Show Reviews

When MJ Lenderman & the Wind played Portland, Oregon’s Revolution Hall in February this year (READ OUR REVIEW), the show quickly sold out as the band was riding high on the buzz around their alt-country masterpiece Manning Fireworks. Those who missed out on the show were giddy when they announced a second serving with a […]

The 7th annual Sea.Hear.Now (SHN) music festival in Asbury Park, NJ, was held on September 13th & 14th, and went off with hardly a hitch. It is a festival rooted in Asbury Park beach culture with a mix of local and big-name acts that center on rock music, but dip into punk, reggae, roots, electronica, […]

It has been nearly a decade since the musical world last heard from Alabama Shakes, a band that rocketed to fame with a unique blend of Southern rock, soul, and blues. Now this past Sunday night on September 14th, after a long hiatus, the band triumphantly returned to Boston and on to MGM Music Hall’s […]

If you were lucky enough to catch Viagra Boys during their ascendant days about six or seven years ago, you were surely blown away by one of the most intense rock bands to hit the scene in recent memory. Around the time the Swedish post-punks released their debut LP Street Worms, their shows at smaller […]

The story of Zambian band Witch (an acronym for “We Intend To Cause Havoc”) is up there with the greatest comeback stories in rock n’ roll. In the 1970’s, the country of Zambia experienced the rise of Zamrock, a style of music that combined influences of that era’s rock n’ roll with the traditional polyrhythmic […]

Superchunk took the stage at Philly’s Ardmore Music Hall on Wednesday, September 10th just hours after the controversial right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a Utah college campus. As commentators online scrambled to sanitize Kirk’s legacy of division and hate, speculation grew over whether Superchunk—a band with a history of calling out […]

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 […]