Out: couch potatoes. In: crowd surfers… even if we just define that as breaking the waves of the lines of fans queued up to catch concerts during the music world’s first fully open-for-business year in a while. Our writers were making up for lost pandemic time by catching shows at SoFi Stadium, the Forum and the Troubadour on the west coast, or Madison Square Garden, the Kings Theatre and Town Hall back east… or even in Las Vegas, Nashville, Tulsa, Philly, Paris and Medellín. Here, in no particular order, are 50 great ones that reminded us how streaming is ultimately no match for being in the room where it happens. —Chris Willman
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Elton John at Dodger Stadium (11/17-20/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety There was some suspense going into the opening night of Elton John’s three-night stand at Dodger Stadium, the capping engagement to what was billed as his final U.S. tour — not for what he would play, since his set lists have been pretty locked in place, but for what he would be wearing at the finale, since everyone assumed he would come up with a variation on the Dodger uniform he famously wore there back in 1975. In the end, he skipped anything like actual field wear in favor of something more befitting a knight than a ballplayer: a very fancy Dodgers robe. That encore look inevitably made him look like someone who might be ready to retire for the night, but there was nothing about the almost two-and-a-half hour performance that suggested a fellow about to actually retire, apart from the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” lettering atop the massive proscenium. This was John in top vigorous form, sounding and feeling like he’s ready for the next 50-some years — leaving the touring scene still at the top of his performing game, exiting because he wants to, not because he has to. A touring loss that we maybe hadn’t considered as much is how we’ll miss his touring ensemble, with longtime mainstays like guitarist/MD Davey Johnston, percussionist Ray Cooper and drummer Nigel Olsson being stars in their own right. This was a slightly misty, mostly joyful wave bye-bye to one of the great bands of the 20th and 21st centuries, along with one of the greatest singular entertainers. Each time you see him, meanwhile, there’s the shock of rediscovering what a rollicking rock ‘n’ roll pianist he is. On the globally webcast night 3, Brandi Carlile, Dua Lipa and Kiki Dee joined him for delectable guest turns. But no one coming the previous two nights felt cheated — of star power, still-vital vocals, or magic fingers that still split the difference between classical training and boogie-woogie like no other player in history. All that and glitz, too… however were we so lucky? (Read Variety‘s review of Elton’s opening night here and coverage of the finale here.) —Willman
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Bono at the Orpheum in L.A. (11/13/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images for BN We thought we’d signed up for a “book tour,” those of us who were fortunate to get tickets to the U2 frontman’s short run of shows in mid-size theaters. Perhaps he’d stand at a podium and crack open his new memoir, “Surrender,” taking a few audience questions for an encore? It was far from anything like that — this was “Bruce Springsteen on Broadway” meets an acrobat’s act, figuratively and almost literally. As physical as he is during a U2 tour, that’s how physical he was in this extended “reading,” from leaping onto a table for dramatic effect to moving back and forth between chairs as he reenacted testy and moving conversations with his father in a pub. If prompters were involved, it sure seemed like Bono was mostly doing without them as he mixed and matched verbatim passages from the book — with a very few additional asides, such as: “Like everyone who arrives in Hollywood, I have a screenplay I’d like you to look at… based on my book that I wrote me-self.” (“My book that I wrote me-self” was a recurring refrain, lest anyone imagine there was a ghostwriter in his machine.) There was music, too, from a trio of musicians that would help out with a snippet of “With or Without You” or “I Will Follow” or two full-length renderings of “City of Blinding Lights.” Mostly, though, there was glorious talk — from the seeds of creation in U2’s origin story to the recurrences of death in the passings of a mother and father and (nearly, in the recounted heart operation that is the show’s opening monologue) Bono himself. So how do we get him to turn this into a months-long residency that most fans who want to could see? Because every day he should write this book. —Willman
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Kendrick Lamar at Paris’ Accor Arena (10/22/22)
Image Credit: Greg Noire People had been saying all day before Kendrick Lamar’s second sold-out show at Paris’ Accor Arena that the crowd’s reaction on the first night made his summer concerts in Brooklyn, Las Vegas and even the four-night, North American tour-closing stand in his hometown of Los Angeles seem tame. Damned if they weren’t right. The Paris crowd responded much more powerfully to the songs from Lamar’s challenging latest album, “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” than American audiences seemed to. (U.S. audiences did get to see the Paris show, as Amazon Music livestreamed it over Prime Video and Twitch in an elaborate 19-camera shoot.) He doesn’t jump, he rarely raises his voice, and he doesn’t dance conventionally. But a closer look reveals that the deeply disciplined control and complexity of his lyrics is fully equaled in his performance, from his moves to the lighting and effects. It’s like watching the engine of a fine-tuned Mercedes. “The Big Steppers Tour” was almost the obverse of the ordinary concert tradition, where the hits are saved for encores or the end of the set. Lamar is far from ordinary, and the show was designed to acknowledge his past and please the crowd early — but conclude by signaling that this is where he is now and he knows exactly what wants. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Jem Aswad
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Haim at the Hollywood Bowl (5/1/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety Haim’s homecoming show at the Hollywood Bowl felt a little bit like a block party first, and a big rock ‘n’ roll coronation secondarily. “We are Valley girls through and through!” declared Alana Haim, one of the three sisters who make up the core group, explaining why “there’s gonna be a lot of emotion tonight.” When they’d headlined the Greek Theatre across the hills in 2017, that might’ve seemed like the prime hail-the-conquering-heroes moment of their lives, but, of course, there were bigger nearby ravines to conquer. They’re still a rock band when they want to be, Haim is unconcerned about re-proving any rawk bona fides when they could be experimenting with slightly left-of-center pop or R&B chord progressions, picking and choosing styles in service to one of the best song catalogs anybody in rock or pop has amassed in the last 15 years. It felt like a just world for 100 minutes at the Bowl as the evening turned into a celebration of both Haim and Los Angeles, an explosion of mutual affection more cathartic than anything even P.T. Anderson could come up with for a last act. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Willman
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Bad Bunny at SoFi Stadium (9/30/22)
Image Credit: Eric Rojas The North American leg of Bad Bunny’s “World’s Hottest Tour” lived up to that promise, as the Puerto Rican phenom achieved the top-grossing tour of August with this trek, consisting of several stops in the country’s biggest venues. He pulled out all the stops for the first of two back-to-back shows at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, bringing out several guests — including the reggaeton pioneer Ivy Queen, who played a medley of her hottest hits — and declared his love for L.A., inciting cheers throughout the night with: “¡Los Latinos in L.A., que se sienta!” During his performance of “Yo Perreo Sola,” Ivy Queen appeared on stage and finished out the last few lines of the track as Bad Bunny’s hype woman. The Puerto Rican singer and pioneer of the Latin urban scene did a short set list of her biggest hits starting with “Te He Querido,” plus “Quiero Bailar” and “Quitate Tu Pa Ponerme Yo.” Bomba Estéreo’s Li Saumet, who joined him on stage in a neon pink and green look for their Latin Grammy-nominated “Ojitos Lindos.” By the time Bad Bunny’s show-closers “El Apagón” and “Después De La Playa” began to play, the audience was ready to give up any last bits of energy it had left. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Thania Garcia
