Show Reviews

Forty years ago, a group of students at Berklee College of Music formed the progressive metal band Dream Theater and became one of the genre’s biggest acts. On September 12th, the prog metal icons brought their 40th Anniversary Tour to the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida. With no opening act, the band treated the […]

MJ Lenderman and the Wind rolled into The Van Buren in Phoenix on Monday night, September 8th, in support of their acclaimed 2024 breakthrough album Manning Fireworks. In just a short span, Lenderman has gone from playing clubs to headlining theaters, winning over Neil Young devotees along the way, while also closing the chapter on […]

A lot has changed since 2008, the last time Rilo Kiley played Philadelphia before what would turn out to be a nearly two-decade-long hiatus from performing together. Back then, the oldest member of the band was 35; now he’s eligible to make catch-up contributions to his 401(k). (Boy, I hope musicians have defined contribution plans!) […]

On Wednesday night, Garbage kicked off the Happy Endings Tour with a celebratory performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida. Singer Shirley Manson told the audience that it was probably the last time they would play in that city due to the financial strain of modern touring. “The streaming era makes touring very […]

Louisiana Blues guitarist Tab Benoit has been on tour around the United States in support of I Hear Thunder, his first new release in 13 years. He brought his trio to Saint Rocke, a small club in Hermosa Beach, California, on September 1, 2025, to play some of the new material and his older songs. An enthusiastic […]

Some music transcends time and place. It doesn’t matter what era or what is currently hot on the radio – it simply exists in an ever-youthful state. Béla Fleck and the Flecktones have occupied this space for nearly four decades. Fusing jazz and bluegrass, but reaching into far more varied musical realms, the group has […]

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of the Budos Band. The lineup has fluctuated a bit throughout those two decades, but the band has stayed productive both in the studio and on the road. Plenty of music trends – some shitty and some great – have also come and gone in that time, […]

On Wednesday night, Jerry Cantrell brought his I Want Blood Tour into a packed House of Blues in Orlando, Florida, for a celebration of alternative rock. Opening act Sparta started the night with a 45-minute set of melodic alternative rock. The performance, led by Jim Ward’s emotional vocals and catchy guitar hooks, set the stage […]

As the sun set on the historic green of Boston’s Fenway Park on August 26th, a palpable energy coursed through the crowd that waited on the field and in the stands. The audience knew that this was going to be much more than just a concert; it was a pilgrimage and quite possibly the last […]

On a typical Saturday afternoon in Chicago in the summertime, there’s no shortage of leisurely options for one to spend their time. You could head to the beach, check out a neighborhood street festival, hit up Wrigley Field, or maybe even just take in a matinee. In the case of this writer, the latter option sounded like […]

One of the finest albums you’ll hear this year comes from Jesse Daniel. Son of the San Lorenzo is the fifth studio LP from the California country picker and is easily his most mature and personal effort to date. Daniel puts his road-hardened style of West Coast country in the spotlight while conjuring the kind […]

When Joe Perry, “Boston’s own” six-string slingshot, announced a show in his hometown, the anticipation from his and Aerosmith’s fans was electric. As fans who were decked out in Joe Perry and Aerosmith T-shirts filed into the hallowed halls of the Boch Center on a humid August 19th evening, there was a kindred sense of […]

The annual event known as Grateful Dead Meet Up at the Movies has bounced around the Burlington, Vermont area over the  years, but the yearly event may have found a home outside the Queen City itself at the Majestic 10 in Williston, Vermont. The presentation of The Grateful Dead Movie for 2025’s Meet Up was particularly appropriate. […]

American rock mainstays and innovators Nine Inch Nails brought their Peel It Back world tour to St. Paul Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center on August 17th, marking their first show in the Twin Cities in over a decade. The band has not visited Minnesota since 2013, making their mid-August return even more of a celebration. Their […]

The Black Keys’ long and winding road brought them back to Boston on August 16, 2025, for a triumphant and thunderous performance at the MGM Music Hall, the city’s newest premier venue nestled just behind historic Fenway Park. The duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, are currently on tour in support of their latest record, […]

The voice of Van Halen and rock and roll icon David Lee Roth’s return to the stage feels less like a rock concert and more like a high-octane celebration, a traveling wake-up call for an entire generation. Stepping out of a brief “retirement” with his new “Roth Show”, Diamond Dave isn’t just performing; he’s curating […]

Years before the internet and smartphones gave everyone a platform, parody culture was the domain of a small handful of entertainers who took the craft as seriously as the pop culture artists and actors they mocked. The undisputed champion of this world was none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic, whose groundbreaking talent set the bar […]

From Thursday, July 31st through Sunday, August 3rd, the forest and fields of Happy Valley, Oregon’s Pendarvis Farm just outside the Portland city limits came alive for the 25th installment of Pickathon. This little music festival has become the trusted home for those looking for a unique and thoughtful experience. It’s a festival of discovery, […]

On a sweltering Monday night on August 4th, Volbeat and Halestorm brought the Greatest of All Tours Worldwide to Tampa, Florida’s Mid Florida Credit Union Amphitheater, for a celebration of melodic hard rock. With the venue’s roof still missing since being damaged by Hurricane Milton last year, most fans had no shelter from the oppressive […]

The 71st Newport Jazz Festival was held from August 1 to 3, 2025, at Fort Adams in Newport, RI, featuring jazz, R&B, pop, and hip-hop performers on three stages. This is the second consecutive year that the festival sold out, meaning an attendance of 10,000 each day. The festival thrived under bright, sunny skies, comfortable […]