It was clear from the opening moments of Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams” concert that the Boss had a few things to say about President Donald Trump and the state of the nation. In a dramatic flash of patriotic red light, he strode onto the stage in his best proletariat preacher mode and addressed his flock.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” he proclaimed during a tour stop at San Francisco’s Chase Center on Monday, April 13. “The America that I love — the America I have written about for 50 years that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world — is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and…
Category: live
Having honed his live chops over many years not only as a solo artist, but also with the celebrated groups The Frames and The Swell Season, Glen Hansard is rightly regarded as a masterful live performer. Recorded over two nights last year in Berlin’s Funkhaus – an historic former radio facility – Don’t Settle (Vol 1, Transmissions East) draws from all stages of the singer’s storied career, making for a powerful and spellbinding listen.
The record kicks off with the title track, which builds from atmospheric ballad to stirring rocker, with a notably streak of defiance: “When they pin you to the corner / Pay no need to their dronin’ on”.
Filled with apocalyptic imagery, ‘Down On Our Knees’ is a driving, intense number with echoes of Joy Division, while the haunting…
At the Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago is the first ever release of piano legend Ahmad Jamal’s trio captured live at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago on March 20-21, 1976.
In many ways Jamal entered the scene at the height of bebop with an approach unlike almost any of his contemporaries – rooted in spacing, tension and release, with an uncanny ability to perform lines most would call “busy” while making every note choice sound smooth, logical and inevitable. His influence on pianists from Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner to Herbie Hancock and Fred Hersch, and his enduring admiration from Miles Davis, speak to the singular place he occupies in the music.
Here Jamal leads a remarkable trio with bassist John Heard and longtime drummer…
Bruce Springsteen is currently on his ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ US tour with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, a trek inspired by the Boss’ ongoing fury at the Trump regime, and in particular the killing of two Minneapolis citizens by ICE agents earlier this year.
Bruce and the E Street Band perform a 27-song set on night two at the Kia Forum in Inglewood.
Tour premieres of “Two Hearts” and “American Land” (last performed in 2017). “War”, “Clampdown” (written by Strummer/Jones, recorded by The Clash), “Streets of Minneapolis,” “House of a Thousand Guitars” (performed solo acoustic), and the show-closing cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” all appear; “Land of Hope and Dreams” is the main-set closer.
Peter Case at McCabes: My Life to Live is not the usual career retrospective of a veteran artist. Granted, the former leader of the Plimsouls spans his canon here, but in doing so over the course of the seventy-one-plus duration of this twenty-two cut sequence, he plays, sings, and speaks with a tangible sense of rediscovery.
Not coincidentally, there’s also a palpable sense of pride arising from the reimaginings of songs like “I Shook His Hand” off Case’s eponymous solo debut. Recorded over two nights at his home-away-from-home venue in Santa Monica, CA, the performance bristles with energy because Peter’s self-penned songs, much like the traditional “Flying Crow Blues,” have aged so well over time.
And not only does the artist seem to know…
Last Time Here serves as a stunning sonic time capsule, capturing The Album Leaf at a pivotal moment in the project’s evolution. Released in 2026 as a companion to the 25th-anniversary reissue of One Day I’ll Be on Time, this live collection transforms the delicate “bedroom” intimacy of the original 2001 recordings into something far more expansive and cinematic.
The album thrives on what critics call “aural photosynthesis.” While the original studio tracks were celebrated for their minimalist restraint, these live versions breathe with a new intensity. LaValle’s signature blend of Rhodes piano, glitchy rhythms, and soaring guitar loops feels more organic here. Tracks like “Vermillion” and “The MP” benefit from the live energy, where the transition…
Sylvie Courvoisier has never been easy to pin down, which is exactly the point. The Lausanne-born pianist moved to New York City in 1998 and spent the next two-plus decades making herself indispensable to the downtown avant-garde, working alongside John Zorn, Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and Mark Feldman, among others. She received the Swiss Grand Prix Music and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 2025, recognition that felt overdue rather than surprising. Her long-running piano trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen has been one of jazz’s most formidable units for years. Éclats: Live in Europe, recorded during a February 2025 tour, makes a strong case that the group has never sounded better.
