The Best Concerts of 2024

The remaining evening of Swift’s year-and-a-half-long Eras Tour in Vancouver was marked by no massive bulletins, no particular visitors, no additional gimmicks, no frills — except, after all, you take into consideration that this was the frilliest tour of all time, and that each evening on the 149-concert highway present felt as spectacular as any precise grand finale may. Of course, the “secret songs” phase made every date on the epic tour really feel deeply particular person, nevertheless a lot Swift spent the opposite 95% of those nights giving crowds the identical ecstatic joy-bomb expertise. Swift mentioned she’d “had so long to prepare for the end of this tour,” and was” attempting 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, “just a girl” songs, “A Place in This World,” which was mashed up with “New Romantics,” certainly one of her most understanding songs — a four-minute encapsulation of youthful naivete and lovingly cynical maturity that made not simply the tour however her complete life really feel like one unbroken period, nevertheless a lot she’d damaged all of it up for thematic setlist functions. Whether you’re certainly one of her thirtysomething contemporaries, a contemporary teen fan or a proud #SwiftieOverFifty, the Eras Tour was sure to made you mirror on the segmentation of your personal life… when the 210 minutes’ price of joybombs weren’t simply blowing up your cerebral cortex. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Chris Willman

It was sufficiently subtle, but when the setlists for Springsteen’s 2024 reveals had a single theme, it was the skinny veil between life and loss of life, and the way the losses we endure make every minute on earth all of the extra valuable. None of them extra so than the 140 to — on this specific evening on the Forum — 200 minutes we would spend celebrating with pals or household in an area 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 Forum 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 isn’t just that he and the band maintain up that lengthy each evening. 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” (do you have to be so fortunate to get that encore bonus monitor as a celebration of life). “You’ll need a good companion for this part of the ride,” Springsteen sang towards the tip of the present in “Land of Hope of Dreams.” When he wrote that line, perhaps he didn’t imply it as an precise rock ‘n’ roll direct-sales, however he positive retains residing as much as it. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

As I wrote instantly after seeing the opening evening of Dead & Company’s three-month residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere, “Thursday’s show joins U2’s first night (in the same venue) in a tie for the most visually spectacular gig I’ve seen in untold decades of concertgoing… If you were knocked out by what U2 accomplished in the fall (of ’23) and worried that some augmentation might be necessarily in order to effectively give Dead & Company’s setup a handicap… well, proceed with whatever microdosing you feel is warranted, but ‘Dead Forever’ is a stone-cold-sober knockout.” (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) Ultimately I went on to see the present 4 instances, 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 a great gateway drug into going extra hardcore. Of course, prior generations of followers didn’t want rather more A/V prompting than the sight of a wall of large amps to cement their obsession, since completely different incarnations of the Dead have at all times been about altering the set from evening to nighttime to maintain listeners and themselves totally engaged within the second. But artistic director John Mayer’s concept that at the very least a few of the visuals ought to change each evening within the residency — whereas leaving sure spectacular setpieces in place, just like the opening and shutting journeys from Haight-Asbury to outer house — was consistent with the collective’s core ethos of dependable unpredictability. Mayer is a guitar monster, and Bob Weir is Old Home Week in and of itself. But Mickey Hart’s “Drums” extravaganza was well worth the value of admission all by itself, particularly for those who have been within the Sphere seats with built-in haptics — a really bespoke, once-in-a-lifetime expertise. —Willman

It was effectively well 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 journey. Elliott has at all times been a masterful world-builder, and she or he carried that method to the mind-blowing stage manufacturing for the lot of her largest hits. At every efficiency, Elliott performed ringmaster to a group of backup dancers as she toured her discography, giving every tune its personal little bit of aptitude from the huge Mega Man Missy gliding via house throughout “Sock It 2 Me” to a billowing black swimsuit 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. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Steven J. Horowitz

Mitchell has executed a number of reveals prior to now few years billed as “Joni Jams,” and Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox and the opposite jammers have been out in pressure as soon as once more to enhance her on this weekend of reveals on the Hollywood Bowl. But it marked her first time actually 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, at the very least, like some Boogie Man up there should like us. (For the report, she was singing “God Must Be a Boogie Man” in live performance for the primary time since 1983.) Production-wise, the setting was a lot the identical because the earlier Jam reveals, with an enormous forged of musicians and singers seated on chairs and couches across the legend’s throne. And there have been two moments during which different stars did step ahead to take foreground vocal turns, successfully serenading Mitchell — Lennox on “Ladies of the Canyon,” and Marcus Mumford on “California.” But 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, however it additionally felt like one large leap for Mitchell-kind — a seemingly not possible second during which the singer was commanding the stage for about three hours (not counting intermission) and delivering simply what you might need hoped for from her at any level in her lengthy profession. Carlile was nonetheless an enormous presence, after all, however as wingman most of all: “YOU JUST LISTENED TO JONI MITCHELL SING ‘HEJIRA’!” Back-announcing doesn’t get any higher, or extra bluntly acceptable, than that. (Read the authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

