Category Archives: Live Shows

Photo: Melissa Moore

“I’d say it’s nice to be back,” remarked Bob Nastanovich not long into Pavement’s show last night at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California. “But I’ve never fucking been here before!”
True enough, Bobby boy. The jocks pumping their fists to “Cut Your Hair,” the chick doing the Phish-fan noodle dance to “Stereo,” [...] Continue reading →

It’s fitting that the Specials chose Los Angeles as the location for their first reunion shows in the United States in nearly three decades. Southern California has long proven to be the American ska scene’s ground zero, spawning the likes of Sublime, No Doubt, Operation Ivy and Rancid, among others — all of whom were [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Tullberg/Getty“Proper fucking noise!” John Lydon declared with a crooked grin on Tuesday, facing a crowd at Club Nokia in Los Angeles for the opening night of Public Image Ltd.’s first U.S. tour in 18 years. “If you want to be mellow, that’s fine by me. If you want to squeal like a pig, that’s [...] Continue reading →

Conventional reunited bands give fans what’s expected. The often heavy but always mischievous Bay Area quintet Faith No More launched their first local show in 12 years at the Warfield Theatre last night with an accurate rendering of Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited,” the ultimate disco-era, slow-dance anthem. Their suits were so prom-ready that each left [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Buckner/Getty Though he may not legally be able to be funny on television — at least not until his new TBS show premieres in November — Conan O’Brien kicked off his 32-city North American live comedy tour on Monday night with old friends, unexpected guests and a giant inflatable bat. And he was extremely [...] Continue reading →

Photograph by Jon Wilde“I have good news and bad news,” James Murphy said as LCD Soundsystem took the stage for the first time in over two years last night in Brooklyn. “The good news is, we’re here. The bad news is, I’m wasted.” No no, dude — that’s the great news. The New York punk-funk [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Polk/Getty
“Who misses the greatest rapper of all time?” Drake asked a crowded Lantz Arena midway through his 70-minute performance at Eastern Illinois University on Tuesday. But the Canadian-born musician, getting his first solo headlining tour — a 23-city jaunt that runs through May 21st in Austin — off the ground, wasn’t talking about [...] Continue reading →

Has Paul McCartney been borrowing Bruce Springsteen’s trainer? At 67, the former Beatle seems determined to suddenly turn his gigs into E Street-style marathons. When McCartney did an American mini-tour last spring and summer, fans (and, at the Coachella Festival, some curious acolytes) were astonished by shows that stretched out to the two-and-a-half hour mark. [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Furniss/WireImage
Noel Gallagher took the first major step in his solo career last night with a stripped-down acoustic set at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Playing as part of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, a series of benefit shows started 10 years ago by the Who’s Roger Daltrey, Gallagher was expected to use the [...] Continue reading →

The weather was lousy — cold, wet and windy — and the location was new, about a dozen subway stops north. But the Allman Brothers Band brought the springtime — sunshine, peaches and robust harmony guitars — to New York, as they have virtually every March since 1989, on the second night of their 2010 [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Tracy KetcherAbout 30 seconds into his opener “The Passenger” at New York’s Carnegie Hall Friday night, Iggy Pop declared, “Aw, fuck this shirt,” tore off his black V-neck sweater and tossed it stage right to a waiting Patti Smith, who caught it and giddily hopped up and down while swinging like she’d just caught [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Mazur / Wireimage
Just before the final song of Yoko Ono’s first performance in four decades with founding members of the Plastic Ono Band, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on February 16th, her son Sean told a short story: At soundcheck that day, Sean remarked to guitarist Eric Clapton that he had never played [...] Continue reading →

Photograph by Mary Rehak
It was a sweltering 97 degrees last night when Spoon took the stage at Stubb’s in Austin for round one of SpoonX3, an All Tomorrow’s Parties-type fest with Spoon as both headliner and opening-band curator back-to-back-to-back nights. It was a mere 67 degrees in Portland, where frontman Britt Daniel spends half [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Lovekin/GettyIn the world of rock guitar gods, two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck stands alone in terms of scope and style. And in the first of two shows at the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s half-way mark, he demonstrated his awesome power. He did it, mind you, with some serious help from [...] Continue reading →

Photo: Hussein/GettyOver a decade ago, two groups of young musicians wrestled over the hearts of Britain. But last Thursday, at Blur’s first of two shows at London’s Hyde Park, the answer (for the assembled masses, at least) was clear: Oasis who?
Frontman Damon Albarn took the stage in his unofficial uniform — a black-and-yellow Fred [...] Continue reading →

“You missed me?” Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong bellowed in the face of a fan who beckoned him from the mosh pit during the opening night performance of the band’s U.S. tour, before replying with equal vigor: “Not as much as I fucking missed you, goddammit!” And as if releasing a [...] Continue reading →