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Dua Lipa at the Kia Forum (3/23/22)
Image Credit: Ellen Qbertplaya for Variety When we called “Future Nostalgia” “the reigning dance-pop album of the century,” we meant it, and her two-night stand at the Forum couldn’t have been a happier two-year anniversary celebration for a record we strongly suspect we’ll be spinning for decades. That she was just now getting around to performing this music live felt like an ideal punctuation point to all but officially mark the end (knock on wood) of the quarantine era “Nostalgia” came out at the beginning of. As much as Dua Lipa is a bona fide superstar at this point, her tour had a kind of thrilling community spirit to it, evident right at the start when she introduced her dancers and band with generous opening credits, teasing a terrific ensemble movie of sorts that her beautifully choreographed show turned out to be. You can’t exactly call Dua Lipa an Everywoman… not when she is modeling something as alien-seeming as a fluorescent yellow-green one-piece that has her boots impossibly sewn right into the costume (and matching long gloves out of a Bob Fosse Day-Glo dream). She’s not “just like us,” but the effect of the show was to weirdly make us feel like we were marching down that same catwalk, or levitating above it in some kind of sympathetic fluidity. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Willman
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Rhiannon Giddens with the LA Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall (11/12/22)
Image Credit: Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging Giddens is as insanely talented an artist as we have today, but how she found time to pull off a one-off as spectacular as her collaboration with the L.A. Philharmonic is anyone’s guess. She’s usually doing shows and recordings with her partner Francesco Turrisi, and co-wrote an opera, “Omar,” that was wrapping up its west coast premiere run a few blocks away in downtown L.A. the same weekend she performed with the Phil. But when Julia Bullock and Ava DuVernay come calling, even the busy listen, apparently. DuVernay and Bullock brought Giddens in as part of their Rock My Soul festival at Disney Hall, dedicated to celebrating Black female artists. Giddens’ show further made good on that by having conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson at the helm of the orchestra, as well as the (all-woman and partly, not entirely, Black) Resistance Revival Chorus on the bill as opening act and returning for the headliner’s encore. This was the Giddens show of anyone’s dreams, matching her banjo plucking to a massive swell of strings that transformed songs both familiar and not so much so. The traditional Black folk song “Waterboy,” for instance, which Giddens has usually sung a cappella, felt less stern and more playful, even sensual, somehow, in this setting. And she again proved that she is one of the few people around who has much business singing “Summertime,” a song you have to be pretty sure the Gershwins presciently wrote for her. Any chance the Phil could create a way to make Giddens a singer-in-residence for a whole season? —Willman
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The 1975 at NYC's Madison Square Garden (11/7/22)
Image Credit: Jordan Curtis Hughes Frontmen should be fun. Obnoxious, pretentious, eccentric… yes, all good words when it comes to the face of your favorite rock band. So when singer Matty Healy introduces the 1975 as “the greatest band on the planet,” or gnaws on a slab of raw meat or mimics masturbation more than once in one concert, at least he’s giving you something to talk about. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that over the last decade, the 1975 has been one of rock’s most consistent acts, and their live show has evolved into an impressive culmination of five strong records and a bevy of hits. Ripping through two dozen of their greatest songs and new album cuts, the 1975’s sold-out Madison Square Garden show was a captivating exposition from a band that embraces nearly every pop trope yet demands to be taken seriously. The 1975 transformed the Garden’s stage into an enormous deconstructed house, fully furnished with couches, lamps, bookcases and vintage televisions — lots of them. Healy delivered one song from the top of a spiral staircase and another atop the roof. The singer’s wandering around the set, lounging on the couch and sticking his head out of its fake windows, gave the show not only a vague narrative but also a more intimate, literally homey feel. It got weirder, as Healy began chewing on a raw meat shank and doing push-ups until, finally, he climbed into a TV and disappeared. Despite the vague political messaging and elaborate staging, the most exhilarating part of the show was the songs. Healy and company are no strangers to stunts, theatrics and moments designed for Twitter virality, but if there’s one thing the 1975 won’t let you forget, it’s that they’re one hell of a live band. —Ethan Shanfeld
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Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl (10/29/22)
Image Credit: Randall Michelson/Hewitt Silva-Live Nation Elfman had warned that the weekend Bowl shows should not be seen as a family-friendly variation on the “Nightmare Before Christmas” screening/concerts he did at Halloween-time at the same venue in 2015, 2016 and 2018, and in a detour last year to the Banc of California Stadium downtown. His main point was that this career-encompassing show, with its courser language and copious overhead animation of intestines in various states of visible distress, was not “family-friendly.” But, in fact, he did deliver three songs from that film’s song score early on — “Jack’s Lament,” “This Is Halloween” and “What’s This?” — which is really about all the musical “Nightmare” anyone needs in one night. The real joys were in the twin poles of the evening: full-orchestral versions of instrumental score excerpts from his 40-year filmography’ and a resumption, after decades of avoiding rock ‘n’ roll, of his manic frontman side, combining Oingo Boingo chestnuts from the ’80s and early ’90s with the more industrial-sounding selections from his rock comeback album, “Big Mess.” There’s never been a show quite like this one because there’s never been a career like this. That he pulled it off as a cohesive concert experience made the show wildly successful, and not just because he’s refilling his rock reservoir after an epic drought. It almost felt like Christmas, with or without the boxed-up snakes. (Read Variety‘s full review of the show here and preview of the concert here.) —Willman
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Lizzo at the Kia Forum (11/18/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images Lizzo wrapped up the North American leg of her “Special” tour in November with back-to-back, sold-out shows at the Forum, filmed for her HBO Max “Live in Concert” New Year’s Eve special. The concerts were marked by special guest appearances from Cardi B (“Rumors”), SZA (“Special”) and Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott (who surprised Lizzo onstage while she performed their hit “Tempo”). But what made the shows unique was Lizzo’s intention behind the production. The Grammy- (and Emmy-) winner opens each concert by asking the audience, “When was the last time you said something kind about yourself?” It’s the type of bracingly honest question that you’d expect at from your therapist, not a pop star. And what follows is essentially a two-hour music therapy session as Lizzo twerks her way through a lineup of high-energy anthems (“It’s About Damn Time,” “Truth Hurts,” “Juice” and “Soulmate”), soulful ballads (“Jerome,” “Naked”) and Sasha Flute-solos with the help of the Lizzbians and the Little Bigs band and her Big Grrrls dancers. The concert experience is best described as a church service-meets-self-help seminar, leaving audiences floating out of the arena with renewed self-esteem. One could say you’re feeling “Good As Hell.” And it’s all by Lizzo’s design. —Angelique Jackson
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'Brandi Carlile: In the Canyon Haze — Live From Laurel Canyon' at the Ross House in L.A., and on IMAX Screens (9/28/22)
