Vitesse X covers Filter for her latest single.

photo by Chris Burden

New York producer, vocalist, and DJ Vitesse X shares her take on Filter’s late-’90s alt-rock classic “Take A Picture,” out today via Music Website. The track follows her recent single “Memori,” her first new music since the release of her acclaimed second album This Infinite.

On her version of “Take A Picture,” Vitesse X pulls the song out of its post-grunge radio-rock context and into something hazier and more suspended. Built around trip-hop-leaning drums, atmospheric production, and the song’s unmistakable melodic center, the cover draws out the melancholy beneath the original’s sense of escape while bringing it into Vitesse X’s own dream-pop world. 

Of the track, Vitesse X says, “I was listening to ‘Take a Picture’ in the car in the winter, deep in some heavy emotions. I was feeling really detached from the current state of music and exhausted by the demands of the modern world. When the song came on, I was immediately transported back to a feeling I had completely forgotten existed. A time where life felt tangible and simple and pure. It was honestly transcendental. I opened up my phone notes to remind myself to make a cover, and a month later it came to fruition.” 

Vitesse X has spent the last several years shaping a sound that sits between dream pop, breakbeats, club music, and alternative electronic production, becoming a quiet reference point for listeners drawn to shoegaze-adjacent electronic music, soft-club nostalgia, and left-field pop. Her 2024 album This Infinite expanded that world further, with KEXP calling it “a fantastic set of glistening synth-pop” and Pitchfork previously describing her debut Us Ephemeral as “transportive” and “engineered with precision.” She has since continued to connect across indie and electronic audiences through touring, collaborations, and a growing visual world. 

Check out “Take A Picture” and stay tuned for more music from Vitesse X coming soon.

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Cornelius announces new album with a new single with Sean Ono Lennon – “Aeons.”

Photo credit: Hideaki Hamada

Today, Cornelius announces his new album ‘REFRACTIONS’, the forthcoming full-length from Japanese musician, producer and composer Keigo Oyamada. The album is to be released on August 19th on Eat Your Own Ears Recordings and marks a new collaborative chapter in his work. Along with the album announcement, he has also announced a Japanese tour as well as a show at London’s Barbican.

For more than three decades, Cornelius has occupied a singular space in contemporary music, transforming everyday sound into intricate rhythmic systems and immersive, cinematic soundscapes. ‘REFRACTIONS’ continues this trajectory while marking a subtle but important shift outward. Where previous Cornelius records often leaned toward introspection, this new work is shaped more explicitly through collaboration and exchange. A sentiment illustrated with the album’s lead single Aeons, featuring Sean Ono Lennon. The track sees Lennon contribute vocals and lyrics, bringing his distinctive melodic sensibility and lyrical voice into Cornelius’ ever-shifting sonic world.

The creative relationship between Kiego and Sean stretches back to the late 1990s, when Cornelius first encountered Sean’s work and was struck by its unusual harmonic language, melodic openness and experimental pop sensibility. Across the years, their exchanges have continued to evolve through shared projects and long-standing artistic trust, with Sean inviting Cornelius be part of Yoko Ono’s re-formed Plastic Ono Band, doing performances is LA, NY, and London.

Aeons represents one of their most direct collaborations to date. Speaking about the collaboration, Cornelius says: “As the world and my surroundings changed at an intense speed, I think all of that inevitably shaped this work. Rather than expressing these ideas directly, I approached them structurally – exploring continuity, transformation, and multiple coexisting states within a single, uninterrupted flow of time.”

That same sense of shifting perception runs through Aeons,” a track built around fluid forms and subtle instability, where melody and texture appear, fracture and reassemble in constantly evolving configurations.

Sean Ono Lennon reflects on the collaboration: “I’m always honoured to work with Keigo, he’s one of my favourite humans on the Earth Planet!”

Listen to “Aeons (ft. Sean Ono Lennon)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14-VSYqIRWw
‘‘Refractions’’ album links: https://linktr.ee/Cornelius_Japan

Emerging in the early 1990s after the dissolution of Tokyo pop group Flipper’s Guitar, Keigo Oyamada quickly developed a reputation as a meticulous sonic architect, building dense, playful and highly detailed musical worlds that dissolve genre boundaries entirely.