The landmark 1996 album reconstructed from BBC sessions and live recordings! Suede’s commercial high watermark came in 1996 with Coming Up. The 1995 addition to the line-up of lead guitarist Richard Oakes and keyboard player Neil Codling had given the band a new impetus and focus. At the very pinnacle of ‘Britpop’ – a scene they’d helped inspire but fiercely operated outside of – roared back with an adrenalin rush of new Suede classics.
The first missive from ‘Coming Up’ was the trailblazing ‘Trash’, which reached No. 3 in the UK chart – a joint career-best for the band. That was followed into the Top 10 over the next twelve months by four more hit singles from the album – ‘Beautiful Ones’, ‘Lazy’, ‘Saturday Night’, and ‘Filmstar’.
Liberation Hall delivers a compelling archival release with Live ’81–’85, a double LP celebrating the legacy of Romeo Void for Record Store Day. The collection presents the band in its natural habitat on stage capturing performances across Ann Arbor, Albany, London, and Berlin.
The album functions as both a time capsule and a reaffirmation of Romeo Void’s distinct place in early 1980s new wave. Across its 17 tracks, Live ’81–’85 draws material from all phases of the band’s short but influential career, including It’s a Condition (1981), Nvr Say Nvr (1981), Benefactor (1982), and Instincts (1984). The performances feel immediate and unpolished in the best sense—raw, urgent, and driven by the band’s signature fusion of post-punk tension, saxophone accents…
There are live recordings that capture an engagement, and others that seem to revive an entirely vanished room. This newly unearthed Verve Records release from Detroit’s Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, recorded over five sets in August 1960, clearly falls into the latter category. More than just a historical curiosity, it reveals atmosphere, temperament, and mastery. The Oscar Peterson trio at full strength in a venue that knew how to listen, playing as if elegance and fire were not mutually exclusive virtues but twin responsibilities.
By the summer of 1960, Oscar Peterson had established himself as one of the leading pianists in modern jazz, yet what these performances reveal is that the celebrated “will to swing” often associated with him was never merely about…
Surprisingly, singer-songwriter/harmonicist Curtis Salgado has never released a live album until now. Legacy Rewind: Live in ‘25 was recorded just over a year ago on April 5th at the Triple Door, Seattle, WA, on Salgado’s home turf. The genesis for the project dates to 2019 (pre-COVID), when a fan and producer, Randy Maag, suggested it at the very same venue. Maag suggested older Salgado tunes that are rarely played in his current show repertoire. Maag didn’t forget the encounter and resurrected it six years later. Some songs had never been performed live, while others were two decades old. So, this recording, with a 9-piece band, encompasses R&B, Funk, Soul, and Rock n’ Roll, curated by Maag and Salgado. Interestingly, there is no mention of blues, but we all…
As the time approached 10:30 Tuesday night — nearly three hours after Bruce Springsteen had marched onstage at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside 18 of his musical comrades — the 76-year-old rock legend told the crowd he hadn’t intended to be there.
“This is a tour that we never planned,” he said. “The E Street Band is here with you tonight because we need to feel your hope and your strength. And we want to bring some hope and bring some strength for you.” It wasn’t impossible to believe him.
After a two-year trek that finally wrapped last summer amid the release of a massive box set and a splashy Hollywood biopic, Springsteen might’ve been expected to spend 2026 counting his money and his accolades. Yet the way…
Live in Köln 1976, this special edition release is exclusive to RSD (Record Store Day) 2026 and catches both the Rainbow and the band at their creative and blistering energetic peak.
The album was originally released a few years back as a one of three double CDs, and more recently as part of the excellent Temple Of The King 9CD set, also by Demon. This is the first time on vinyl and wonderful it is too.
The classic Rainbow line-up of guitarist Blackmore, vocalist Ronnie James Dio, keyboardist Tony Carey, bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Cozy Powell came together soon after the band’s 1975 debut, and in fact drew Cozy out of attempted retirement. Touring to support the classic (and equally ground breaking) Rainbow…
First ever CD release for this incredible live concert from Ian Dury & The Blockheads at London’s Dominion Theatre on Christmas Eve 1980. Originally transmitted as a special TV performance for the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ on BBC2 TV and for John Peel on BBC Radio 1.