Image Credit: Hanna Hanseroth Carlile had a terrific headlining tour of amphitheaters, and in some all-star or one-off gigs in person or on television, she was the master of the get-in-and-get-out showstopper number, from Elton’s U.S. finale to the memorials for Naomi Judd and Loretta Lynn to a pair of “SNL” appearances that bookended the year. But maybe her crowning 2022 moment as a live performer was a concert she did that went out live to hundreds of IMAX screens from a hillside overlooking Laurel Canyon at dusk. (The setting was enough to finally give grassy knolls a good name again.) A lot of times, on shoots as high-concept as this one, the magic either doesn’t quite translate to the screen or is actually a lot more vivid through the camera than it is on-site. I was there for the shoot, and as I walked back and forth between what was happening against the sunset outdoors with a very minimal crew and a big screen inside the adjacent house, I can vouch that what viewers saw in their local theaters felt exactly what it was like to be there. That’s a testament to director Sam Wrench’s bold move to shoot every song as an intimate single take, alternating Steadicams and cranes. But of course it’s really a testimonial to Carlile’s ability to create real intimacy wherever she goes, amid the coyotes or in a cinematic attack of the 50-foot woman. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Willman
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Paul McCartney at SoFi Stadium (5/13/22)
Image Credit: Michael Buckner for Variety Paul McCartney has something to prove. What that is is between him and his shrink, but what we do know for certain is that, in the year of our lord 2022, McCartney was doing two-hour-and-40-minute sets that encompass 36 songs… on top of maintaining his custom of doing separate-admission VIP soundchecks with different setlists. At SoFi, he was just days away from turning 80, and few would begrudge McCartney if he cut a few corners: cutting the set length to a reasonable two hours here, lowering the keys a little there, or dropping some of the vocal ad libs to save his voice for Syracuse. But McCartney was not about to use this milestone finally half-ass it, or even three-quarters-ass it. On top of the sheer quantity of catalog, he still howls. Yes, if you listen carefully, it’s maybe a softer, less throat-ravaging version of the howl than he used to do, but that’s more of a technical adjustment than anything that is going to stand in the way of anyone enjoying a balls-out resurrection of “Helter Skelter.” Will he continue to be able to keep coming around for stadium tours in years to come? Only Mama Nature knows, but for now, there was reason to be grateful that he just can’t stop going back to the top of the slide. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Willman
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Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ at the Shrine Auditorium (2/1/22)
Image Credit: Santiago Felipe This stage show reimagined Björk’s 2017 album “Utopia,” twisting the batch of love songs into a plea for the environment. Björk twirled and danced around a crowded stage filled with flautists, a harpist, a choir and a cutting-edge light spectacular which painted the Shrine’s gorgeous interior with morphing floral and fauna, some real, some imagined, some merging with Björk’s masked face. As the band — which included hypnotic percussion from Manu Delago and dense arrangements courtesy of musical director Bergur Porisson — moved around the stage for each song, it evoked faeries pirouetting through the forest, more ethereal in movement than, say, David Byrne’s lo-fi marching band in “American Utopia.” —William Earl
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Joni Mitchell MusiCares Person of the Year Salute at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Conference Center (4/1/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images for The Recording Academy No, it was not filmed for broadcast (apparently), so you had to be there to see Mitchell feted for three solid hours by Beck, St. Vincent, Yola, Mickey Guyton, John Legend, Lauren Daigle, Allison Russell, Cyndi Lauper, Sara Bareilles, Lucius, Chloe Bailey, Black Pumas, Herbie Hancock, Pentatonix, Violet Grohl and musical co-directors Brandi Carlile and Jon Batiste. Billy Porter got got a standing ovation for a very dramatic and slowed-down rendering of “Both Sides Now,” but the most riveting reading of the night’s voluminous covers was Yola’s stunning “Urge for Going,” with the instrumental assistance of Wendy & Lisa. Also slaying: Christian music star Lauren Daigle’s “Come in From the Cold,” with Carlile and Lucius providing stacked backing vocals that were a marvel in themselves; Carlile doing a “Woodstock” that started out in spooky, ruminative territory before suddenly exploding into full-bore rock ‘n’ roll mode with Stephen Stills coming out for a guest shred on guitar; Beck turning a song as strange as “The Jungle Line” into something stranger still, and also strangely exhilarating. Please, someone, tell us that the word that this show wasn’t recorded for public airing was just a dirty lie. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Willman
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Jack White at the YouTube Theater in L.A. (5/31/22)
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety The YouTube Theatre, a new mid-size theater built next to SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum in L.A.-adjacent Inglewood, almost felt too gleaming and spanking-new to offer the proper vibe for a down-and-dirty White gig. Yet he had a way of making even this suddenly feel like a classic old-school rock hall like the Fillmore West, or at least become our imagined version of what it might have been like to see a classically lead-guitar-fueled show from back in the day when T-rexes and Hendrixes still walked the earth. Touring behind two world-class 2022 albums, “Fear of the Dawn” and (the then-not-yet-released) “Entering Heaven Alive,” White led his band through paces that might have woken up and thrilled the ghosts of horse racing fans who hung around the Hollywood Park track that was demolished on the site. Fifty years after Ten Years After, he’s a conduit back to how it must’ve felt to be part of a Woodstock and Bill Graham genre-mixing generation in which rock could hit as hard as it was ever going to and still feel smart, spontaneous and proficient, as well as primal. If he can sound a little like a carnival barker when he’s doing callouts to the crowd, that makes sense — he’s out there putting on the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Show on earth. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Willman
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Pavement at NYC's Kings Theater (10/3/22)
Back in the day (“the day” being the 1990s), Pavement became so typecast as a cliché-lambasting, anti-rock band that they never really got credit for what a great rock band it was — and, as its 30th-ish anniversary tour showed, still is. Although the members always downplayed their ability to “rock out” and still do, when the band locks in on hypnotic grooves while singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus plays solos with a Lou Reed-ish combination of soaring melodies and brittle squall (usually finishing with some self-mocking gesture), it can hold its own with virtually any rock band. Although their current tour — their second reunion trek, following one in 2010 — consists entirely of songs dating from their 1989-1999 recorded career, for this stand, the group mixed up the setlists every show, playing between 25 and 30 songs in just under two hours, on four consecutive nights. To be seeing this band playing in a gorgeously ornate venue like Brooklyn’s Kings Theater as middle-aged men, Pavement truly delivered. Hopefully, it won’t be another 12 years before they tread the boards together again. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Aswad
