From Taylor Swift closing out her Eras Tour with a revival of her touring anthem “Lengthy Stay” to Bruce Springsteen devoting a lot of his 2024 setlist to the souls of the departed, stay music stirred us as soon as once more this 12 months in a approach that few different mediums can. Listed below are among the standout reveals that made us really feel it ain’t no sin to be glad you’ve alive (and to rack up the service charges to show it).
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Taylor Swift at BC Place, Vancouver, B.C., Dec. 8
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for TAS Rights Administration The ultimate night time of Swift’s year-and-a-half-long Eras Tour in Vancouver was marked by no huge bulletins, no particular visitors, no additional gimmicks, no frills — except, in fact, you have in mind that this was the frilliest tour of all time, and that each night time on the 149-concert highway present felt as spectacular as any precise grand finale might. In fact, the “secret songs” phase made every date on the epic tour really feel deeply particular person, nonetheless a lot Swift spent the opposite 95% of those nights giving crowds the identical ecstatic joy-bomb expertise. Swift mentioned she’d “had so lengthy to organize for the top of this tour,” and was” making an attempt to consider what songs actually encapsulate how I really feel about tonight, so I made a decision to return to the start.” That turned out to be a reprise of certainly one of her very earliest, most innocent-sounding, “only a woman” songs, “A Place in This World,” which was mashed up with “New Romantics,” certainly one of her most figuring out songs — a four-minute encapsulation of youthful naivete and lovingly cynical maturity that made not simply the tour however her total life really feel like one unbroken period, nonetheless a lot she’d damaged all of it up for thematic setlist functions. Whether or not you’re certainly one of her thirtysomething contemporaries, a recent teen fan or a proud #SwiftieOverFifty, the Eras Tour was sure to made you mirror on the segmentation of your individual life… when the 210 minutes’ price of joybombs weren’t simply blowing up your cerebral cortex. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Chris Willman
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Bruce Springsteen and the E Road Band on the Kia Discussion board, Los Angeles, April 4
Picture Credit score: Michael Bucker for Selection It was adequately subtle, but when the setlists for Springsteen’s 2024 reveals had a single theme, it was the skinny veil between life and demise, and the way the losses we endure make every minute on earth all of the extra treasured. None of them extra so than the 140 to — on this explicit night time on the Discussion board — 200 minutes we’d spend celebrating with pals or household in an enviornment with a lifetime’s price of Springsteen’s music as a bonding epoxy. (How humorous that Swift’s reveals this 12 months additionally clocked in on the actual size of Springsteen’s Discussion board present… 3 hours and 20 minutes being a candy spot for precisely two superstars on earth who can justify the heft.) It’s reductive to focus an excessive amount of on the operating time, which makes it really feel like an endurance take a look at or marathon. The miracle is not only that he and the band maintain up that lengthy each night time. The miracle is that he bobs and weaves with a dynamic setlist that wants that a lot expansiveness to sufficiently cowl a number of moments of sorrow or grief and “Twist and Shout” (must you be so fortunate to get that encore bonus monitor as a celebration of life). “You’ll want an excellent companion for this a part of the experience,” Springsteen sang towards the top of the present in “Land of Hope of Goals.” When he wrote that line, perhaps he didn’t imply it as an precise rock ‘n’ roll direct-sales, however he certain retains dwelling as much as it. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Lifeless & Firm at Sphere, Las Vegas, Might 16
Picture Credit score: Alive Protection As I wrote instantly after seeing the opening night time of Lifeless & Firm’s three-month residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere, “Thursday’s present joins U2’s first night time (in the identical venue) in a tie for essentially the most visually spectacular gig I’ve seen in untold many years of concertgoing… In the event you had been knocked out by what U2 achieved within the fall (of ’23) and anxious that some augmentation may be essentially with the intention to successfully give Lifeless & Firm’s setup a handicap… properly, proceed with no matter microdosing you’re feeling is warranted, however ‘Lifeless Eternally’ is a stone-cold-sober knockout.” (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) Finally I went on to see the present 4 occasions, and was by no means bored for a second of the three-hour-plus units, regardless of having beforehand been solely a average Deadhead — it seems that the Sphere visible theatrics make for an excellent gateway drug into going extra hardcore. In fact, prior