Rodrigo’s tour behind her sophomore album was cause sufficient for Angelenos to drive to Palm Springs for the opening evening of her tour. Little did nearly all of attendees notice they have 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. (Plenty did already know Roan’s late 2023 album, although… the “Hot to Go” spell-check that quickly consumed a younger nation didn’t go un-enacted right here.) Variety‘s review of Rodrigo’s headlining set poked a number of classic-rock bears by saying, “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll show, by the way — maybe the best rock tour we’ll get all year, even if the season is young.” To the kids who cheered when requested by Rodrigo if anybody was attending their first live performance, we added: “You’ve just officially been spoiled. Not many of your future gigs are going to involve world-class talents, caught in the preternatural bloom of youth, who happen to be equally, proficiently gifted in the areas of singing, songcraft, self-revelation and the fine art of rocking out. It’s gonna be all downhill from here, kids.” Of the “star in the making” opener, Roan, we added, “The chorus of Roan’s neo-disco ‘After Midnight’ avows that ‘everything good happens after midnight,’ but her opening slot on the Rodrigo tour proves that some awfully good things happen 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 attainable. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

White’s “pop-ups” tour of 2024 was irritating to some, definitely, within the inherent exclusivity that got here with enjoying solely small theaters and even golf equipment, after which solely saying the dates a number of days prematurely in every metropolis. (Hitting “buy” at simply the correct second to acquire a ticket actually was the toughest button to button.) For those that managed to make it via that gateway, it was rock ‘n’ roll because it was meant to be, or at the very least 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 evening present on the 1,300-cap Mayan. White carried out 20 songs every evening, solely 10 of which overlapped. Fans who have been at one present or the opposite will brag they bought the true FOMO expertise, however these of us who have been lucky to see each can attest that it was a cheerful draw — both of the stops continuous, sweat-soaked and proficiently frantic sufficient to really feel greater than sufficiently draining for any regular human individual. Those who missed out don’t have any good cause to remain mad, by the way in which — in ’25, White’s enjoying greater venues and even saying them prematurely. We suspect these concessions to normie touring gained’t imply the fun is gone. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

Those who’ve paid consideration to Charli XCX and Troye Sivan because the begin of their respective careers would know that every places on a mesmerizing reside 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 “Something to Give Each Other.” What they conceived was a continuous assault on the senses, with every artist taking turns with mini-sets earlier than concluding along with their “Talk Talk” 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. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Horowitz

Although Laufey’s first present on the Bowl — and second live performance ever with the LA Phil — was an prompt sellout, the FOMO ended up being slightly 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 massive screens nationally in early December. As we described it then: “If a team of aesthetically attuned scientists was able to reverse-engineer the perfect Bowl act, they might have come up with the 25-year-old Icelandic-Chinese-American sensation who goes by the singular name of Laufey: A chanteuse who would have seemed at home on the same stage in the 1950s, yet who appeals to a young demographic in the 2020s. A multi-instrumentalist with chops on electric guitar, piano and cello. A romantic with a great sense of swooniness that feels apropos for a summer date night. And, maybe most importantly: plays well with Thomas Wilkins and woodwinds. Some are to the manor born; Laufey is to the Bowl born.” (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

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 to be able to maintain hitting the highway. More 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 might not be a remaining album to match. Punk isn’t a style that at all times weathers the a long time effectively, however X is timeless, partly as a result of John Doe’s and Exene’s lyrical considerations at all times 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). At the Troubadour, the brand new materials slot in completely with the classic stuff; this goodbye requires a 10-year-or-so encore. —Willman

Not almost sufficient bands deliberate an “eclipse show” to coincide with the entire blackout of the solar that occurred throughout components of the nation in April. But then, not many have what it takes to not have their music overshadowed by a complete eclipse. Still, visible loyalties have 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 wise transfer, regardless that it will have been cool to seek out out what couple of numbers they might’ve have chosen to play in near-complete darkness. Of course, in spite of everything that point away, Vampire Weekend didn’t want a gimmick to promote out an amphitheater. Right concerning the time in a profession that any band ought to be going through accusations of being washed up, Vampire Weekend isn’t getting older, it’s getting higher, and “Only God Was Above Us” is among the group’s finest. So for these of us torn between turning round to observe the solar slowly getting blotted out and getting blotto holding our consideration on the present, this train in multi-tasking was a contest of self-will. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

Eilish sang “O Holy Night” because the shock Christmas tune on the final evening 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 fully blasé concerning the pleasure of watching her early precocity flip into an precise plateau that’s seeking to final via her 20s and past. (She turned 23 over the course of her five-night stand on the Forum… 23 happening 230.) The hometown friends-and-family present — which had Finneas opening and turning up later in her acoustic phase, and Mom and Dad indulging a lot 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 sector ground, together 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. But this present wasn’t nearly celebratory cardio. As songs that go from a whisper to a belt go, “O Holy Night” discovered its equal within the canon of magnificent originals that Eilish and Finneas have compiled, together with a strong new ballad, “The Greatest” — delicate and emotionally drilling. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman

Co-headlining excursions all too not often contain each bands truly sharing house for the complete size of the evening’s performances. A lovely instance of how it may be executed 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 number of hours to witness. If you’re a fan of both act, you might need had some appreciation getting into for the way these artists may complement each other. But 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 at the very least the best components of the excessive desert. (Read our authentic evaluate right here.) —Willman