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Allison Russell at the Troubadour (11/15/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images The title of one of Russell’s signature songs, “Joyful Motherfuckers,” provides an apt description for just about any audience that comes to see this riveting breakthrough artist as a headliner. She’s been out enough as an opening act (coming through town with Lake Street Dive in 2021 and Andrew Bird at the Greek earlier in 2022) that it took till this Troubadour show for her to make it to L.A. under her own top billing, something that felt especially well-earned in the wake of her “Outside Child” solo debut having deservedly won album of the year a few months earlier at the Americana Honors. Getting a deeper exploration of that album, with its harrowing themes of abuse, was an emotional experience unto itself, and her revival of the slavery-themed “Quasheba, Quasheba,” a song she first sang as part of Our Native Daughters, was a stark reminder of just how far and severely back abuse runs in North American Black families. But she didn’t skimp on joy (and not even because she has Joy Clark in her band) — from a Sade cover to her own brand new semi-political anthem “Georgia Rise,” Russell brings a brand of feel-good that’s never felt more well-earned. (Read Variety‘s commentary on her award wins and nominations here.) —Willman
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‘Quentin Tarantino: Cinema Speculation Book Tour’ at the Theatre at Ace Hotel (11/3/22)
Image Credit: dpa/picture alliance via Getty I Quentin Tarantino went the rock star route to promote his new book, “Cinema Speculation,” holding sold-out live events at Los Angeles’ Ace Hotel, San Francisco’s Castro Theatre and the Town Hall in New York City with fellow film brains. The Bay Area event was a dud (Tarantino was sick and the host reportedly stoned), but the SoCal crowd went wild for a deep dive into the director’s ’70s obsessions, as Rotten Tomatoes awards editor (and longtime pal) Jacqueline Coley got personal, grilling QT about his influences. After two hours of banter, Tarantino gave a colorful, anything-but-sober reading of the final chapter, about Floyd, the Black family friend who took “Little Quentin” to outrageously inappropriate (yet formative) screenings. Never shy about the “N word,” Tarantino channeled the man who inspired several of Samuel L. Jackson’s most iconic characters. —Peter Debruge
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Lady Gaga at Dodger Stadium (9/10/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images for Live Nation Surrounded by brutalist architecture and rocking other-worldly outfits, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball finally landed at Dodger Stadium. Rather than save her biggest hits till last, Gaga had everyone on their feet as she front-loaded her setlist with a trifecta of smash tunes that included “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.” Dodger Stadium had become a dance floor with the biggest party in town that would last over two hours. The stripped-back ballad section was another spectacle, a highlight showcasing just Gaga at a piano, belting out her Oscar-winning tune, “Shallow.” It was quite a unifying moment, an escape from the pandemic era we were all going through, as all 52,000 attendees joined in a sing-along, maskless and forgetting about all our worries. It was also mesmerizing to look around in any direction to see fans dressed up recreating her looks… think Comic-Con but Gaga-Con. How did Gaga cap the night off? With mile-high pyrotechnics that could burn toast if you stood too close as she sang her soaring ballad from “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Hold My Hand.” The show was worth the wait — coming after a full two-year pandemic delay — and a reminder of her artistic range, not that we ever needed it. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Jazz Tangcay
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The Smile at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom (11/20/22)
Image Credit: Redferns The Smile is a band formed during the pandemic by the most public-facing members of Radiohead, singer Thom Yorke and lead guitarist and musical wizard Jonny Greenwood. Their debut album “A Light for Attracting Attention” causes a racket, blending the primal power of axe-heavy Radiohead albums (think “The Bends” blended with “In Rainbows”) with the songwriting precision of post-punk, sprinkled with the experimentation of Greenwood’s solo compositions. Along with drummer Tom Skinner, the group bounded through standouts including the piano ballad “Pana-vision,” which devolved into a noisy outro, complete with Greenwood attacking his electric bass with a bow; “Bending Hectic,” an experimental and extended jam which could live alongside “A Thousand Leaves”-era Sonic Youth; the slinky, minimalist “The Smoke,” and set-closer “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” a rousing, pissed-off rocker. —William Earl
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Billie Eilish at L.A.'s Kia Forum (4/9/22)
Image Credit: Rich Fury/Kia Forum Photos Here’s a hot take: Eilish’s 2021 album “Happier Than Ever” was every bit as strong as 2019’s “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” So what a hell of a set list Eilish had coming into her 2022 tour, just two albums (or two and a half, if we count her 2017 EP) into a career that’s amassed a library of songs for her, at 20, that almost any other performer would envy at 50. Maybe nothing can live up to the shock and awe of her coming out of the gate on Coachella 2019’s second stage with a show that proved she was as captivating a live performer as she was a recording artist, but consistency trumps even the excitement of initial flashpoints. Going into a headlining slot at Coachella 2022, Eilish and her brother Finneas preceded that locally with a sold-out three-night stand at L.A.’s Forum that established she’s in a sweet spot where a performing maturity has set in before the first, most glorious flush of youth has waned. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Willman
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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the Greek (8/19/20)
Image Credit: Michael Buckner for Variety In the annals of popular music, has there ever been a more successful confluence of two existing solo brands than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss? Theirs seemed to go down as a one-and-done in the late 2000s, but after 2021’s reunion album, they were back on the road this year for the first time in 14 years. These two feel born to be together … occasionally. This tour felt like home, and like Halley’s comet. As a bonus, this time around, JD McPherson is the lead guitarist and fantastic opening act; while that’s quite a break for him, it’s also a boon for the audience, many of whom are getting their first exposure to one of the best there is in American rock ‘n’ roll. You could see Plant’s and Krauss’ admiration for McPherson in how, after usually singing apart from one another, they’d step back together into the shadows to look at him like proud parents. The highlight of the show for many was surely a version of Zeppelin’s classic “When the Levee Breaks” that managed to cleverly interpolate some of the instrumental parts from a separate Zeppelin song, “Friends”; it turns out Krauss is capable of making her instrument feel as much Middle Eastern as middle-Tennessean. But the real high point was the Zep cover that immediately preceded it, “The Battle of Evermore,” in which it was Krauss’ voice making the substantial contribution to a ’70s rock standard. She so made it hers, Zeppelin’s recorded version feel forever like it’s missing something going forward. (Read Variety‘s full review here.) —Willman
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Bob Dylan at the Terrace Theatre (6/21/22)
Image Credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images It’s almost comical to compare what Dylan is doing at 81 with what Paul McCartney has been doing in stadium shows just on the cusp of 80. One’s a people-pleaser, and the other is a walking Rorschach test, or hall of mirrors. But they’re putting on what may be the two most reliably great shows of 2022, despite flying or bussing in from opposite ends of the solar system. You don’t want McCartney to act his age, but to defy it. On the other hand, it’s fantastic that Dylan is putting on what absolutely amounts to a rock ‘n’ roll show where nonetheless you can believe how old he is, because the depth of his performance is heightened by our awareness of the years he’s logged, which add to the palpable mythos that’s already there in the music. The barely death-defying danger of “Crossing the Rubicon,” or the fountain-of-youth giddiness of “Coming Up”? Listen, it’s OK to want both from our favorite octogenarians! At 81, Dylan is acting his somber age, and yet, in the fun of the arrangements, you sense him deep at play in the fields of the Lord. (Read Variety‘s full review here.) —Willman
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Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at NYC's Kings Theatre (3/25/22)