International breakthrough album ‘Fantasma’ (1997) established Cornelius on a global stage and is widely regarded as a landmark in experimental pop. Its collage-like approach to production drew comparisons to The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Beck and The Beastie Boys, while helping define a new international appetite for adventurous Japanese music. Nearly three decades later, the album continues to resonate with new generations of listeners, with b-side “Typewrite Lesson” recently unexpectedly finding renewed life in a viral moment on TikTok and support from artists such as Rosalía.

“This time, instead of turning inward, I wanted to open the work through interaction with others,” says Cornelius of his new work. “I’ve come to feel more strongly that reality is not something completed within oneself, but something shaped through relationships and exchanges.”

That philosophy runs through the fabric of REFRACTIONS, which also features contributions from Arto Lindsay, Bid, and longtime collaborator Shintaro Sakamoto.

Across REFRACTIONS, Cornelius continues to explore shifting perception, memory and interconnected consciousness, not through narrative but through sound itself. Tracks behave less like fixed compositions and more like living systems: ideas branch, overlap and mutate, forming an evolving sonic landscape where multiple states coexist at once.

Despite its conceptual framework, the record remains deeply human in tone. There is a familiar warmth and playfulness embedded within its intricate construction, a sense of curiosity that has long defined Cornelius’ work. Drawing from psychedelic pop, ambient music, Brazilian tropicália, kosmische experimentation and minimalist composition, ‘Refractions’ ultimately resists categorisation, existing instead within its own internal logic.

For new listeners, REFRACTIONS offers a gateway into one of contemporary music’s most quietly influential catalogues. For long-time followers, it reveals an artist still expanding and reshaping his language after more than three decades.

What emerges is not a fixed statement, but something constantly in motion: music that refracts, reshapes and reorients itself as it unfolds. REFRACTIONS marks the beginning of a new chapter for Cornelius, an artist who remains entirely singular in the landscape of modern music.

Cornelius live dates:
10 Sep – Yokohama, JP – KT Zepp Yokohama
12 Sep – Tokyo, JP – CLUB QUATTRO
13 Sep – Fukuoka, JP – Zepp Fukuoka
19 Sep – Sapporo, JP – Zepp Sapporo
22 Sep – Nagoya, JP – Zepp Nagoya
23 Sep – Osaka, JP – Zepp Namba
26 Sep – Sendai, JP – Sendai PIT
2 Oct – Tokyo, JP – Zepp Haneda
3 Oct – Tokyo, JP – Zepp Haneda
6 Oct – Tokyo, JP – Zepp Shinjuku (TOKYO)
19 Jun, 2027 – London, UK – Barbican

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No Joy releases title track from upcoming EP – “Big Life, Big Leaf.”

credit: Samuel Fournier

In 2025, No Joy released their 5th LP Bugland. The project of Jasamine White-Gluz, had long been a critical darling, but their 2025 album was a new high water mark. Produced by the heralded Chicago experimental artist Fire-Toolz, the album earned a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork, who called it “a perfect album for our current shoecraze…Bugland is full of more textures, more ambiance, more chunky ’90s guitar. It crushes like a giant box of Gushers,” with further praise coming from Bandcamp, FADERStereogumBrooklyn VeganAV ClubHearing Things, FLOOD, and Exclaim, and last week was nominated for the Polaris Prize.

At the end of May, No Joy appeared at first edition New York’s Total Bummer fest and next month they’ll make an appearance at the legendary Roskilde festival. Ahead of that appearance No Joy is announcing a new EP entitled Big Life, Big Leaf, which is a further collaboration with Fire-Toolz, who just released her first LP on Warp Records. The EP will be released on August 21st on Hand Drawn Dracula, and is being announced with its title track, which was co-written with Japanese Breakfast and Sky Ferreira producer Jorge Elbrecht

White-Gluz says of the track:

“This was a demo I had that we never got around to during the Bugland sessions. In 2024 I brought it to Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, Sky Ferreira), who I have a long history of writing with. We really love exploring the absurd, combining musical ideas that shouldn’t really make sense together – it felt great picking up where we left off after 2020’s Motherhood LP. Bringing the song back around to Angel Marcloid (Fire-Toolz) more recently (post-Bugland LP sessions) made perfect sense to me; both Angel and Jorge have insane musicality and melodic imagination. Angel is a brilliant pop producer, she has a knack for shaping where a song can take you emotionally. Tara McLeod (Kittie) rips on guitar as usual, continuing to bring this heavy-but-effervescent energy.

