Show Reviews

Sweaty bodies packed the dark confines of Portland’s Hawthorne Theater on Wednesday, July 12th. Despite the lack of space to move, the sold out crowd was pulsing with excitement waiting to catchy legendary sludge rockers the Melvins. Finally the anticipation was over and the trio took the stage. With his muumuu and mad scientist hair, […]

[rating=7.00] Katie Crutchfield — A.K.A. Waxahatchee — exemplifies grrrrl power without the grrrr. In other words, she recalls the happy-go-lucky girly exhilaration that was so prominent during the ‘80s, particularly all-girl groups like the Bangles and the Go-Gos, outfits that exuded both confidence and clarity. On her new album, Out in the Storm, she spins […]

During one of the more vital performances of live music in Santa Barbara this summer, three innovative groups of musicians brought their immense talents to the Santa Barbara Bowl on July 7th. The show began early with an acoustic set by Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X. As an acoustic duo all dressed in black, the […]

“Let’s do this every year until we die!” This phrase tore from my lips during Gov’t Mule’s pitch perfect main stage closing set on the final night of the 2017 installment of the High Sierra Music Festival as San Francisco stealth superstar and uber-shredder Eric McFadden lashed us to the “Whipping Post” after exploring our […]

There isn’t a much better way to cap off the holiday week of July than a heavy metal show in a baseball stadium.   Their “WorldWired Tour” well underway, Metallica brought their well-seasoned roadshow to Atlanta’s Suntrust Park on Sunday night. Although they play shows on a regular basis, this is the first Metallica world tour […]

The Wood Brothers just about stole the show on the Vermont stop of this summer’s ‘Wheels of Soul’ Tour. Illustrating how they’ve come to perfect the mix of their original material, the threesome were alternately entertaining and moving during the hour they occupied the stage on the Midway Lawn at the Champlain Valley Exposition. Credit […]

If you gave up on Bush after 1996’s Razorblade Suitcase, then it’s time you gave them another try – especially if you catch them on their current Black & White Rainbows tour. You just may be surprised that they haven’t shriveled up like an old prune and are actually torching up venues as if twenty […]

Since taking America by storm in 1994 with their debut album Sixteen Stone, Bush continued to find success through their breakup in 2002 and retained enough fans to reunite again in 2010. Though they achieved great notoriety in the states, they never really caught on in their home country of England. Having initially been described […]

As the intoxicating scent of smoked meats wafted through the dining hall of NYC’s Hill Country Barbecue Market this past Friday evening and the roomful of hungry, unsuspecting patrons savored ribs and brisket, a separate crowd was forming in the basement bar just below their feet, this one craving a taste of extra greasy tunes […]

One weekend of Electric Forest definitely lives up to and goes above and beyond its hype, and there is another weekend still to go. The aesthetic beauty of its production was tasteful and absurdly stimulating. The performers of all kinds left an impression that will be lasting and inviting, with an imprint of their own experience […]

It was almost exactly a year ago that this reviewer wrote a glowing account of how John Mayer and the remaining touring members of the Grateful Dead found each other at the perfect time. But no one really knew what to expect when Dead and Company took their act to the summer sheds and stadiums. […]

Bob Dylan and his band played a brilliant show on the Green at Shelburne Museum on June 20th. In an expansive choice of material, every song seemed to have meaning for the Nobel Laureate and, backed with aplomb by his quintet, he instilled as much reason as purpose into the ninety-minute presentation. That decisive attitude […]

The mood always changes on the final day of any festival. There’s a vague hint of sadness in the air, as a weekend of bliss comes to a close. We’ve all put our lives on hold for three days, returning again and again to the same place, which eventually begins to feel like some sort […]

When the weather’s on your side for a festival, there’s nothing quite like it. And on day two of Solid Sound, the sunshine felt damn good after damp and overcast Friday. Spontaneity was in the air, with pop-up performances taking place throughout the day in various buildings of Mass MoCA, and the crowd was abuzz […]

Now five Solid Sound festivals in, the team of Wilco and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) have settled into a groove. They’ve had two years since the last one to dream up improvements to an already fabulous festival, and in 2017, they have clearly stepped up their game. This year, the three-day event […]

The DM Stevenson Ranch just outside of Bend, Oregon came alive over the past weekend as more than two thousand people gathered to help the 4 Peaks Music Festival celebrate its tenth year. The music was a blend of national touring groups (moe., Railroad Earth, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Infamous Stringdusters) along with local and […]

So stop me if you’ve heard this one: How many Westchester hippies does it take to put on a music festival?…. All of them! The 2017 Clearwater Music Festival – The Great Hudson River Revival – returned to Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, NY after a year-long hiatus. The festival was started by folk singer […]

Lita Ford once told me that guitarists who spent their whole show looking down at their fretboards to see where to put their fingers drove her nuts. That is something you will NOT see at a Quinn Sullivan concert. The young man starts to play and before you know it he’s throwing his head back, […]

It is said that to truly appreciate form you need contrast. Light needs darkness, heat needs the cold, etc, etc, and without both sides of the equation there is no true understanding of either side. True to form, Local Natives and Portugal the Man came together at Red Rocks on a prototypically perfect Colorado summer […]

After negotiating the steamy summer streets of Times Square, thronged with tourists and animated characters, it was a relief to arrive in the cool cavern of the PlayStation Theater June 10th and the pulsating musical joy that is Michael Franti and Spearhead. From the moment the ever-barefoot Franti hit the stage with “Hey Hey Hey”, […]