2025 links to published reviews
And if you feel like reading, here are links to my reviews from the year in chronological order. Thanks to the publications who give me the leeway to cover what I want to.
Frank Black plays Teenager Of The Year at House of Blues
Uncle Acid and the deadbeats play Nell' Ora Blu in full
The Bevis Frond and Oneida at Crystal Ballroom
Otomo Yoshihide at Northcote Social Club (Melbourne, AUS)
The Hard Quartet and Sharp Pins at The Paradise Rock Club
Immersion (Colin Newman and Malka Spigel) at The Red Room
MSSV (Mike Baggetta, Mike Watt, Stephen Hodges) at Tubby's (Kingston, NY)
Mogwai with Brainiac at The Paradise Rock Club
Bartees Strange at Brighton Music Hall
Swervedriver at Brighton Music Hall
Sharon Van Etten at Roadrunner
The Wedding Present with The Tubs at The Sinclair
Queens of the Stone Age at MGM Music Hall
Godspeed You Black Emperor at Roadrunner
Two nights of Pixies at MGM Music Hall
Thing Festival (Father John Misty, Orville Peck, etc) held in Carnation WA
Eyehategod and Crowbar at Brighton Music Hall
Cave In plays Jupiter at The Sinclair
Viagra Boys and Die Spitz at Roadrunner
Swans at The Paradise Rock Club
Queens of the Stone Age present The Catacombs tour at The Wang
Death Cult and The Cult at The Orpheum
Psychedelic Furs and Gary Numan at MGM Music Hall
Pinkshift at Brighton Music Hall
Of Monsters And Men at Roadrunner
Samantha Fish, Cedric Burnside and Jon Spencer at The Wilbur
2025 Recap
Once again this is the time of the year where I remember I have a blog section to my website, and so I will use it to do a giant dump of what the year had in store. And 2025 didn't seem to let up, which is never a bad thing. By my count, it ended up around 405 different performances, in 60 different venues, scattered over six countries and 16 different cities. (For the sake of argument I didn't differentiate between cities in Massachusetts).
As always, I could never do this just on my own, and I want to thank Jack at The Big Takeover and Rob at Culture Beat for letting me do my thing and covering bands I am interested in. I was also happy to hook on with Metal Talk this year, a large UK-based site. Thanks Steve for letting me join the team! Also big thanks to Sarika, Reece, Holly, Chris and the team at Desertfest London, I always have a blast at each event and and happy to be part of the photo team with Jessi and Sam. And a shout out to Ryan at Widowmaker too, Hopsmoker is a super good time even though I only squeezed in one day this year, it's always a really fun and quality event with great bands and delicious beers. Lastly, the publicists and band management deserve kudos for approving me for press credentials most of the time, and thanks for kicking in a +1 when you can as well, much appreciated.
Like last year, I'll do a dump of some of my favorite gigs and photos from them and write an additional post capturing all of the reviews I wrote up as well. 2025 was a pretty strong year! Bring on 2026!
Best gigs of 2025, in pictures:
note: click on the photo and you'll open the gallery of all my photos from the show (well, the ones I liked enough to edit).
I can't say that I am a huge Pulp fan but I couldn't pass up the band's first local appearance in nearly 30 years, and even the rain couldn't dampen the spirits of the band and the fans. Incredible performance by Jarvis Cocker and the rest of the band.
Stereolab put out one of my favorite records of the year; it's pretty astonishing how consistently great this band has been and continues to be.
One of the highlights of this year personally was having a handful of my photos plastered all over Fu Manchu's The Return Of... Live double LP, and they totally crushed their set at The Sinclair with an excellent choice of Year Of The Cobra as support. I've seen Amy recently as the new bass player in Amenra but hadn't caught her main band since the first Psycho Las Vegas event. Also cool to catch up with Scott Hill after the show, who gave me a copy of the LP signed by everyone in the band. Never miss them when they come to your town (or state, or country).
I can't imagine what it must have been like to see The Stooges in their prime. I've seen Iggy a few times now, both with The Stooges (RIP, Ashetons) and as a solo performer and it's always an electric thrill right down the spine. This show was supposed to also feature The Sex Pistols but after Steve Jones broke his wrist, the show was moved from The Stage at Suffolk Downs to Roadrunner, which worked out great since cool rain decided to come down that night.
Another one of my all-time favorite front men paid Boston a visit too, with Nick Cave bringing along his Bad Seeds for the first time since 2017. It was a slight drag that St. Vincent had a migraine hit that prevented her from playing, but the hours of standing around melted away once Nick hit the stage.
