Concert Reviews
Wu-Tang Clan and Nas Bring it Back to Hip-Hop’s Golden Age at Tour Kickoff in St. Louis: Review and Setlist
East Coast hip-hop royalty descended upon the Midwest as Wu-Tang Clan and Nas kicked off their “NY State of Mind Tour” (grab tickets here) at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in St. Louis on Tuesday night (August 30th). The house was packed; lawn tickets were being sold for the same price as a 25-ounce Bud Light at the concession stand, and the strategy paid off. If it wasn’t sold out, the turnout had to have been close to the venue’s 20,000 capacity. Given that the tour’s namesake is derived from Nas’ legendary Illmatic track, nostalgia was the evening’s leitmotif. The night would lean heavily on material from Nas and Wu-Tang’s classic albums, with both making frequent references to hip-hop’s golden age and those who were there to live it. “Who here had a hip-hop album on cassette tape?”...
Rammstein Storm Montreal to Kick Off North American Tour: Recap + Photos
In the hours leading up to the kickoff of Rammstein’s North American stadium tour in Montreal, Canada on Sunday (August 21st), a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the city and surrounding area. The threat of heavy rains, potentially dangerous gusts of wind, oversized hail, intense lightning and pounding thunder were forecast throughout the day. And while there were flashes and bursts of all these elements throughout the afternoon, the weather report had it wrong. It was not the Earth’s atmosphere that was about to deliver on this powerful barometric disturbance. It was the German industrial-metal icons. It’s not hard to imagine that their impending 2-million-watt assault on Montreal’s Parc Jean Drapeau and its home on St. Helen’s Island was about to cause such a seismic ripple acr...
My Chemical Romance Launch North American Tour with Howlingly Chaotic Oklahoma City Show: Recap, Photos + Setlist
Donning a green camo jacket and a face full of Heath Ledger-style Joker makeup, Gerard Way leads My Chemical Romance into their first North American tour in more than 900 days, often channeling the same chaotic energy of whom he decorated his visage. The fizzing static distortions in the intro to “The Foundations of Decay,” the surprise single released this May in support of the reunion tour, practically serve as white noise behind the jubilant roars of the crowd as the band takes the stage inside Oklahoma City’s Paycom Arena. (Grab tickets to the rest of MCR’s tour dates here.) Clocking in at an epic six minutes, “The Foundations of Decay” features a bite-sized version of the same world-building story-craft often associated with the My Chemical Romance albums. Way’s soft-spoken early vers...
Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten Wrap “The Wild Hearts Tour” in New York City’s Central Park: Photos
On what turned out to be a perfect summer evening in New York City, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, and Julien Baker played the penultimate show of their joint “The Wild Hearts Tour.” Taking place Saturday, August 21st at Central Park’s SummerStage, the show validated why we called the trek one of this summer’s must-see tours. Having such a heavyweight trio of performers may lead to some relatively truncated setlists, but each musician gave their all during their time. Baker took her songs from delicate to ripping , Van Etten was at a dynamic peak, and Olsen broke up her emotive alt-country with a card’s wit. It was a wonderful night of powerful music delivered by three of the best in the biz. Closing with SVE joining Olsen for “Like I Used To” and Baker coming out for “Without You” by...
Echo & The Bunnymen’s 40th Anniversary Tour Off to a Rough Start Due to Ian McCulloch Illness: Review
Echo and the Bunnymen have embarked on a long-awaited tour in celebration of their 40th anniversary, though things were off to a rocky start at Atlanta’s Tabernacle concert hall on Monday night (August 15th). Dubbed “Celebrating 40 Years of Magical Songs,” the tour (grab tickets here) kickoff saw both longtime and Gen Z-aged fans rubbing shoulders with each other like friends, with everyone seeming to be in agreement that the Liverpool act won’t be on the road forever. Save for a few festival sets, the Atlanta gig marked the band’s first outing since a UK tour in March, and anticipation Stateside has been high. Unfortunately, vocalist Ian McCulloch was under the weather, as the band confirmed on social media after the set. At one point, McCulloch left the stage for about 20 minutes, while ...
Matt Stone and Trey Parker Celebrate 25 Years of South Park with RUSH, Primus, and Ween
A small girl sarcastically sang “JOE BIDEN TOOK OUR JOBS!” into a microphone while South Park co-creator Matt Stone laughed uproariously, Dean and Gene Ween provided backup vocals, Primus’ Les Claypool played bass and Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush sat silently smiling. The plumes of smoke emanating from the 9,545 fans jammed into Red Rocks Amphitheatre were especially thick at this moment on Wednesday night (August 10th). It was the second of two sold-out South Park 25th-anniversary shows, starring Stone and his partner, Trey Parker, as ringleaders of a circus in which Ween performed on stage left, Primus manned stage right and “Blame Canada,” “Uncle Fucka,” “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” and other profane “South Park” classics wafted from the middle. If the satire didn’t always come ...