“Lyrically, I wrote and recorded these vocals in one take during an emotional time this past spring. I was exploring the boundless pain one feels when it is time to say goodbye to someone or something. It is also during those moments that it is important to remember, ironically, to have joy. To mourn is also to celebrate.”

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Billy Azurdia releases a dreamy new single – “Solamente En Mis Sueños.”

South Bay based singer-songwriter Billy Azurdia is releasing “Solamente En Mis Sueños,” on July 7, 2026. The genre bending single will be the 3rd and final release before his upcoming full length album. A danceable and ambitious departure from the straight forward tenderness of “Contigo,” “Solamente En Mis Sueños” showcases
Azurdia’s confident versatility, blending city pop, folk and shoegaze.

Azurdia delivers a distinct 3-act anthem that begins on a sparkling dance floor, followed by a chromatic build that releases into a massive, distorted crescendo. The lyric and emotional component describe a chance meeting, that while beautiful, leaves one with a heart full of longing and bittersweetness. The finale explodes with fuzzy guitars, and dreamy synths, as Azurdia belts “Dejame aquí, puedo verte sonreir” (“Leave me here, I can see you smile”).


Billy Azurdia has been writing, producing and releasing music from his solo projects and as a contributing member of multiple Los Angeles projects, including Mind Monogram and Jane Astronaut, since 2011. His most recent work is an arrival as an indie folk writer, blending earthy grit and shimmering whimsy.

“Solamente En Mis Sueños was an opportunity for me to explore unconventional structure, danceable rhythms and blending it with the singer-songwriter styled indie folk that I’ve been producing these days. I’ve had the desire to explore city pop for a long time and I love songs that don’t ever return to a previous section, like (The Beatles) Day In The Life. I ended up with something I’m really excited about.”

“Solamente En Mis Sueños” will be on streaming platforms July 7th 2026.

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atmos bloom beckon us “Closer” with their new single.

Credit: Kyoka Seguchi

Music is what initially brought atmos bloom — Tilda Gratton and Curtis Paterson — together when Tilda auditioned to play bass in Curtis’ band at the University in Manchester. 

Seven years on from those rainy nights rehearsing in Trafford, the duo, now life partners living in London, are set to release their most compelling record yet. Everythingness was born out of a series of balancing acts, the journey through youth and young adulthood, chasing adventure while longing for home and falling in love with the city where they found this home, yet still needing to escape it in order to think and create. The record maps the duo’s journey through these themes whilst staying true to what initially brought the two together. It’s set for a July 24th release via Spirit Goth

Following last month’s release of “Everything,”today they share the new single for “Closer.” It plays into the hazy, half-lucid magic of the band’s formula.

On “Closer,” the band share: “‘Closer’ explores self-love and finding peace with yourself and your inner child, whilst also missing past versions of you that no longer remain.”

Check out the new video via YouTubeandpre-order the album.


atmos bloom’s first musical venture together: a psych-rock-shoegaze outfit inspired by bands such as Sonic Youth, Pavement and julie ignited a love for being in a band and making music. Their debut album Flora was born as the pandemic began to ease and restrictions in the UK were starting to be lifted. The record reflected this new beginning, a shining, shimmering record of hope that felt like an endless summer, with just a glance over the shoulder at the troubles left behind. As a result, Flora was inspired by jangly bedroom and dream pop, such as Alvvays, Beach Fossils and Cleaners From Venus

On this second album Everythingness, a much different time is represented, a time with more uncertainty, painting a clear picture of the state of flux the duo found themselves in. The flow of the record reflects the endless cycle of feeling up and down and the sudden changes we all experience. From hope, self-realisation and sufficiency to fear, loneliness and unbearable pressures. The most positive and joyous parts of the album are met with the darkest and most lost. Even within individual songs we find ourselves plunged into a landscape that’s unrecognizable from the one where we started, only to be dropped back in and end at the beginning. Neither the ups nor the downs linger for too long and the overall message of the record is left up to the listener. 