generations of followers didn’t want far more A/V prompting than the sight of a wall of large amps to cement their obsession, since totally different incarnations of the Lifeless have all the time been about altering the set from night time to nighttime to maintain listeners and themselves totally engaged within the second. However inventive director John Mayer’s concept that a minimum of among the visuals ought to change each night time within the residency — whereas leaving sure spectacular setpieces in place, just like the opening and shutting journeys from Haight-Asbury to outer area — was consistent with the collective’s core ethos of dependable unpredictability. Mayer is a guitar monster, and Bob Weir is Outdated Dwelling Week in and of itself. However Mickey Hart’s “Drums” extravaganza was definitely worth the value of admission all by itself, particularly for those who had been within the Sphere seats with built-in haptics — a really bespoke, once-in-a-lifetime expertise. —Willman
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Missy Elliott at Crypto Area, Los Angeles, July 11
Picture Credit score: Aaron J. Thornton/WireImage It was properly definitely worth the wait. For her first-ever headlining tour, Missy Elliott captured the galaxy-brain aesthetic of her catalog and music movies with the Out of This World trek, bringing frequent collaborators Timbaland, Ciara and Busta Rhymes alongside for a wild experience. Elliott has all the time been a masterful world-builder, and he or she carried that method to the mind-blowing stage manufacturing for the lot of her largest hits. At every efficiency, Elliott performed ringmaster to a workforce of backup dancers as she toured her discography, giving every track its personal little bit of aptitude from the large Mega Man Missy gliding by means of area throughout “Sock It 2 Me” to a billowing black go well with for “She’s a Bitch.” It’s a surprise that she held off this lengthy to take middle stage, however she made it work, after which some. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Steven J. Horowitz
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Joni Mitchell on the Hollywood Bowl, Oct. 19
Picture Credit score: Randall Michelson / LN-Hewitt Silva Mitchell has completed a couple of reveals prior to now few years billed as “Joni Jams,” and Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox and the opposite jammers had been out in pressure as soon as once more to enrich her on this weekend of reveals on the Hollywood Bowl. But it surely marked her first time really formally headlining a billed present as Joni freaking Mitchell since she suffered an aneurysm in 2015… or, actually, since she did her final tour 24 years in the past, which had her final headlining in L.A. on the Greek in 2000. It felt for an evening, a minimum of, like some Boogie Man up there should like us. (For the file, she was singing “God Should Be a Boogie Man” in live performance for the primary time since 1983.) Manufacturing-wise, the setting was a lot the identical because the earlier Jam reveals, with a giant forged of musicians and singers seated on chairs and couches across the legend’s throne. And there have been two moments by which different stars did step ahead to take foreground vocal turns, successfully serenading Mitchell — Lennox on “Women of the Canyon,” and Marcus Mumford on “California.” However for those who’d come to listen to Joni Mitchell sing her coronary heart out, at size and in full, with out actually ceding the stage for greater than these two cameos, that’s what you bought, for the primary time in almost a quarter-century. It was yet one more incremental step on her path again to public efficiency, nevertheless it additionally felt like one large leap for Mitchell-kind — a seemingly unimaginable second by which the singer was commanding the stage for about three hours (not counting intermission) and delivering simply what you may need hoped for from her at any level in her lengthy profession. Carlile was nonetheless a giant presence, in fact, however as wingman most of all: “YOU JUST LISTENED TO JONI MITCHELL SING ‘HEJIRA’!” Again-announcing doesn’t get any higher, or extra bluntly acceptable, than that. (Learn the unique evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan at Acrisure Area in Palm Springs, Calif., Feb. 23
Picture Credit score: Christopher Polk for Penske Media Rodrigo’s tour behind her sophomore album was cause sufficient for Angelenos to drive to Palm Springs for the opening night time of her tour. Little did nearly all of attendees understand they had been additionally getting in early on the most important new pop phenom of 2024, Roan, the opening act for the primary a part of the tour. (A lot did already know Roan’s late 2023 album, although… the “Sizzling to Go” spell-check that quickly consumed a younger nation didn’t go un-enacted right here.) Selection‘s evaluation of Rodrigo’s headlining set poked a couple of classic-rock bears by saying, “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll present, by the best way — perhaps the perfect rock tour we’ll get all 12 