Image Credit: Adela Loconte Commensurate with the empathetic lyrical vibe of Nick Cave’s most recent studio albums (“Ghosteen,” “Carnage”), the praying mantis-like vocalist presented a live show in Brooklyn that was equal parts quiet sermon and communal fireside chat. Aided by the Kings Theatre’s shrine-like design, Cave’s usual menace disappeared, leaving in its wake an intensity borne of the wealth of deeply-felt emotion and fellowship. The reverie of Cave’s live, prayer session was nearly broken when the audience spilled from the theater to the shock that Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins had died. Somehow, Cave’s message lingered in the air as fans struggled to process the tragic news. —A.D. Amorosi
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The Mars Volta at NYC's Terminal 5 (9/29/22)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Will Oliver This reunion tour, in support of a new self-titled record that marks the end of a decade-long hiatus for the Texas rockers, is a reminder not only that the group itself is back but keenly aware of their legacy as a taut, adventurous live act ready to blend genres at a breakneck pace. Their musicianship was jaw-dropping on standout tracks like “L’Via L’Viaquez,” a classic rock collision where a Zeppelin-esque rager abruptly swerves, dipping into a Latin jam out of the Santana playbook. Toggling back and forth between the styles could be whiplash-inducing, but there was enough talent and communication on stage to keep the complex song structures crisp and flowing. —Earl
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Father John Misty at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (8/20/22)
Image Credit: Chris WIllman/Variety Father John Misty sang “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” early on in the show nearly every night on his 2022 tour, but when he deigned to sing it at Hollywood Forever during a two-night stand at the mortuary/outdoor concert venue, thinking about how meta that was made him momentarily flub the words. But a lot of his songs are at least that life-and-death. “It didn’t occur to me till last night, my first time playing in a graveyard, that my catalog has quite a serious body count,” he said on night two. “We’re, like, five (songs) in, and quite a few dead.” The songs with mortal coils ranged from “Chloë,” which ends with the effervescent starlet of the title throwing herself from her balcony, to “Goodbye Mr. Blue,” a song about a dead cat (or, really, the death of the relationship between its two owners). He also made a joke out of saying “I’d like to dedicate this next one to all the dead people in introducing “Please Don’t Die.” But the song itself is no gag — for all his elusiveness and wryness, Misty has his hand on the throbbing pulse of anyone who ever suffered such anxiety or existential terror that they let themselves bottom out, or worse. Meanwhile, the new album, which ventures more into short-form narrative, strictly fictional songwriting than he has in the past, has some of the best orchestral arrangements that have been put to a pop record in years, by Drew Erickson — and against all odds, those were carried over to the tour, thanks to a substantial string section and horn section Misty took out on the road with him. It was a show that, in its catharsis, felt positively death-defying. (Read Variety‘s original review of the Hollywood Forever concertshere, and of his appearance earlier in 2022 with the LA Phil at Disney Hall here.) —Willman
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The Who at the Hollywood Bowl (11/1/22)
Image Credit: Rick Kern for The Who The Who — aka surviving members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend — was touring with an orchestra, just as the band did a few years earlier, pre-pandemic. If anyone thought that particular deja vu was a valid reason to pass on picking up a ticket this time around, the Who’s Hollywood Bowl season-capping show proved this music and these arrangements make for as mandatory a visit as ever. Daltrey sounded in impossibly fine form, and Townsend seemed fully invested, wanton windmills and all (he’s claimed that his cartilage is so damaged it’s easy to do them again). And hearing the full symphonic take on a generous selection of “Tommy” at the beginning and “Quadrophenia” at the end? That’s a catalog and a combination that rock-estras will still be trying to pull off long after you and I and Rog and Pete are gone, so what joy to get the full package now. It doesn’t hurt that Zak Starkey pulls off replicating Keith Moon’s unmistakable style in a way that we probably wouldn’t let anyone but the scion of rock royalty get away with. The show-closer offered a special treat: young lead violinist Katy Jacoby putting a literal spring in the step of “Baba O’Riley.” (Read Variety‘s 2022 interview with Townshend here.) —Willman
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‘Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon’ at the Pantages (4/6/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety On the recent television special as well as at the original taping at the Pantages last spring, the unmistakable highlight of the Simon tribute was having Rhiannon Giddens join Simon for the penultimate number, “American Tune,” which she sang alone to his guitar-picking accompaniment, with slightly altered lyrics that spoke to a non-white legacy of these United States. But the entire evening was a feast fit for the king of American tuneage, including, of course, a generous swath of “Graceland,” arguably the most important album of the ’80s. Besides Simon’s own version of “Graceland’s” title track near the end, the record was represented by Take 6 channeling Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the a cappella “Homeless” and West African native Angélique Kidjo and South African native Dave Matthews bringing figurative swagger and literal strutting to “Under African Skies” and “You Can Call Me Al.” Other testimonies to Simon’s multi-cultural interests included Jimmy Cliff and Shaggy’s “Mother and Child Reunion” and the also mama-deifying “Loves Me Like a Rock” from Take Six and Billy Porter. With Irma Thomas, Trombone Shorty, Susanna Hoffs, Garth Brooks, Eric Church and others on board, the show did Simon proud, no easy feat. The only performers cut for the telecast were Eric Idle and Puddles Pity Party, but we can’t always send in the clowns. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here and TV review here.) —Willman
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The Weeknd at SoFi Stadium (11/26/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images for Live Nation Would “House of Balloons”-era Weeknd ever believe that he would be able to rock out NFL stadiums like he consistently did throughout 2022? While SoFi Stadium was the site of his loss of voice and concert postponement in early September, the Weeknd found personal redemption after Thanksgiving across two nights of rescheduled shows. Immersive stage and light design supplemented the storytelling of recent records “After Hours” and “Dawn FM,” but the real star of the show has always been Abel Tesfaye’s astonishing vocal capabilities. The irresistible momentum of hits like “Blinding Lights” and “Can’t Feel My Face” were electric in a stadium atmosphere, but moments like the particular roars of dedicated fans across the crowd when the opening guitar and synths signaled playback of longtime favorite “The Morning” were simply unforgettable. —EJ Panaligan
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Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples at the Greek in L.A.(9/24/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images If the planet was under threat of annihilation from beyond, and we had to present our divine or interplanetary overlords with just two musical emissaries to make a case that humankind is worth being spared as a species, Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples might be the couple we’d want to pick. Raitt had several different worthy opening acts for her 2022 tour, but the segment of it that had Staples in tow made for a two-sided portrait of what heart, soul and understated heroism look like in music. Their Greek stop was a show where you could think about what Staples meant during the civil rights movement, and since, or about Raitt’s role as a warrior without uniform in the early days of women fighting to get their due in rock. Or you could just enjoy the chops and grease that feed into the respective performances of historically significant figures who wear their mantles as lightly as anything else they’d need to peel off upon stepping into a humid roadhouse. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Willman