Do we enjoy the light whilst we’re in it, cut loose in the dark and embrace the unpredictability? Or do we live in fear of the uncertainty that’s around the corner, unable to embrace either the light or dark for fear of a sudden shift. The record ends with a clock-like rhythm, representing the perpetual cycle we find ourselves in, unstoppable and uncontrollable, all encompassing – Everythingness.

Without the restraints of trying to make a particular record, the pair unleash a wide range of influences, all explored through an honest and personal lens on this self recorded and produced work.  In particular, bands such as DIIV, Ulrika Spacek, Deerhunter, Broadcast inspired Everythingness, without betraying the duo’s foundation in both psych-rock-shoegaze and jangly bedroom/dream pop. 

The album’s artwork and themes reflect the environments in which the album was crafted – a patchwork, a collage, intersecting aspects of life and the world, and the journey to find our place within it.

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MAQUINA. team up with Dame Area for hot new single – “dança.”

Photo credit: William Anthony

Following electric shows at The Great Escape & across the UK, Lisbon’s party-starters MAQUINA. have shared dança (ft. Dame Area)” – a second cut from their forthcoming new album ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’, due out July 10th via Fuzz Club.

MAQUINA. embody all the sweaty togetherness and euphoria a collective music experience has to offer. The buzzy Lisbon trio have been getting punks to dance and club kids to pogo – “making the bubbles connect a little bit” – with such fervour they routinely pack out venues and inspire multiple waves of crowdsurfing at any given live show.

On their new LP they bottle that energy, and they don’t waste any time getting started. Today they share the album’s party-popping opener dança, a track pumped and primed to turn heads and get the blood flowing, featuring bratty punk vocals from Silvia Konstance and synths from Viktor L. Crux of Barcelona-based duo Dame Area. Inspired by the pair’s work, MAQUINA. invited them to collaborate on the track, with Konstance swapping her native Italian for Portuguese. The track sets up the heartbeat of the record, all relentlessly propulsive 4/4, feral shrieking, and a smoking guitar line that cuts through the three-note bass riff with searing focus. 

Speaking on the track, MAQUINA. comment: “‘dança’ explores a moment of introspection: the importance of being with oneself, of making space for an intimate moment, even if through dance. When words fail, the body speaks. “I just want to dance” becomes a statement suspended between inward reflection and the need for release.”

 Listen to “dança (ft. Dame Area)”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJubkifWbzY
‘BODY TRANSMISSION’ album links:http://maquina.lnk.to/bodytransmission

With over 250 gigs and numerous festival appearances across Europe already under their belt MAQUINA. are on a high after their first tour of Brazil and KEXP performance. The three-piece ring in a new chapter with their second LP ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’: a head-banging trip through high-energy noise-rock, motorik metal, and industrial punk that doesn’t stop moving. 

Bottling the raw power of their now-legendary live shows, BODY TRANSMISSION’ – co-produced by the band alongside Hugo Valverde – arrives following MAQUINA.’s 2024 debut ‘PRATA’, also released on Fuzz Club and largely driven by improvisation, locking itself into the flow state of a live performance. For their new full-length, the band – Halison Peres (drums/vocals), José “Mendy” Rego (bass), and João Cavalheiro (guitar/effects) – opted for less jamming and more “editing”, taking time to mull over the direction of each track while also looking to condense 10-minute meanders into three or four-minute “bangers” that slap.

The result is a full-body rush geared towards the dance-floor with “no breaks”; a club-ready rock record steered by the trio’s guitar, drums, and bass combo. “It was the most challenging and fun we’ve ever had in the studio because we pushed ourselves to write songs rather than just capturing jams,” say the band. “We wanted it to feel heavy, focused, and relentless. We kept the tempo up and the energy peaking – it’s an ‘always-on’ record.”