months, even when the season is younger.” To the children who cheered when requested by Rodrigo if anybody was attending their first live performance, we added: “You’ve simply formally been spoiled. Not lots of your future gigs are going to contain world-class abilities, caught within the preternatural bloom of youth, who occur to be equally, proficiently gifted within the areas of singing, songcraft, self-revelation and the positive artwork of rocking out. It’s gonna be all downhill from right here, children.” Of the “star within the making” opener, Roan, we added, “The refrain of Roan’s neo-disco ‘After Midnight’ avows that ‘every little thing good occurs after midnight,’ however her opening slot on the Rodrigo tour proves that some awfully good issues occur between 7:30-8:10 p.m.” Thanks are nonetheless owed to their mutual producer/co-writer, Dan Nigro, for making this excellent two-fer doable. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Jack White on the Lodge Room in Highland Park, Calif., and Mayan in Los Angeles, Oct. 10-11
Picture Credit score: David James Swanson White’s “pop-ups” tour of 2024 was irritating to some, actually, within the inherent exclusivity that got here with enjoying solely small theaters and even golf equipment, after which solely saying the dates a couple of days prematurely in every metropolis. (Hitting “purchase” at simply the correct second to obtain a ticket actually was the toughest button to button.) For individuals who managed to make it by means of that gateway, it was rock ‘n’ roll because it was meant to be, or a minimum of as White rightfully means it to be — quick, spur-of-the-moment, intimate and red-hot. Or blue-hot, in his eternally color-coded world. In L.A., he hit two venues, a Thursday gig on the Lodge Room, capability 500, adopted by a Friday night time present on the 1,300-cap Mayan. White carried out 20 songs every night time, solely 10 of which overlapped. Followers who had been at one present or the opposite will brag they bought the true FOMO expertise, however these of us who had been lucky to see each can attest that it was a contented draw — both of the stops continuous, sweat-soaked and proficiently frantic sufficient to really feel greater than sufficiently draining for any regular human particular person. Those that missed out don’t have any good cause to remain mad, by the best way — in ’25, White’s enjoying greater venues and even saying them prematurely. We suspect these concessions to normie touring received’t imply the fun is gone. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Charli XCX and Troye Sivan on the Kia Discussion board, Inglewood, Calif., Oct. 15
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Henry Radcliffe Those that have paid consideration to Charli XCX and Troye Sivan for the reason that begin of their respective careers would know that every places on a mesmerizing stay present. That a lot was true when their worlds collided as co-headliners of their Go West Fest in 2019, and it got here into a lot sharper focus with their double-billed Sweat tour this 12 months. Few issues screamed 2024 greater than “Brat,” which went from buzzy cult fixation to Kamala-level phenomenon, and the tour couldn’t have been timed higher within the wake of “Brat” and Sivan’s “One thing to Give Every Different.” What they conceived was a continuous assault on the senses, with every artist taking turns with mini-sets earlier than concluding along with their “Discuss Discuss” remix. If 2024 was about brat summer time and inevitably brat fall, then followers can have an opportunity to stretch it out to the brand new 12 months when Charli heads again to arenas for extra. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Horowitz
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Laufey with the LA Phil on the Hollywood Bowl, Aug. 7
Picture Credit score: Timothy Norris Though Laufey’s first present on the Bowl — and second live performance ever with the LA Phil — was an on the spot sellout, the FOMO ended up being a little bit lighter on this one, by advantage of the truth that it bought filmed by director Sam Wrench for an Imax live performance film that hit huge screens nationally in early December. As we described it then: “If a workforce of aesthetically attuned scientists was in a position to reverse-engineer the right Bowl act, they could have give you the 25-year-old Icelandic-Chinese language-American sensation who goes by the singular title of Laufey: A chanteuse who would have appeared at residence on the identical stage within the Fifties, but who appeals to a younger demographic within the 2020s. A multi-instrumentalist with chops on electrical guitar, piano and cello. A romantic with an incredible sense of swooniness that feels apropos for a summer time date night time. And, perhaps most significantly: performs properly with Thomas Wilkins and woodwinds. Some are to the manor born; Laufey is to the Bowl born.” (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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X on the Troubadour, West Hollywood, Calif., June 24
