Show Reviews

Tesla came to the Samala showroom at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez to rock a sold out crowd, Thursday night March 24th. The band is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1986 release of their mega hit album Mechanical Resonance. The group opened with a thunderous explosion of rock, perfectly representing the classic […]

Walking up to Webster Hall on Easter Sunday to a marque reading, “Please Stand By, Test In Progess” set the tone for what was to transpire inside. LCD Soundsystem made a very big deal out of their retirement back in 2011. Their “last” show was on  April 2nd, 2011 at legendary New York City landmark […]

Live music is a victory. Live music renews spirit. Live music is the musician feeding the audience member’s soul. It is hands thrown up in simultaneous rejoicing and surrender. Live music is the shout of reality given an artistic spin. Sometimes it is sad and sometimes it is fun. Live music is a reaffirmation, it […]

Umphrey’s McGee wrapped their 28th show of 2016 and their Winter Tour with a knockout performance at The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, CA that was fit for a New Year’s Eve celebration. Continuing the trend from the previous two nights and featuring a healthy mixture of improvised hippy metal, alternative dance and improvisation-inclined guests […]

Thao and The Get Down Stay Down sold out a Friday night show at Portland’s Wonder Ballroom. Having played a last minute set three weeks ago at Music Millennium, a record store on East Burnside, this night’s show marked their second Portland appearance in three weeks. Friday’s concert featured some of their most well-known songs, […]

Anders Osborne has always been an interesting figure in the way that he is a tried and true New Orleans musician but is by no means defined by the city. However, when he wants to channel the funkiness, he can do it. These days the guitarist and singer has found a large following beyond New […]

Yonder Mountain String Band made a stop at Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom on Friday, March 18th to give their faithful fans a chance to bounce on the venue’s “floating” dance floor. And happy bouncing there was, due to the musical chops of this five-piece string band. They kept things interesting by mixing up the set-list […]

The luminous crescent moon that hung in the night sky over Higher Ground in South Burlington March 12 wasn’t so enchanting as the performance of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams had just offered. In fact, it’s a safe bet the Showcase Lounge in the South Burlington venue hadn’t seen such a spell cast in recent […]

“Let’s get one thing straight: Bob Dylan never played here Joni Mitchell never sang here Dr. King never preached here This is a new stage This is a new space And even if they had What would it matter anyway? ‘Cause the ghosts of the past cannot bring you any luck All that matters is […]

Another year of SXSW has come and gone, and while most who attended are still figuring out how to adjust back to that thing we call real life, we’re all looking back on a week filled with fantastic music and fun times. If you followed the news and social media shenanigans throughout the week, you […]

There’s a saying in Texas that if you don’t like the weather just wait five minutes. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case on the 4th day of the music portion of SXSW when a bout of severe weather blew into town and lasted long enough to effectively shut down just about every outdoor showcase of the […]

On day three of SXSW I found myself once again orbiting the craziness of downtown Austin, a strategy that I seem to use more and more as the festival swells in size each year. Plus, Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day, so plenty of people had a good incentive to steer clear of the crowds. The […]

Here we go again! The music portion of SXSW is off and running, which means the city of Austin is overrun with stages and parties featuring non-stop bands loading in, playing sets, loading out – all on repeat. Truthfully, this has already been happening for about five days now because of the Interactive and Film […]

On the evening of Friday, March 4th, the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, New York hosted Kofi Baker’s Cream Experience, the premiere live tribute to the legendary band  featuring Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. The show was part of an inaugural run with a rebooted lineup that found the project’s namesake and drummer Kofi […]

It’s hard to believe that a little over a year ago, Leon Bridges was bussing tables at a restaurant in Fort Worth, TX and now he’s selling out 3,500 seat venues like The Wang Theater in Boston, MA. The audience was already buzzing with excitement on Saturday when Bridges and his band took the stage […]

Craig Finn and Patrick Stickles are separated by more than a decade in age, yet they are kindred spirits. With Finn’s band The Hold Steady and Stickles’ Titus Andronicus, each musician has dedicated his career to writing songs that explore the dark underbelly of suburban life and the troubled, outsider characters who inhabit that world. […]

Is there more of a feel-good double bill than Nick Lowe and Mavis Staples? Probably not. The two acts may seem like an odd pairing, but their show at Austin’s historic Paramount Theater on Sunday – the second in a handful of dates together – proved that these two legends are as complimentary as wine […]

In March 2003, a small-town gas station owner became suspicious of two black, graffiti-spattered vans and the herd of exhausted, haggard musicians—yards of grizzled beard between them—who rolled into his property. The United States was then one-week-deep into the second war in Iraq, and it was all too clear to this gentleman that he was […]

It was mere seconds after the Wood Brothers began the understated percussion intro to “Never and Always” that the ballroom at Higher Ground became a warm, comfortable place on March 3rd. And this isn’t a statement about the frigid weather or even a reflection of the nine year span of time during which the group […]

Brooklyn-based Lake Street Dive is on tour in support of their latest release, Side Pony. They swung by Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom on March 2nd  to deliver their breezy, soulful sounds to a sold-out crowd. Before Lake Street Dive took the stage, the audience at the Crystal Ballroom was given a proper warm up. Their […]