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Paramore at the Belasco (10/27/22)
Image Credit: TNS After a four-year hiatus from performing, Paramore’s enthusiasm to return to the stage was further heightened by the intimacy of the Belasco, a too-rarely-utilized small-scale downtown L.A. venue. With fellow musicians like Billie Eilish, Jesse Rutherford and Finneas in attendance, vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro gave a heartfelt performance that took audience members on a journey through the band’s genre-non-conforming discography. The setlist featured a blend of older fan-favorites like “Misery Business” and “Decode” along with newer works such as opening number “This Is Why” and “Simmer,” Williams’ 2020 debut solo single. —Katie Reul
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Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe at the City National Grove of Anaheim (9/1/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety With Costello performing on tour with his former producer Lowe as opening act, the two teamed up as a duo on some nights and not on others. Alone among their several L.A. area dates, their Anaheim show had them not just sharing the stage for one number but joining armed forces for three — “Indoor Fireworks” (written by EC, covered by Lowe), “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (written by Lowe, covered by Costello) and, possibly for the first joint time ever, “Alison,” with Lowe, for his part, giving maybe the tenderest reading of that Elvis standard ever. Costello did his extra bit to make it a more Lowe-centric night by opening his part of the show with his never-recorded, 120-mph reading of Nick’s “Heart of the City.” As headliner, Costello, one of rock’s all-time great singers, was in peak form, never more than in the five songs from this year’s “The Boy Named If,” his most energized and maybe just best album since the ’90s. One of the best things about Costello’s recent touring is that, while he won’t ever go up against that other EC, his shows have gone from having virtually no guitar solos to being filled with them, between his own and new Imposter Charlie Sexton’s. Who would ever have expected to see Costello and Sexton jamming out — just infrequently enough that you don’t get too used to the idea — like they were a 2020s Allmans? —Willman
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‘The Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert’ at the Kia Forum (9/27/22)
Image Credit: Andrew Stuart “It’s a revolving door of rock heroes tonight,” Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl said during the Los Angeles tribute concert for late drummer Taylor Hawkins, and he couldn’t have been more accurate. The impressive lineup was practically a lesson in rock ‘n’ roll history, including the likes of Joan Jett, Travis Barker, Josh Homme, Wolfgang Van Halen, Alanis Morrissette, Pink, Miley Cyrus, Stewart Copeland and Chad Smith as well as members of Queen, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Soundgarden, Rush, Metallica and Black Sabbath. There was also comedic relief in the form of Jack Black and Dave Chappelle, who covered “Creep” for the occasion. But perhaps the most special guest was Shane Hawkins, the 16-year-old son of Taylor, who joined Foo Fighters on drums at the end of the show for an emotional performance of “My Hero” and “I’ll Stick Around.” (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Ellise Shafer
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Olivia Rodrigo at NYC's Madison Square Garden (4/27/22)
Image Credit: Matthew Ramirez/MSG For all the teen-leaning concerts we’ve attended in the past few years — Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Jack Harlow, Dua Lipa, Eilish, BTS and more — Rodrigo’s was the most laser-focused on speaking to and for her audience and age group. For all of their differences in sound and imaging, it was most similar to Billie Eilish circa 2019, which isn’t surprising: both are (or were) teenagers themselves. But whereas Eilish’s appeal at the time was more like the cool, creative friend from art class, Rodrigo’s is a more situational relatability: “I wrote this song in my bedroom when I was feeling like I was falling short for this guy I really liked” was her spoken introduction to just one song, but could have been for many. There’s no question that the audience was with Rodrigo before she’d even set foot on the stage, but living up to it is a different story. Filling a room on the scale of Radio City is a challenge, and she did it with an easy grace, using poses both natural and trained — outstretched arms, a lighthearted skip or purposeful strut across the stage, hair flips, hunching over for emphasis and scowling on the heartbreak lyrics while beaming on the happy ones, and most of all, connecting with her audience. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Aswad
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Amanda Shires at the Troubadour (10/10/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety Amanda Shires isn’t always determined to drive an audience in a frenzy. Much of the setlist for her 2022 tour was taken from “Take It Like a Man” — one of the year’s finest singer-songwriter releases — which reaches deep into the lonely or insecure moments that can creep into a long-term relationship, as well as the emotionally fulfilling and carnal ones. That fiddle of hers can be as plaintive as her voice, and the newer stuff nicely balances Americana heartbreakers with light-R&B uplift. But watch out if she puts on a pair of black wings over her bodysuit; that may be a sign that she’s about to bring the show to an extended climax with an older song, “Look Like a Bird,” that establishes she and her crackerjack band would fare just fine on the jam-band circuit. —Willman
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The Killers with Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden (10/1/22)
Image Credit: Chris Phelps Very few modern bands have a “Mr. Brightside.” Even fewer are able to whip it out in the first five minutes of a show and continue to entertain an arena for another 90 minutes. And even fewer are those who can hold their own in a three-song duet with Bruce Springsteen as he beams with excitement announcing their name to the crowd: “THE KILLERS!” “Everybody knows God made Saturday nights for rock ‘n’ roll,” frontman Brandon Flowers declared toward the beginning of the band’s set, the second of two consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden. And the Killers delivered on that, taking New York City on a tour of its greatest songs from “Hot Fuss” to “Pressure Machine.” As the set wrapped up, an attentive audience member might have sensed a surprise was in order, as it wasn’t entirely clear how the band could top closers “All These Things That I’ve Done” and “When You Were Young” with an encore. Oh, of course, just bring out Springsteen for “Badlands,” “Dustland” and “Born to Run.” (Read Variety‘s full review here.) —Shanfield
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Muse at the Wiltern (10/4/22)
Image Credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images for MT Muse has been relying on massive production design in its touring for so long — nearly putting Pink Floyd to shame — that the idea of a no-frills tour seemed as unlikely as a Roger Waters solo acoustic outing. But the band did a few global small-hall shows to herald the coming of its “Will of the People” album, free from drones or giant puppets, and they’ve never sounded better. (“Sounded” being the operative word, since sightlines at the SRO Wiltern are non-existent except for the balcony and a chosen few on the floor. Is there a worse place to see a show in L.A.?) The set was especially heavy on the band’s earliest and, yes, oft-heaviest material, when Muse sounded more like the love child of Metallica and prog; it was a lovely, headbanging place to revisit before the “real” tour comes around to arenas this spring. —Willman
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Patti Smith at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa (5/6/22)