Picture Credit score: Chris Willman/Selection They need to lastly cease leaving Los Angeles… or lastly cease leaving no matter cities the 4 members of X have now made their hometowns with the intention to maintain hitting the highway. Greater than 45 years after the band began gigging on the native membership scene, X — which miraculously nonetheless has its authentic lineup intact — lastly launched into a farewell tour, with what could or is probably not a remaining album to match. Punk shouldn’t be a style that all the time weathers the many years properly, however X is timeless, partly as a result of John Doe’s and Exene’s lyrical considerations all the time learn extra as sensible beat poetry than as generationally sure complaints, and partly due to how undiminished the facility trio of Doe, DJ Bonebrake and Billy Zoom is (even when the guitarist principally peels these amphetamine-rockabilly licks off from a stool now). On the Troubadour, the brand new materials slot in completely with the classic stuff; this goodbye requires a 10-year-or-so encore. —Willman
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Vampire Weekend on the Moody Amphitheatre, Austin, Texas, April 8
Picture Credit score: Getty (Vampire Weekend); Chris Willman (eclipse) Not almost sufficient bands deliberate an “eclipse present” to coincide with the entire blackout of the solar that occurred throughout components of the nation in April. However then, not many have what it takes to not have their music overshadowed by a complete eclipse. Nonetheless, visible loyalties had been considerably divided because the Texas sky darkened whereas the group carried out its first full present in years. They took a break to let the group soak within the precise minutes of totality, which was a sensible transfer, regardless that it might have been cool to search out out what couple of numbers they might’ve have chosen to play in near-complete darkness. In fact, in any case that point away, Vampire Weekend didn’t want a gimmick to promote out an amphitheater. Proper in regards to the time in a profession that any band needs to be going through accusations of being washed up, Vampire Weekend isn’t getting older, it’s getting higher, and “Solely God Was Above Us” is likely one of the group’s greatest. So for these of us torn between turning round to look at the solar slowly getting blotted out and getting blotto preserving our consideration on the present, this train in multi-tasking was a contest of self-will. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Billie Eilish on the Kia Discussion board, Inglewood, Calif., Dec. 21
Picture Credit score: Kevin Mazur/Getty Photographs for Stay Nation Leisure Eilish sang “O Holy Night time” because the shock Christmas track on the final night time of her U.S. tour, however the entire present felt holy, in a holy cow sort of approach. We’ve lengthy since moved previous the shock of how good she is, however we haven’t gotten utterly blasé in regards to the pleasure of watching her early precocity flip into an precise plateau that’s seeking to final by means of her 20s and past. (She turned 23 over the course of her five-night stand on the Discussion board… 23 happening 230.) The hometown friends-and-family present — which had Finneas opening and turning up later in her acoustic phase, and Mother and Dad indulging plenty of fan picture requests within the loge part — had the texture of a victory lap, each figuratively and actually. The stage was arrange in an elongated in-the-round format that took up a majority of the world ground, along with her band members and a few pyrotechnics arrange in two recessed areas of the stage, permitting the star not simply to run in circles across the edge however to do some figure-eights, too. However this present wasn’t nearly celebratory cardio. As songs that go from a whisper to a belt go, “O Holy Night time” discovered its equal within the canon of magnificent originals that Eilish and Finneas have compiled, together with a robust new ballad, “The Best” — delicate and emotionally drilling. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman
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Dawes and Lucius at Pappy & Harriet’s, Pioneertown, Calif., March 24
Picture Credit score: Chris Willman/Selection Co-headlining excursions all too hardly ever contain each bands truly sharing area for all the size of the night time’s performances. A good looking instance of how it may be completed was the joint tour by Dawes and Lucius, the all-too-short itinerary for which introduced it solely as near L.A. as distant Pioneertown. The confluence of planets was price driving a couple of hours to witness. In the event you’re a fan of both act, you may need had some appreciation entering into for the way these artists might complement each other. However for those who occur to already acknowledge each of them as best-in-class examples of how robust old style rock virtues can proceed to be within the 2020s, then this was a match made in heaven, or a minimum of the best components of the excessive desert. (Learn our authentic evaluation right here.) —Willman