Show Reviews

Continuing the tradition of politicism and positivity, the second day of Newport Folk brought more loud, passionate voices of change to all three stages. Leading the charge was the day’s headliner, Patti Smith. Doing a set filled with covers, she brought the house down on the Fort stage as the sun went down. Father John […]

There could not be a more poignant, significant time of year for the Newport Folk Festival to take place than this week, as the Republican National Convention blows through Cleveland. Though the two events are many miles apart, they coincide in a particularly special way. As the convention pushes extreme negativity and displays a complete […]

Last night Phish wrapped up their fourth three-night stand in downtown San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. After arguably the best show of summer tour on Monday, the band stepped up and took it deeper on Tuesday. Last night expectations were high and what went down, at least in the first set, couldn’t […]

Despite scorching summer heat, Float Fest, the annual music festival in San Marcos, TX featuring live music, camping and river floats went off without a hitch on July 16th and 17th. Lee Ackerley picked out his ten favorite things about the festival. 1. Small Crowds Don’t get me wrong, the festival sold plenty of tickets, but […]

From the most incredible outdoor venue in the U.S., to the high intensity of indoor Phish, Monday night (7/18/18) was a smoker in San Francisco. There’s a million ways to look at each and every show, but without a doubt every single head in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was feeling it last night. Highlights […]

Singer/songwriter/ guitarist Will Sheff’s Okkervil River played a string of Northeast shows in advance of their forthcoming LP Away due out September 9th. The short run of shows made a stop at Club Helsinki, a hidden gem of a music venue tucked away in the Catskill Mountain town of Hudson, NY. Personal and professional turmoil […]

Zakk Wylde is one smart man. Choosing two of the brightest young lights in music – Jared James Nichols and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown – to open for him on his current Book Of Shadows II tour shows he knows how to smell out talent and put it front and center of his legion […]

West Coast Summer Phish Tour is off and running after two shows at the world renowned Gorge Amphitheater in Quincy, Washington. The first leg of summer tour built slowly from Minneapolis to Syracuse, with the band’s most dynamic playing concentrated near the end. As a result, the excitement for leg two has been more than […]

Dead & Company’s two night run at Fenway Park made it perfectly clear that while John Mayer is in no way the heir to Jerry Garcia’s throne, the post-Jerry act may very well be the strongest Dead-related protect any of the surviving members have been apart of since Garcia’s passing over twenty years ago. Grateful […]

Fans of Miracle Legion seemed genuinely surprised to be sitting in front of a stage that would soon be graced by the cult college rockers who hadn’t played together for nearly two decades. The intimate upstairs of the Columbus Theatre in Providence was, after all, only the second U.S. gig on Miracle Legion’s reunion tour […]

The call went out early in the day, Dinosaur Jr. would be shooting a video at the House of Vans in Brooklyn for their new album Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not. Shortly after, the announcement broke that the band would be playing a surprise free show that same night at the same venue. […]

Although watching your children grow up is a great feeling, it can also be a touch bittersweet.  That is what it felt like at the 30th Green River Festival – I used to call it “the little festival that could”, but after this year I’ll need to amend that to “the little festival that did”. […]

In what has become an annual tradition, Hollywood celebrated the birthday of their most famous rock and roll drummer, Ringo Starr, who turned 76 on July 7th. For the last several years Ringo has been joined by a group of some of Tinsel Town’s most elite artists and several hundred lucky music fans, in front […]

The fourth annual Levitate Music & Arts Festival went off without a hitch at the Fairgrounds in Marshfield Mass, a small seaside south of Boston, a few miles from where Susan Tedeschi grew up. Tedeschi Trucks Band topped a bill that included Los Lobos, North Mississippi Allstars, Lettuce and Twiddle and ensuring that the festival […]

Sometimes the best gigs are the low-profile, no-frills sets, the ones that don’t charge a cover or require a jacket. Take the respected Hammond B-3 organist Brian Charette, whose dry wit and quick keys fit just as well crammed in the corner of a bar in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Though the Grammy-nominated Charette often plays with […]

Umphrey’s McGee roared into Charlotte on a roll, having just completed a watershed July 4th weekend at Red Rocks. The band seemed to be driven by the momentum of those spectacular shows, and they rode that energy into a short southern run through Alabama and South Carolina before winding up in Charlotte on a steamy […]

In 2002 Bob Dylan returned to the Newport Folk Festival, the famous locale where he “went electric” in 1965, and the playful bard showed up incognito wearing a blondish beard. On Friday night in Queens he historically returned to Forest Hills Stadium which, back in August ‘65, hosted the second “electric show” from Dylan, finding […]

On Thursday June, 30th at 8am in Quincy, Ca. the gates of The High Sierra Music Festival (HSMF) opened to the general public. There was a mad dash of thousands that is reminiscent of the “Hunger Games,” as festival goers search out the ideal place to transform their piece of grass or dirt into their […]

There’s a special feeling that comes from a balmy summer night in New England. Maybe it’s the lushness or the seemingly care-free feeling that comes from not dealing with cold weather and a sense that everyone is on some kind of vacation. Whatever it is, summer in New England may be the perfect time and […]

Dead and Company rolled into Boulder, Colorado’s Folsom Field hot for America’s birthday celebration and made sure to light up the stage in the stadium that hasn’t hosted a concert since a sold-out Dave Matthews Band show in 2001. Fifteen years may have passed, but the Buffalo’s stadium appeared as if not a year single […]