Following on from the run of singles “Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3”, “I Want to Be Straight” and “Sueperman’s Big Sister” 1980 saw the release of new album ‘Laughter’ by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. The ‘Laughter’ tour took place in December 1980 and on Christmas Eve Ian Dury & The Blockheads performed at London’s Dominion Theatre live on Radio 1 and on TV via BBC2’s ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ – introduced on TV by Annie Nightingale and on radio by John Peel.
On Friday, March 20 as new Tedeschi Trucks Band album Future Soul made its way into the world, the Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi led twelve-piece powerhouse returned to New York’s Beacon Theatre for night six of a ten-date residency and show number 70 overall for the group at the storied venue.
To begin the night, band officially welcomed the crowd to the age of Future Soul with a full performance of the eleven-track album culminating in the live debut of “Ride On”, the last of its songs to break into the live rotation. To fill out the remaining minutes of the Future Soul set, Susan led the group through longtime staple “I Want More” before passing the baton to Derek to channel some “Soul” from the past-that is…
Bruce Springsteen is out to save America with rock and roll. On Friday night, in a Moda Center packed with screaming, singing fans, it felt like he might just do it.
At 7:30 p.m., long lines still snaked around the Rose Quarter. So it was about 10 minutes after the planned start time that Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage for the second stop of their Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour.
It was the only hiccup in what became a high-intensity all-American political-musical-spiritual experience for the rapturous crowd.
The show began with a thesis statement. “The America that I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world is…
With the release of Great As Ever: Live In Philadelphia ’86, a theme is beginning to emerge in the chronological issues of this archival series. Notwithstanding how this package lives up to its title–it’s actually a reference to the loyalty of the audience from the leader of the band–Gregg Allman’s self-assurance and pride in his work is too obvious to ignore throughout the third edition of concert recordings from the late Southerner’s vault, this one captured on January 11, 1986, at Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia, PA.
From the very opening of “Don’t Want You No More”/”Ain’t My Cross The Bear,” the segue taken from the ABB studio debut, much of the set consists of well-known selections from the Allman Brothers’ discography.
The excellent quintet WÖR utilises violin, bagpipes, accordion, guitar and saxophones to reimagine 18th-century tunes from the Flanders region of Belgium. Swedish women’s self-styled ‘Folk’appella’ quartet Kongero honour the folk traditions of their home region, Jämtland, in northern Sweden, in a similar manner.
Here, these two ensembles combine for a tantalising project. The sonic landscapes on display are beautifully produced and virtuosically played. ‘Var är du?’ rolls with bucolic wonder, the instruments of WÖR blending perfectly with the voices of Kongero. ‘Schoon Lief’ is a wistful, soft and gently evolving number evocative of winter mists and bright, clear skies, while ‘Ridder & Jungfrun’ presents a drifting…
If 2025 was the year the UK reclaimed its rock ‘n’ roll crown with the Oasis reunion, 2026 is officially the year Richard Ashcroft reminded us why he was always the movement’s beating heart. Fresh off his massive stint as the special guest on the Oasis Live ’25 tour, Ashcroft has dropped Live Vol. 1, a career-spanning collection that feels less like a standard live album and more like a victory lap.
Recorded during his triumphant run of shows following the stadium mania of the previous year, Live Vol. 1 captures Ashcroft at his most potent. From the opening chords, it’s clear his voice hasn’t aged a day; if anything, it’s gained a soulful, weathered depth that adds new layers to classics like “The Drugs Don’t Work” and “Sonnet.”
The production strikes a perfect balance.
Before a single note of music was played at the opening night of the 2026 Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a typical Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. In a break from decades of tradition, the band walked onto the stage in total darkness, visible to the crowd only in hazy silhouette. Springsteen came out last, and addressed the capacity crowd at the Target Center in Minneapolis, speaking much like he did at the city’s No Kings rally a few days earlier.
“I want to begin the night with a prayer for our men and women overseas,” he said. “We pray for their safe return. The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock & roll in dangerous…