Image Credit: Lester Cohen for The Bob Dylan Center When the Bob Dylan Museum opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in May, the festivities included three nights of affiliated concerts at the legendary Cain’s Ballroom around the corner, with three headliners worthy of a bard: Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples and Patti Smith. Each of them brought their own historic connection to Dylan, which they did or didn’t play off of during their Tulsa performances. Costello covered “Like a Rolling Stone” and “I Threw It All Away” and interpolated a snippet of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” into his own “Pump It Up.” Staples didn’t sing any Dylan songs at all, but given a 60-year history with the man that speaks for itself, she didn’t need to. But Smith really went the extra mile, opening her show with a quiet “Boots of Spanish Leather,” later doing an equally acoustic “One Too Many Mornings,” and in-between those taking her Dylan covers electric with a howlingly fierce “Wicked Messenger.” Dylan didn’t show for any of these activities, of course, but Smith made sure that his ears were burning up, wherever he was. (Read Variety‘s coverage here.) —Willman
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Grace Jones at the Hollywood Bowl (9/25/22)
Image Credit: Redferns Dancing on towering heels for more than an hour, changing costumes every other song (of course including one recreating Keith Haring’s iconic body paint), and singing her cathartic finale, “Slave to the Rhythm,” while effortlessly navigating a hula hoop, 74-year-old Grace Jones commanded the cavernous Hollywood Bowl stage — and moved around on it — like a performer half her age. But even if shuffling through a murderer’s row of her most enduring hits (“Nightclubbing,” “My Jamaican Guy”) somehow wasn’t entertainment enough for an absolutely mesmerized audience of fans, late in the show she enlisted a group of them for a dance party during “Pull Up to the Bumper” that unexpectedly featured superfan and disciple Janelle Monae, who paid appropriate tribute by crawling between Jones’ legs while her idol spanked her behind. —Todd Gilchrist
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‘Katy Perry: Play' at Resorts World Las Vegas (1/12/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images for Katy Perry If you’re easily triggered by 30- to 40-foot props, dance routines with dozens of performers, childish wonder, juvenile humor, vivid drug-trip simulations or just, you know, color, by all means avoid “Katy Perry: Play,” the Las Vegas residency that began just before last New Year’s Eve and is continuing into 2023. To be sure, talking poops, dancing mushrooms and anthropomorphic toothbrushes and tube socks are not for all tastes or tolerance levels. But what giddy fun this show is, if you love old-school Vegas showmanship, movie musicals and pop art or any intersection thereof. Think “Toy Story” as an acid trip, or Busby Berkeley meets “The Incredible Shrinking Man” meeting Peter Max in “South Park”… with a healthy dose of Sin City’s classic headdresses and tuxes toward the end. It’s not all about the wild production design: There could be no better hostess with the most-est for this campy but clever madness than Perry, who has the hooks to go with the pop-a-top on her beer-dispensing brassiere. (Read Variety‘s coverage of the residency here.) —Willman
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Feid at Columbia's La Macarena (9/9/22)
La Macarena in Colombia has a long history of hosting boisterous energy. The stadium has served as a venue for both concerts and bullfights since 1945, but on the weekend of Sept. 9, the ring was populated by Medellín native Salomón Villada Hoyos, otherwise known as Feid. The reggaeton singer-songwriter sold out three consecutive nights at the stadium – a feat that not even two other hometown heroes, J. Balvin and Karol G., can claim (yet). Feid has been an active and successful songwriter for years, penning songs for Balvin and fellow Colombian reggaeton star Reykon, Sebastián Yatra and more. However, Feid has grown into somewhat of an emblematic figure, representing his home city with an alluring and emotive sound that’s idolized far beyond the forests of Antioquia. If this string of shows is of any proof, it’s clear the Medellín hero is just getting started. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Garcia
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My Chemical Romance at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (8/29/22)
Image Credit: Mark Beemer For a band that split nearly a decade ago, My Chemical Romance — the burning toast of 21st century emo-glam-empowered power-pop — never lost the flame when it came to reuniting. Vocalist-lyricist Gerard Way and the rest of MCR (original members guitarists Ray Toro, Frank Iero and brother-bassist Mikey Way) performed as if they were a ticking time bomb. Dedicating themselves to the disenfranchised and the outliers with material from 2002’s “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” and 2006’s “The Black Parade,” their speedy riff-heavy songs never lacked for intense, contagious choruses and bold, theatrical bridges worthy of a James Bond theme. But each MCR moment of the past spoke boldly and loudly to the present-day concerns of mental health, self-awakening and freedom from fear and shame. (Read Variety‘s full concert review here.) —Amorosi
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Bomba Estéreo at Ohana Fest (10/2/22)
Image Credit: Getty Images Bomba Estéreo is not exactly an obscure band among Latin music fans — especially not after collaborating with Bad Bunny for his blockbuster album as a cherry on top of an already long career for the Colombian crew. But at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Fest — where, however notably diverse the lineup, a Latin act is still going to count as an outlier — there were no guarantees how they’d go over in an afternoon set. No worries. Li Saumet’s rainbow-cape-flashing, pretty-in-skintight-pink was like a visual siren song to draw audiences over to the second stage, and the music kept them there — especially the younger demographic portions of a festival whose crowd can skew a little dad-rock-y. Besides adding some global flair, Saumet’s presence as a magnetic frontwoman was right in keeping with Vedder’s emphasis on having strong female representation throughout the whole festival, which is far from a given at these things. Ohana was special in that regard from the top down — from Pink, Stevie Nicks and St. Vincent on down to Joy Oladokun, Brittany Howard, Madison Cunningham, S.S. Goodman, Grouplove and Broken Social Scene. (Read Variety‘s Ohana Fest coverage here.) —Willman
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Feist at the Shrine Auditorium (4/27/22)
Image Credit: Courtesy Interscope When Feist took to the stage for four shows over two nights at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium , some burning questions were raised. Like: Where is the stage, exactly? Her experimental, very intimate, limited-run tour — which, like a forthcoming album, is titled “Multitudes” — had the smallish crowd sitting in a circle around her in a space that the audience had been led into from a side entrance, and was clearly not the main, massive, fixed-seat auditorium of the Shrine. Most attendees probably figured out that they were actually seated on the venue’s stage before the raising of a curtain near the end proved it. It could have just been an intriguing stunt, but Feist’s collaboration with designer Rob Sinclair — of David Byrne and “American Utopia” fame — resulted in a show that plays with the separation between artists and their audiences in any number of meaningful ways. Feist will likely follow the release of the “Multitudes” album some time in 2023 with a more traditional tour, but for anyone who appreciates artists playing with the concert form in thoughtful ways, these shows represented some kind of Canadian-American utopia of their own. (Read Variety‘s preview of the show here.) —Willman
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‘Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom’ at the Hollywood Bowl (6/19/22)