Rage Against the Machine Kick Off Five-Night Stand at Madison Square Garden: Recap + Photos
Rage Against the Machine have embarked on their “Public Service Announcement Tour,” which the quartet launched last month at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin. Marking the band’s first live shows in 11 years, the ongoing trek was originally scheduled to ignite in 2020, but was postponed twice due to the global pandemic. The first leg is winding down with a five-night stand at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, which began with a show on Monday night (August 8th). A UK/European run begins later this month, plus a second leg of US and Canadian shows is set for early 2023, with tickets available here. Monday night’s show at MSG saw Rage Against the Machine playing to a completely sold-out crowd. Still healing from a leg injury sustained during the band’s Chicag...
Lady Gaga Finally Kicks Off North American Tour After Years of Delays: “This Bitch Has Been to the Grave and Back!”
Seated at a piano made of thorns in the middle of a rapt sold-out audience at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Lady Gaga confessed that there was a point in her life when she wasn’t sure if she’d ever make it back to a stage like this again. Indeed, a lot has happened to both Gaga and the world since she was last able to tour. “Severe physical pain” due to fibromyalgia forced her to postpone and eventually cancel the final leg of her Joanne World Tour in 2018. The “Chromatica Ball” stadium tour (grab tickets here), originally slated for 2020, was postponed twice for COVID concerns. The release date for the album she was planning to tour in support of, Chromatica, was briefly pushed back due to the pandemic, too. Or as the singer/actress/performance artist herself put it with a mix of humor, r...
5 Reasons to See CHVRCHES Live This Year
CHVRCHES are just a few weeks away from the one year anniversary of their excellent fourth album Screen Violence, but it seems they’ve been keen on celebrating it ever since it came out; since the fall of 2021, CHVRCHES have been on tour very consistently, jumping back and forth between North America and Europe multiple times for extensive runs, festival dates, and more. Many musicians are jumping at the chance to bring their pandemic-crafted albums on tour, and CHVRCHES have done so defiantly. So, witnessing their performance at the Brooklyn Mirage in New York City on Wednesday (August 3rd) was not just an opportunity to see several Screen Violence cuts live, it was a chance to see CHVRCHES completely in their element, their show fine-tuned and riveting. More so than any of the band’s pre...
Lollapalooza 2022 Day Four Recap and Photos: Green Day, j-hope, Blackstarkids, and More
Day four of Lollapalooza 2022 went down on July 31st, wrapping up the legendary Chicago festival. The day featured towering sets from headliners Green Day and j-hope, the latter of which making history as the first South Korean to headline a main stage at a major American music festival. Other notable sets came by way of Maneskin, Blackstarkids, Porno for Pyros, and Beach Bunny, as well as DJO, BANKS, and Buffalo Nichols. Check out action shots of such artists in our Lollapalooza day four photo gallery below, courtesy of photographer Josh Druding, who was on the ground for Consequence all weekend long. You can also revisit day one, day two, and day three, as well as a full review and gallery from j-hope‘s set. Related Video Advertisement [flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flex...
Lollapalooza 2022: j-hope Kicks Off a New Era for BTS: Recap, Photos + Setlist
“I’m j-hope from BTS,” he told the Lollapalooza crowd, doing nothing more than introducing himself and nothing less than making history. BTS are perhaps the most overwhelming musical force the world has ever known, having conquered the globe with an ARMY bigger than Beatlemania. The septet became such an institution that when they announced a “hiatus,” to pursue solo projects, the resulting panic cost their management label HYBE $1.7 billion in market cap in just two days. “We are not disbanding,” the group clarified. j-hope said it in a different way under the banner of Chicago’s skyline in Grant Park Sunday night: “I’m j-hope from BTS.” Advertisement Related Video He’s a lot more than that. With this appearance at Lollapalooza 2022, j-hope became not just the first of...
Arcade Fire Kick Off Tour with Heart and Soul at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival: Review
Arcade Fire pick and choose their moments very carefully. It’s fitting that the Montreal band decided to release their first album in five years, the ambitious and heartfelt WE, in a pandemic-affected universe, urging us to relish in the fact that we are still, in fact, alive. It’s even more fitting that Arcade Fire began their extensive WE tour in Montreal, the band’s birthplace, at Osheaga Festival, which is celebrating its first year back since 2019. However, Arcade Fire’s appearance at Osheaga on Friday night (July 29th) was a stroke of good and bad luck: originally scheduled to headline were Foo Fighters, who cancelled all their tour dates after the untimely death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. But nabbing Arcade Fire as a replacement headliner is an excellent booking, and their pres...
