Show Reviews

While many round the country are going to Oktoberfest events and starting to plan for Halloween, the thoughts of people in Austin are on Austin City Limits Music Festival aka ACL Fest. Whether it you are attending it, wishing you can afford it, or complaining about how bad traffic is going to be, there is […]

“I’m more the nuts and bolts guy,” guitar player Billy Duffy once told Glide in 2012 about The Cult. “I’m like the engine room guy. I’m down there with the engine making sure everything is running and doing the maintenance.” Which leaves singer Ian Astbury to do the emoting, the zen-vibing and the connecting with the souls […]

Where to begin? The Americanafest can be described in many ways — entertaining, enlightening and — to be absolutely honest — exhausting. But mostly it’s amazing. Six days of shows, showcases, discussions, and seminars involving the brightest lights in Americana music, among them, both superstars (Emmylou Harris, Jim Lauderdale, Sam Bush, Rodney Crowell, Nitty Gritty […]

The early Nineties rock scene was dominated by the grunge movement. Ripped up jeans, thrift store clothing, long hair, Doc Martens and flannel became the style of choice. Though there were many grunge bands, most music fans knew the big five: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots. All but STP […]

What happened at Houston Open Air Fest? The black storm clouds rolling in over the Houston skyline may have made for a knarly metal music video but the ominous and uncooperative weather ended up putting the kibosh on Houston Open Air Fest instead. In its first year of putting on Open Air in Houston, the […]

A New Orleans transplant by way of Michigan, Luke Winslow-King is a classically trained guitarist with a rich, bittersweet voice and a healthy admiration for the music of Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson. This past Thursday, with the release date of his latest LP on Bloodshot Records, I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always, just a week […]

Steve Gunn makes music for the road, and on Saturday, September 24th that road led him to Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon. Gunn’s latest jaunt with his band the Outliners is in support of his new album Eyes On The Lines, which was released earlier this year. True to its title and to Gunn’s aesthetic, […]

To enjoy Sigur Rós one must put aside many of the expectations commonly held of and for “pop” music, at least when defining “pop” as being popular. Indeed, Sigur Rós defy nearly all the conventions of pop music while creating something ethereal, fuller, and somehow more enduring-seeming than much other so-called pop. Nowhere, though, is the fact […]

Explosions In The Sky’s sold out set at Boston’s House of Blues proved that you don’t need to use words to tell a story. Over the course of an hour and a half, the group flowed through their multifaceted minimalist compositions and wove them into a singular narrative. Their dualistic sound managed to be both […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews Far Cries and Close Calls, the new LP from Tulsa, Oklahoma alt-country rocker John Calvin Abney, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

“I feel fantastic, in case you were wondering,” Gary Clark Jr said with a smile midway through his electrifying set at the Civic in New Orleans on September 12th. From the first notes of “Bright Lights” to the last explosive vibrations of “Numb,” the Austin, Texas, bluesman took the packed in like sardines crowd through […]

Riot Fest, also known as Riot Fest and Carnival, is a multi-day music festival started in Chicago over a decade ago. Specializing in punk, metal, indie, alternative, hip-hop and good old rock and roll, the music event has grown tremendously over the last several years. Originating as a weekend festival that spanned across multiple venues […]

“We call this the greatest hits part of the show, even though we only have two albums,” stated a sweaty Paul Janeway halfway through his sold out show on September 15th at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix. The Paul of St. Paul and The Broken Bones has the pipes to make any song a wower, so […]

It was gratifying to see the Higher Ground Ballroom slowly but surely populate as showtime drew near on Sunday September 11th in South Burlington, Vermont. It was over seven years ago that The English Beat commanded the stage in the Ballroom for a rousing celebration and this early autumn’s appearance was no less so, perhaps […]

At the Paramount Theatre in Rutland Vermont, the third stop of an abbreviated early fall tour, Les Brers suggested in no uncertain terms they are well on the way towards proving their mettle as a band. They are not merely a tribute group, but rather a bonafide extension of the legacy of The Allman Brothers […]

The Hopscotch Music Festival, now seven years old, has had its share of growing – and not growing – pains through the years. By many accounts, the festival, its fans, and the city of Raleigh have fallen in and out of love with each other a few times already. Thankfully, this year’s event seemed to […]

It’s been a almost two years since The Mavericks have released their 2015 album Mono, and they did plenty of touring behind that. Now the band is about to release their first ever (can you believe it?!) live album, so their tour this time around is something of a greatest hits run. Billed as the […]

The 2016 Rhythm and Roots Music and Dance Festival celebrated its 19th year in its current location, and it is hard not to conclude that it was the strongest year ever.  The lineup was fantastic – a great mix of established performers (Lucinda Williams, Dave & Phil Alvin, Taj Mahal, Bruce Hornsby), it also featured […]

Willingly taking a break from your main band and exploring new musical genres is a risky line to try and cross, when ultimately; you’re the face and voice of one of the world’s biggest rock bands. But, Steven Tyler, who has been experimenting with a solo career away from Aerosmith for a few years, finally […]

There are things most of us immediately associate with the city of Philadelphia: cheesesteaks, It’s Always Sunny and the Rocky movies, the Nitrous Mafia. But in my mind there is perhaps nothing more synonymous with the City of Brotherly Love than Low Cut Connie. On Friday night the Philly rock and rollers blazed through Portland […]