Show Reviews

On Thursday, September 30, Rival Sons brought propulsive rock and roll to an Orlando crowd at The Plaza Live starved for a good show. It was the second show of the Pressure and Time 10 Year Anniversary Tour, serving as a celebration of the Long Beach band’s career, of old-school hard rock, and of just […]

Few bands in our current musical era have amassed such an impressive catalogue of music as My Morning Jacket. In just over two decades, the Louisville band have proven themselves to be one of the most dynamic and exploratory bands in rock with each album pushing their sound into new sonic dimensions. Most importantly, they […]

Some things always change and some things stay the same. Unfortunately for the latter, Farm Aid still exists. Farm Aid board member Willie Nelson once said in 2012 -” Farm Aid exists because government agricultural policies too often tilt toward large corporate-owned farms, which have deep pockets they use to influence politicians. “I wish I […]

The Ohana Festival is a laid-back, annual live-music weekend that takes place adjacent to a popular surf spot at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA. This year’s festival happened from September 24-26, 2021, a music extravaganza that could just as easily be called the “Eddie Vedder and Friends Festival,” as the vocalist led three […]

The Nth Power is back on the road this autumn for the first time since before the pandemic and we’re all ready to Fall Back in Love. Helps that they’ve chosen that as the name of their tour, which has 20 dates across the United States. The much-loved band hit The Mint in Los Angeles […]

Festival Sunday comes too soon. You realize all the things you’ve yet to explore. The foods you haven’t tried. The friends you’ve missed in the crowds. Yet, it doesn’t come soon enough, as you drag yourself to the festival grounds, feet weary, ears ringing, stomach just a bit off. But you still make it to […]

Gov Ball Day Two – What a difference a day makes. The festival has worked out the kinks. The crowd knows where to go and how to act. And the perfect weather and strong musical lineup continued. Livia O kicked off the Honda stage and had the lyric of the day if not the festival […]

New York City’s Gov Ball is back.  After a long pandemic, a postponement, a change of venue, Gov Ball made a reappearance for its 10th anniversary, not at its original Governor’s Island off Manhattan, not at its usual Randall’s Island tucked between Manhattan and The Bronx but smackdown in Queens at Citi Field (home of […]

Béla Fleck stopped by the Strathmore Music Center, a stunning architectural marvel of a venue with superb acoustics located in Bethesda, MD, on Wednesday, September 22nd with his latest project, My Bluegrass Heart, for a much-anticipated evening of world-class musicianship and some good old-fashioned bluegrass, with a unique progressive spin that only Mr. Fleck himself […]

This past Tuesday, a glorious day in Beantown, fans of the legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper flocked to Leader Bank Pavilion to hear his greatest hits and choice selections from his recent album Detroit Stories that was released earlier this year. Not one to play it down, the theatrical extravaganza that Cooper has consistently offered […]

Sunday brought slightly cooler weather, thinner crowds, and another day of good music to the sold-out Sea.Hear.Now festival. Lines were shorter, and it was much easier to move around and make it up to the front of the stages if your legs weren’t too tired from trekking through the sand from Saturday. The only folks […]

There’s always something a little bittersweet in the air on the final day of Riot Fest (granted it could be all the collective body odor and/or weed smoke, but, talking about something a little more intangible here). It’s not just that a fantastic weekend of great live music is coming to an end, but it’s […]

There were a lot of tasty treats at this year’s Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, NJ, but make no mistake about it, the main course on almost everyone’s plate was a large helping of Pearl Jam. The band hadn’t toured since 2018 and as Eddie Vedder said from the stage, they had planned a massive […]

When Jackson Browne released “My Cleveland Heart,” the first single off his strong 2021 album Downhill From Everywhere, much ado was made of the video cameo by rising indie-pop star Phoebe Bridgers – a contrasting merger of different musical eras and fan bases. Yet, the real star of Jackson Browne collaborations of late is that […]

On what turned out to be the most outright gorgeous day of the entire festival (thanks largely to a generous lake breeze), another day of wall-to-wall sunshine (this time without the evening t-storms) greeted the masses who once again descended upon Douglas Park for another day of Riotfestivities.  And although the day started out on […]

It had been a very long two years since Riot Fest last graced Chicago with its uniquely eccentric and exuberant presence, but at long last, the first full day of festivities since September 2019 finally arrived in all its glory on Friday in picturesque Douglas Park (Morrisey and Patti Smith technically kicked things off with […]

From the looks and sounds of it, the brothers Robinson have put aside their public differences and are now crisscrossing America celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Black Crowes’ debut album Shake Your Money Maker, which set the rock and roll world afire with such hits as “Twice As Hard”, the infectious “Jealous Again”, the […]

The BeachLife Festival returned with gusto to Redondo Beach, California, after a two-year hiatus on the weekend of September 10-12, 2021. After canceling in 2020 and getting rescheduled from the spring to the September dates, the festival drew a sellout crowd for three days of music and fun in the sun at the Seaside Lagoon. […]

After nearly two and a half years since their last event, the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival presented by JaM Cellars wines took place for the eighth time during Labor Day weekend, September 3-5, 2021. The festival was canceled in 2020 and delayed from its regular Memorial Day weekend dates this year due to COVID-19 […]

It seems that James McMurtry eavesdrops on us at our dinner tables, our boats, bars, big rigs, or wherever he chooses to find us. It doesn’t matter. The literary pictures he projects are as perfect as we can see ourselves, unadorned and often alone. McMurtry doesn’t offer apologies. It is what it is. Those of […]