Chaka Khan, Khalid, Billy Porter, Mickey Guyton, Bell Biv DeVoe, Earth, Wind & Fire, Robert Glasper, the Roots, Michelle Williams and Ne-Yo helped bring the party for the day that honors Black emancipation, in a multi-artist, multi-genre show that was broadcast live on CNN. Although the concert spanned almost as wide an array of musical and performance styles as could be packed into a single prime-time slot, from soul to classical to country to jazz, the lineup had a special emphasis on artists that ruled the R&B world of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, leading an emcee to joke to the sold-out audience about a time “before all those knee replacements out there.” Even with EWF, Khan and others getting the crowd on its feet, there may have been no greater eruption of joy during the three hours than the one that occurred during a short set by Bell Biv DeVoe. Socially conscious anthems had their day, too, with Guyton especially spanning eras in reviving Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” right alongside a recent power ballad of her own, “Black Like Me,” that put Nashville and the world on notice that so-called color-blindness is hardly the answer. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Willman
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Lorde at the Shrine Auditorium (5/6/22)
Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images On “Solar Power” opener “The Path,” Lorde declares: “If you’re looking for a savior, well that’s not me.” But during a two-night stint at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in May, the 26-year-old singer seemed to be doing a whole lot of saving. Putting forth the perfect alchemy of a set list that represented the very best of her three-album discography, Lorde took an energized L.A. audience on a musical journey that excited, jubilated and maybe even healed many in attendance. Rarely do you ever get the chance to feel like your teenage self again, but when tracks like “Ribs” and “Perfect Places” come on, I found it impossible not to scream along to every word — tears of joy streaming down my face, of course. —Panaligan
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Rakim at NYC's Sony Hall (11/21/22)
Image Credit: WireImage In the wake of the success of recent tours like the one where fellow emcee Nas performed his debut album “Illmatic” from start to finish, “An Intimate Night with Rakim” could easily have been a low-effort cash in for the legendary lyricist, even backed by a live band. But even after breaking his foot just days beforehand, requiring him to sit (appropriately in a throne, flanked on both sides by beautiful, stone-faced women) for the entirety of the show, Rakim seemed to feed on the energy and affection of the crowd in New York’s Sony Hall while he rattled through a nonstop string of hits that included “Paid in Full,” “Microphone Fiend,” “Know the Ledge” and “Don’t Sweat the Technique.” A high energy lead-in DJ set by Funkmaster Flex further helped by starting the night with a proper party vibe, which Rakim capitalized upon to preside over the club like its king, revisiting and reminding fans of a hip-hop heyday when razor-sharp verses and irresistible beats went hand in hand. —Gilchrist
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Loudon Wainwright III, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Judd Apatow and Beck at Largo (10/11/22)
Image Credit: Tyler Ross Wainwright’s appearance at Largo would have been just fine as a proper solo headlining gig, given that he was on tour behind a wonderful new album, “Lifetime Achievement,” that greets the prospect of getting older with as much wry humor and humanism as you’d expect from his 50-year career. But as often happens at Largo, and always happens at the Judd Apatow-hosted “Juddapalooza” benefit concerts, the cast list tends to grow. On this night, Beck and Greg Kurstin sat in, but Wainwright was also joined by Michael McKean and Christopher Guest. It wasn’t quite a Spinal Tap reunion, but Wainwright did have a cameo as that band’s supposed keyboard player in an early short — but more importantly, he just ran in the same theatrical/satirical/musical circles back in their fresh-faced days. Guest and McKean revived Tap’s pre-metal songs like “Listen to the Flower People,” Beck sang Neil Young’s “Old Man” and Wainwright sang about being an old man: “I’ve got pieces of me strewn around the globe / There’s not much left, I’m lightening up my load.” Thanks for the mortal detritus. (Read Variety‘s original coverage here.) —Willman
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Kelsea Ballerini at the Greek (10/6/22)
Image Credit: Chris Willman/Variety If you went to see Kelsea Ballerini at L.A.’s Greek Theater in October to see her perform her biggest hits, you may have been bummed. But only for a second — her show didn’t allow for that as she played multiple new songs from her fourth album, “Subject to Change,” and had the crowd on their feet for nearly the entire show. By sprinkling in medleys of her past hits (“Dibs,” “Hole in the Bottle,” etc.), performing a fan-favorite but rarely sung live track, “L.A.,” and combining her “Love Is a Cowboy” with the Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away,” it was impossible not to have a good time. The cherry on top? Her “Half Of My Hometown” collaborator, Kenny Chesney, showed up for the duet and she was genuinely surprised, just like the very excited crowd was. —Emily Longeretta
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The B-52s at Atlantic City's Ocean Casino Resort (10/15/22)
Image Credit: A.D. Amorosi So maybe the B-52s are claiming that their 2022 tour would be their last lengthy go-round. That didn’t mean that Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson were going to go quietly or without their patented angularity high in its live mix. Peppering their set with punky B-52’s oddities featuring Schneider’s dry-ice cackle (like a searing, syncopated “Mesopotamia”), nothing could compare to hearing pop’s most unique harmonists, Wilson and Pierson, do their thing on “Roam” and “Deadbeat Club.” And yes, the crowd did fall on its back, en masse, to “Rock Lobster” for the last time. Fantastic. —Amorosi
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'Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Celebration of the Life & Music of Loretta Lynn‘ at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House (10/30/22)
Image Credit: Larry McCormack for Variety The memorial concert for Loretta Lynn went out live over CMT, so you didn’t have to be there to catch it. That is, unless you wanted to experience it amid the sniffles and tears of real country music fans who’d been waiting in line outside the Opry House for hours for a shot at drowning their sorrows in harmony and recreations of Lynn’s signature sweet feistiness. The Highwomen’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Brandi Carlile’s “She’s Got You” (in honor of Loretta’s bond with Patsy Cline), Margo Price’s “Fist City,” Tanya Tucker’s “Blue Kentucky Girl” and Wynonna Judd’s “How Great Thou Art” were just a few of the highlights for an audience that came to the show with mournin’ on its mind. (Read Variety‘s coverage of the memorial here.) —Willman
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Khruangbin at NYC’s Prospect Park (8/4/22)
Image Credit: Ellen Qbertplaya Khruangbin, a trio from Houston that plays mostly instrumental music, is a band as unusual as its name, and what was perhaps most remarkable about the concert was the size of the densely packed crowd — there aren’t many bands like it that are popular enough to sell out Radio City Music Hall, which they did earlier this year. While they were originally (broadly) categorized as an alternative act and quickly embraced by the Pitchfork contingent, the easy groove of their music — highlighted by Mark Speer’s effortlessly stunning guitar playing — and a series of high-profile festival appearances soon brought them a big following with the jam-band crowd. Both audiences were out in force at this concert and grooving joyfully to the group’s headlining set. (Read Variety‘s full review of the show here.) —Aswad
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‘The Town Hall and T Bone Burnett Present a Tribute to Bob Dylan’ at NYC's Town Hall (9/30/22)
Image Credit: Sachyn Mital To celebrate Dylan’s 1963 rise from Greenwich Village coffee houses to Manhattan civic centers like Town Hall, T Bone Burnett threw a party last autumn. Praise was paid to Dylan’s ‘63 show with Sara Bareilles and Margaret Glaspy harmonizing warmly through a folksy version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” But with actor Oscar Issac, Joe Henry, the McCrary Sisters, Punch Brothers, Lizz Wright, guitarists Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, et al., the event transcended its “tribute” tag. There was a feeling of forward motion and even raucous fun during moments such as the mass singalong of “Rainy Day Way Women #12 and #35.” And yes, T Bone joined in for the “everybody must get stoned” bit. (Read Variety‘s original review here.) —Amorosi