinematic, orchestral-based pop mixed with ambient sounds and colored by breathy, spoken-word vocals throughout.  The group currently consists of long-time member singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and multi-instrumentalist Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak and newcomers Jesse Chandler on piano and keyboardist […]

Louisiana Bayou Blues guitarist Tab Benoit released his highly anticipated new album I Hear Thunder on August 30, 2024. It was the first new material he had put out in 13 years, and to celebrate the release, Anders Osborne, who co-wrote and played on the new album, is joining Tab onstage for the I Hear Thunder national tour. They […]

In today’s live music scene, very few legacy acts, often referred to as classic rockers or “Dad” rock, can fill stadiums by themselves. Perhaps that’s why Def Leppard, Journey, and Steve Miller Band joined forces to do a massive show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, on August 25th. This “Summer Stadium Tour” has been […]

It had been five years since Austin, TX-based Gary Clark Jr. released new music, but this March, he released an album of new songs called JPEG Raw. He developed the new material while quarantining alone in the studio and described the album as a showcase of his “ever-expanding creative palate.” The tracks for the new album […]

Not long into the Foo Fighters’ three-hour set, the band’s force of nature frontman Dave Grohl remarked to the crowd, “Dare I say this is the biggest fuckin’ [Portland] show for us in thirty years. It was not like this at Satirycon in 1995.” Grohl was referring to the fabled small club where the band […]

Early on in their set in front of a sold-out crowd at downtown Portland, Oregon’s Pioneer Courthouse Square on Wednesday, August 14th, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan mused how infrequently his band had shared the stage with Built to Spill throughout their four-decade-long career. On reflection, this is somewhat odd, considering the overlapping cult fanbases […]

In the middle of March, as the blistering cold winter winds took their final inhale, the veteran punk instrumental trio featuring two members of Fugazi- The Messthetics teamed up with acclaimed saxophonist James Brandon Lewis for a collaborative album. The nine-song outing was energetic, lyrical, shocking, and, above all, a testament to the progression of […]

During last year’s Pickathon, there was an air of uncertainty lingering over the beloved indie festival that takes place each August just outside Portland, Oregon. The once bucolic Pendarvis Farm that has hosted the Pickathon for almost the entirety of its two-decade run now sits mere feet from half-a-million dollar in-fill homes, and the suburban […]

Cheap Trick’s performance on August 3rd at Boston’s MGM Music Hall was an execution of a masterclass in timeless rock and roll production. The band, comprised of the legendary Robin Zander (vox/guitar), Rick Nielsen (lead guitar), Tom Peterson (bass), and Daxx Nielsen (drums), took the stage at 8:00 sharp and ignited the crowd with their signature opener, “Hello There.” From the outset, it […]

Metallica kicked off the 2024 U.S. portion of their ambitious M72 World Tour in grand fashion with a ferocious launch at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA on Friday night, August 2nd. The band transformed the stadium into a hellish dreamscape with eight towering LED video screen cylinders piercing the sky. As if rising from the […]

Killer Mike’s having a big week. On Friday, August 2nd, the acclaimed Atlanta emcee released Michael & The Mighty Midnight Revival: Songs For Sinners & Saints, a companion to Michael, his record that earned Best Rap Album at the most recent Grammys. And before an appearance at Lollapalooza over the weekend, the rapper made a […]

The 2024 Newport Folk Festival came and went, and while it was far from the most history-making incarnation of the storied event, it was an embarrassment of artistic riches that defends its status as a truly transformative, must-see musical experience that every American concertgoer needs to have at least once. The strongest chunk of the […]

Given the range of endeavors Pat Metheny has pursued since beginning to work under his own name nearly a half-century ago, it’s noteworthy that his solo projects are among the most distinctive. Last year’s Dream Box was just such a stellar work, and now Moondial also joins the niche Pat carved with 2003’s One Quiet Night and What It’s All About eight years […]

The Ashes of Leviathan Tour brought nostalgic metal mayhem to the Orlando Amphitheater on a sweltering night in Central Florida on July 24th. The tour celebrates the twentieth anniversary of two landmark metal albums—both released on August 31, 2004—Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake and Mastodon’s Leviathan. Malevolence and Kerry King opened for the […]

The Pretenders’ performance at Boston’s MGM Music Hall on July 19th was a masterclass in rock and roll endurance. The band, led by the iconic Chrissie Hynde, delivered a relentless two-hour-plus set that spanned their entire career, proving that their music remains as potent and relevant as ever. From the opening salvo of “Losing My Sense of […]

DIIV brought its eclectic tour to the House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista, Florida on July 20th. The show started with two subdued acts and ended with a surprisingly rocking set. Long Beach sextet Dutch Interior opened with a 30-minute set of soothing Americana. Most songs were played in a whisper, with sparse instrumentation […]

Thirty years ago, it felt like anything was possible in the music world. Actual rock bands were getting signed to major labels left and right, and many released albums that turned them into megastars. With the music industry essentially gutted and the measure of success being more based on social media followers than physical record […]