Queens of the Stone Age (well, at least Josh, Troy and Dean) served in the backup band for Iggy Pop back on the 2016 Post-Pop Depression tour, and they are a staggeringly great band in their own right. Boston lucked out with three shows from them, two as 'regular' shows (I caught the 2nd night) and one as part of the Catacombs tour, a stripped down affair with song selection that suited the mood and arrangements. Pure beauty.
Elder's been one of my favorite bands since I discovered them via a Meteor City compilation that came out in 2010. Lucky for me, they lived in Boston so I got to see them a lot before Nick relocated to Berlin. This year I'd be fortunate enough to catch them twice, playing Lore in full. No filler, all killer. "Legend" is one of those songs where the goose bumps refuse to go away. Bonus points for getting a photo with original drummer Matt at the Middle East gig.
One of the benefits of living in Boston is that I generally get to see Major Stars play a few times each year. This year, I just managed the one and it was the first time the band played as an instrumental unit since Noelle was overseas for a business trip. No matter, they leveled Deep Cuts (thankfully the building was reconstructed in time so that Landowner and FACS could also play; this was one hell of a bill).
Mogwai was another band I got to see a couple of times this year, but the second show in Malmö got the edge as I finally got to see them play "My Father, My King" again, only the second time in 15 times seeing the band.
I'd managed to see The Drones three times but kept missing out on Tropical Fuck Storm... missed the 2019 Boston show for unknown reasons and I also screwed up my dates for when they played in Dublin that year. I was approved to cover the show but forgot my flight home was the same night. But 2025 was finally my time, and I couldn't have been more floored. The band is tighter than a Swiss watch and gives it all they have, every show. You can't ask more from a band.
Sebadoh was another band I'd seen a bunch not in a while, in this case a dozen years. They got together to play Woodsist Fest this year and decided to play shows in NYC and Boston as well, since they got together to rehearse and get ready... why not? The 1-2 songwriting punch of Lou and Jake is the perfect complementary blend. That old generation of electric white boy blues still resonates. Bonus points for Minibeast opening, they always put on a burner.
Melvins are another band who put the work in and don't fuck around. The first show was cool since I finally got to see Napalm Death, but it was the tandem show with Redd Kross where both Dale and Steve pulled double duty that took the laurels.
Viagra Boys put out a great record this year and since I wasn't approved for their Royale show a few years ago I was pretty psyched to see them on this tour, with bonus points for bringing along Die Spitz.
The 4/20 weekend blast that Widowmaker puts on as Hopsmoker is always a fun time. Ryan and the crew brew some really tasty beer, they get the local metal community together and pull some great bands. I'd seen Castle Rat at Desertfest NYC before as well as Howling Giant but will never say no to another dose of both. Bonus points for the self-made hot sauce you can snag at Howling Giant's merch table.
Slift was nearly a religious experience at Desertfest London this year. I'd finally seen them last year and the unrelenting attack is a glorious thing.
Another highlight was getting back to Melbourne (and having my day job pick up the tab once again). I really loved the ~6 weeks I spent down there, and while the trip in March didn't coincide with as many gigs as the previous one, the first night I landed, I got to see Pallbearer and Conan (thanks to Chris for the list spot) was loud enough to shake off any jetlag.
There were a couple of other shows that I caught in Australia in March but by far the best one was Jerkfest 10, put on by Anti Fade records. A full day of bands on two stages in Geelong, about 45 minutes west of Melbourne. Had the good fortune to hitch a ride with Michael Beach and his friend Chris who used to play drums in Spray Paint and is now in Exek as well as Screensaver, which also includes his partner Krystal and she came along as well. Loads of bands I knew nothing about, but the big draws for me was to finally see Constant Mongrel and Possible Humans play, and both were huge highlights. Great vibe to the event and met some cool people over the day (esp Brian and his son as well as Gavan who I met on last year's trip when I hit the excellent Licorice Pie record store).
I saw a ton of bands at Desertfest London and the best part was when I had a little downtime I got to hang with some Boston friends. I've already mentioned Elder but both KIND and Worshipper were also playing. Those late döner kebab sessions ruled.
One of the more unusual shows I saw this year was the Uncle Acid and the deadbeats show where they played Nell 'Ora Blu in full, their homage to giallo. It was more like a play than a concert and obviously a lot of thought went into it. Bonus points for the special beer Widowmaker brewed for the event.
Bowery Boston and local label Run For Cover pulled together a two day, two stage event at Roadrunner this year and it was so good they've pulled together another one. Highlights include a mesmerizing Slowdive set with incredible sound, and my first time seeing Gouge Away and Mannequin Pussy will not be my last.
You don't need a big production to have a good time; just a bunch of friends with some ripping good songs is all it takes. The second installment of the GBV-inspired Forever Since Heedfest held in Carrboro NC was a great time with loads of laughs, and Pittsburgh-based Cul De Sac Kids leader Gary Smith also pulled together a great weekend just before Halloween, featuring a bunch of bands and late night horror cult classics (I finally discovered where Lilacs & Champagne pulled that sample from). And earlier in the year, a bunch of Boston local metals donned some wigs and blasted through some cover sets featuring The Runaways (as Hit And Run), Black Sabbath (as Black Salad), and Motörhead (as Iron Fisted) to raise money for the Dio cancer charity. And of course there's the annual trek to the mythical land of Dayton Ohio. Bob Pollard has officially hung up playing live, but a couple of cover bands bashed some excellent Pollard songs and two highlights were a short (first-ever) solo set by drummer Kevin March, Doug Gillard sitting in on a Cash Rivers song and Mitch Fucking Mitchell playing "Motor Away." This is what good times look like.
If you made it this far, here are some more of my favorites from 2025.
Bobby Dazzle at Desertfest London
BCUC at Newport Folk Fest
Fan at The Thing, Carnation WA
Deep Sea Diver at Thing Festival
Oliver Irongiant joining Electric Funeral to close down Desertfest London
Mike IX of Eyehategod at Brighton Music Hall
Anura, drummer of Froglord at London Desertfest
Godspeed You! Black Emperor at Roadrunner
Herbie Hancock at the Wang Theatre
Acid Bath attendee (protect your ears!)
Hiroe at Deep Cuts
John C Reilly at Newport Folk Festival
Juan Montoya of Moon Destroys at The Middle East
Tony Forresta of Municipal Waste at Royale
Barney Greenway of Napalm Death at The Paradise
Orville Peck at Thing Festival
Young fan at her first concert
Joey Santiago of Pixies at MGM Music Hall
Flavor Flav at Newport Folk Festival
Jeff Tweedy joins Remi Wolf at Newport Folk Festival
Ruffian Dicks at The Middle East
Sammy Rae at Newport Folk Festival
Sharon Van Etten at Roadrunner
Snacktime at Newport Folk Festival
Swans at The Paradise
The Hard Quartet at The Paradise
Alison Mosshart of The Kills at MGM Music Hall
Gareth Lilliard (Tropical Fuck Storm)'s guitar
Fans at Desertfest London
Dixie Dave of Weedeater at Salt Shed
Boris at The Paradise
Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Newport Folk Festival
Otomo Yoshihide at Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Couch at Roadrunner
See you at a show or two in 2026.
2024 links to published reviews
And if you feel like reading, here are links to my reviews:
mclusky at The Sinclair
Dan Boeckner at Brighton Music Hall
Pixies/Modest Mouse at Xfinity Center
Drive-By Truckers at House of Blues
Michael Shannon/Jason Narducy play REM's Murmur at The Sinclair
Neck Deep and Drain at Roadrunner
Mary Timony at Crystal Ballroom
The Last Dinner Party at Royale
Maynard James Keenan's Sessanta at The Wang
Guided By Voices at The Athenaeum (Columbus, OH)
Cypress Hill/The Pharcyde at Roadrunner
Guided By Voices at Mr Smalls (Pittsburgh)
The Decemberists at Roadrunner
W.I.T.C.H. at Brighton Music Hall
The Chameleons at Theatre Fairmount (Montreal QC)
Built To Spill at Beachland Ballroom (Cleveland)
Johnny Marr and James at The Orpheum
The Saints at Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
The Jesus Lizard at Roadrunner
2024 Recap
So this is the time of the year where I remember I have a blog section to my website, and so I will use it to do a giant dump of what the year had in store. Well, it was certainly busy! With the loss of DigBoston I got to less big shows, but the arena and stadium shows don't hold a lot of appeal for me in general so it's not like I didn't see a ton of amazing shows. By my count, it ended up around 334 different performances, in 59 different venues, scattered over four countries and 16 different cities. (For the sake of argument i didn't differentiate cities in Massachusetts, aside from Solid Sound tucked up in the far corner of MA in North Adams).
Before I forget, I want to thank Jack at The Big Takeover and Rob at Culture Beat for letting me do my thing and covering bands I am interested in. Also big thanks to Sarika and the team at Desertfest London and NYC, I always have a great time at each event and and happy to be part of the team. So many great bands, awesome fans and good times every weekend they hold it. And a shout out to Ryan at Widowmaker too, Hopsmoker is a super good time! Lastly, the publicists and band management deserve kudos for approving me for press credentials most of the time, and thanks for kicking in a +1 when you can as well, much appreciated.
My day job didn't bring me back to Amsterdam like last year, but I can't complain as I squeezed in a three week jaunt to Melbourne and that was amazing. Saw some great shows and a bunch of cool nature stuff too.
Like last year, I'll do a dump of some of my favorite gigs and photos from them and add an appendix of all the reviews I wrote up as well. 2024 was a pretty strong year! I hope I have an equal thrill next year, like when Tony Iommi shared a photo of mine on his Instagram account... that was pretty wild and unexpected.
I had written up little blurbs for specific gigs that stood out and ended up losing that draft... so here's the list with re-assembled content.
Deathchant at Desertfest NYC. Last run of shows w/ Joe behind the drums... met these guys a few years ago at one of the Psycho Las Vegas events (can everyone toss a penny into a nearby well and wish for that festival to be resurrected?) and they completely rule, on and off stage. It takes a lot to skip out on watching an entire Amenra set for me but this time that decision was easy.
The Chameleons at Fairmount Theatre. Having Reg back in the lineup is one thing but I couldn't miss not hearing "Caution" played so I drove to Montreal as I couldn't make the Boston show.
Orsak:Oslo at Desertfest London Every once in a while a completely unknown band bowls you over, and Orsak:Oslo was that band for me this year. Essential guitar-fueled instrumental rock, and they sent me down a Discogs rabbit hole to get all their releases that weren't at the merch table.
Unwound at the Paradise Even though i really dislike this venue, there was no way I was skipping this show, especially as I played the long game and patiently waited for Unwound to book a local show.
AIR at MGM Music Hall. The French duo have each been busy doing their own solo work but got together to wish Moon Safari a happy 20th birthday. The detached Gallic cool factor was off the charts.
The Saints at Northcote Theatre. Sometimes life hands you unexpected gifts. Not only was I fortunate enough to have my day job send me to Melbourne for three weeks, it coincided with Ed and Ivor recruiting some friends (Mick Harvey and Mark Arm!) to bang out essential songs from The Saints' first three records.
IDLES at Roadrunner. Though TANGK landed on a lot of best-of year lists, it didn't really resonate too strongly with me. But skip a live show from them? Never.
The Jesus Lizard at Roadrunner. The Jesus Lizard have NEVER mailed in a show and Yow still subjects his body to the whims of the crowd, even at age 64. Simply incredible band.
Grails at Crystal Ballroom. It had been 11 years since they played town and as all five members live scattered over the US and even Europe, tours are pretty sporadic. "Sad & Illegal" was my favorite song of last year, what do you think?
Guided By Voices at Bearsville Theatre. I saw GBV a lot this year (8 times!), mainly since Pollard gave strong hints that this would be the last year of any sort of significant touring. Nothing beats a beery, sweaty show and the Bearsville (Beersville?) show was way up there, strengthened also by having Winged Wheel open. Classic Pollard banter - "We're happy to be playing near Woodstock. You know the baby who was on the cover of that Woodstock record? That was Bobby Bare Jr."
Horse Lords at Solid Sound Festival. A late show (they got on around midnight, after Wilco's headlining set but Tweedy made sure he caught their set) and their intricately built songs were a special reward for those who held out for it.
Poison Ruin at The Tote. The Tote is a long-running legendary venue in Melbourne and the crowd was ready to throw down for the five band bill, with Poison Ruin headlining.
Civic at Fairfield Lawn Bowling Club. Another band that I knew nothing about until seeing them this year. They start with a well-tested premise (I think everyone can agree that Radio Birdman is an essential band) and then give it a sharper edge without losing any of the songwriting craft.
Summoner at Widowmaker's Hopsmoker Fest. I wasn't expecting a Summoner reunion but got it anyway; what a great set, everyone in the building with giant grins.
The Damned at Big Night Live. I've seen this band a lot but never with Rat Scabies and Paul Gray both in the lineup. Essential stuff, not just punk rock.
2024 in pictures, continued:
2023 Recap
2023, by any perspective I approach it from, was a remarkable year for me in terms of photography. First off, I went to a ton of shows... 76 shows shot in total, and five I didn't (Sigur Ros w/ the LSO in Amsterdam, Rammstein in Lisbon, the Eric Arn/Glenn Jones show where I forgot to bring any memory cards (doh!), the 2nd night of GBV 40, and Dylan), in six different countries. I also covered six festivals - Desertfest London and NYC, Boston Calling, Newport Folk Festival, In Between Days, and Sky Blue Sky. The grand total of bands I photographed this year? 368. And I did a handful of shoots w/ bands for publicity photos, as well as with some artists at festivals. I hope to expand more in that area for next year.
I had the good luck of having my day job send me over to Amsterdam for over 60 days this year, and it was a great opportunity to really get to know a city much deeper than a regular tourist can. Safe to say that Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities and has a lot to offer. It was also really fun to re-connect with fellow photogs I'd met at Roadburn prior (Niels, Paul and Falk-Hagen), and to make some new friends like Kamil who graciously lent me a camera to use for a show in Germany where I also finally got to see Colour Haze and Kungens Man for the first time! I got to see some great shows in Amsterdam too; thanks to Tomoko and Meg for the hookup for the Pantera gig! The best one had to be seeing both Roy Montgomery and The Dead C, after so many years from the last time and I was super happy to chat with the guys before and after the show.
A big setback was having Dig Boston cease operations, and I want to thank Chris Faraone for entrusting me with so much leeway in covering the acts that interested me (and hopefully others!) the most. The flip side is that I'm now providing a lot more content for my old pal Jack Rabid and the venerable Big Takeover magazine and I appreciate the opportunity. I also have provided some show coverage for Culture Beat, Rob Duguay's PVD/BOS-centric blog on music so thanks Rob!
It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without the publicists and the bands who've given me a lot of trust that allows me to capture all these incredible moments so thank you! Also hats off to Sarika and her team at Desert Scene for having me as part of the teams in London and NYC to cover the event. 2024 looks even better and I am honored to be part of these great teams.
With so many shows it's extremely hard to come up with a top 10 for the year but I've definitely done dumber things so here goes; I am purposely avoiding for the most part bands I've seen a lot in the past; there is no doubt that bands like Wilco, Elder, Major Stars, Dinosaur Jr, Amenra, Converge, Guided By Voices, etc know how to put on a great show... These bands have never mailed it in and continue to be transcendent on stage. I didn't think that 2023 would be the year I saw Colour Haze not only once but twice! Truly magnificent, a band that operates in a fully organic mode, each of the four members a critical piece. This is a pretty long post so I'll also add Bill Callahan and Yo La Tengo sets a few weeks apart in Amsterdam's lovely Paradiso were both incredible shows. I caught Minibeast opening for Jon Spencer early but their show later in the year with Mike Watt's MSSV was a 1-2 hit to the back of my skull. Great to see the veterans doing new shit and not just coasting on stuff they wrote decades ago; rock is still vital!
At Desertfest London I got to see my buds Deathchant and Dommengang wring every last bit of energy out of their instruments and was also afforded the opportunity to finally see Weedpecker and Spaceslug. Polish stoner rock is on a high crest right now, do not sleep on these bands. I've seen QOTSA a few times but this summer's set (longer than their festival set at Boston Calling) was really special for me as I finally got to see them play "In The Fade," a song that means a ton to me and is even more emotionally charged in the wake of Mark Lanegan's untimely passing. Oh, and Yves Tumor? That is a proper rock star with there, attitude and presentation with songs and musicianship to back it. Wow!
I guess that's at least 10 but I also want to mention local buds GOZU and Blood Lightning, who both put out amazing records this year, and I also finally got to see Sam Black Church; yeah I was a little late on that one. Last pile of accolades must include REZN, Slowdive, Codeine, Yob, Coven, the triumphant return of Reg along w/ Mark to bring The Chameleons' songs to life, a vital part of my listening evolution. Lastly, the Twins of Evil tour was so good I had to see it twice, Boris and Melvins were a dream tour pairing and both bands exceeded what I thought was possible.
So, thanks for staying with me on this lengthy post and let's see some kickass stuff in 2024 together!
Browse HERE for way more photos from 2023:
PS - one thing I forgot I did last year was to catalog all of the reviews I wrote, so here goes for 2023:(in the spirit of completeness, I've added a couple stragglers from 2022 that didn't get published until early this year, 48 in all.):
Budos Band @ Brighton Music Hall
Dry Cleaning @ The Toulouse Theatre
Constant Smiles @ The Lily Pad
Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew play Remain in Light at House of Blues
Boston Calling - Day 3 and Festival Wrap Up
Sisters of Mercy @ Big Night Live
The Backseat Lovers @ Roadrunner
Young The Giant - Leader Bank Pavilion
Panda Bear + Sonic Boom @ The Paradise
The Clientele @ Crystal Ballroom
Queens of the Stone Age @ Cross Insurance Arena
Tedeschi Trucks Band @ TD Garden
Explosions in the Sky @ Roadrunner
Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood @ The Wang
The Chats + Cosmic Psychos @ House of Blues
Mudhoney @ Brighton Music Hall
Squirrel Flower @ Brighton Music Hall