MAQUINA. live dates:
20 June – Lucerne, Switzerland – B-Sides Festival
21 June – Martigny, Switzerland – Caves du Manoir
23 June – Bilbao, Spain – Kutxa Beltza
24 June – Madrid, Spain – Café Berlin
25 June – Santander, Spain – The New
26 June – Bergerac, France – La Claque Festival
27 June – Paimpol, France – Paimpol in Rock
28 June – Bourlon, France – Rock in Bourlon
4 July – Sintra, Portugal – Festival Aqui ao Lado
18 July – Lisbon, Portugal – Musa de Marvila (DJ Set)
31 July – Constância, Portugal – Rock ao Luar
6 August – Aveiro, Portugal – Novas Quintas, Teatro Aveirense
7 August – Nuremberg, Germany – Brückenfestival
9 August – Liège, Belgium – Micro Festival
16 August – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – Capitol*
10 September – Šibenik, Croatia – SHIP Festival
12 September – Orléans, France – Hop Pop Hop Festival
* supporting Amyl and the Sniffers

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Desire drop your new favorite summer anthem – “Summer Skin.”

For two decades, Desire have been making music for romantics. Created by Megan Louise and Johnny Jewel, the Montreal group emerged from the shadows of underground synth-pop to build a world entirely their own — where beauty lingers, heartbreak glows, and every song feels like the beginning of a love story. 

Later this year, Desire return with Physical, their fourth studio album. Led by the euphoric first single Summer Skin,” out today via Italians Do It Better Physical is a record about attraction, freedom, pleasure, movement, and being completely present while life is happening.

Windows down.

A favorite song playing at exactly the right moment.

The feeling that summer might never end.

“Summer Skin” opens with the sound of light from our nearest star dancing across the water. Yesterday is here to stay…That cyclical motif echoes the past lives we all carry with us, but each day is new & anything is possible. Summer brings us a recurring romantic optimism. Let’s celebrate & live in the moment. If the world feels like it’s ending…Turn the radio on & dance. Drip Drip…” – Johnny Jewel“Summer Skin” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43bfGZEfKTo

Written between continents, airports, hotel rooms, backstage corridors, and late nights at home, Physical captures the moments we spend our lives chasing — and the memories we carry long after they’re gone.

Since “Under Your Spell” became one of the defining musical moments of Drive, Desire have quietly become one of modern synth-pop’s most beloved cult acts, soundtracking fashion runways, bedrooms, films, dance floors, and late-night drives across the globe.

Desire return with their most immediate and intimate work to date.

“Physical is about falling in love with life again. The people around you, the music you’re listening to, the sunlight on your skin, the moments you wish could last forever.” — Desire

Desire are also set to tour Europe later this year with all dates listed below. 

Tour dates:
15 Nov — Prague — Bike Jesus
17 Nov — Copenhagen — Hotel Cecil
18 Nov — Berlin — Frannz Club
20 Nov — Groningen — Simplon Poppodium
21 Nov — Rotterdam — Rotown
23 Nov — Brussels — Beursschouwburg
24 Nov — Lille — La Grand Mix
25 Nov — London — Colour Factory
27 Nov — Manchester — White Hotel
28 Nov — Glasgow — Stereo
30 Nov — Paris — Petit Bain
01 Dec — Grenoble — L’Ampérage
02 Dec — Bern — Dachstock
04 Dec — Ravenna — Bronson
05 Dec — Rome — Monk
08 Dec — Zagreb — Mochvara
09 Dec — Belgrade — Zappa Baza 

Tickets: https://lnkfi.re/desirelive

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Top 25 concerts of 2021 – 2025: #’s 5 – 1

The final five on this list were, believe it or not, fairly easy to determine. This is probably because they were so good and also because they all hit some emotional note for me because I didn’t think I’d see any of them ever again (or, in one case, even once).

#5: Nine Inch Nails – United Center – Chicago – August 20, 2025

This surprise tour sold out in rapid time, but luckily Nine Inch Nails added a second Chicago show due to popular demand. I had tickets for my fiancé and I, and then learned that my future stepdaughter was a NIN fan. I managed to get a third ticket to what turned out to be a stunning show with three stages, excellent remixes, and an enthusiastic crowd who were roaring for every song.

#4: Underworld – Radius – Chicago – May 17, 2025

Here’s the band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. Underworld playing two full sets at this intimate venue was an immediate purchase. It was a brilliant time, and stunning to see these two gents who can fill stadiums play such a small show with full energy to keep us dancing until the late hours.

#3: Midnight Oil – Riviera / Chicago – June 10, 2022

Midnight Oil was one of my late wife’s favorite bands. We’d seen them two during college, then on their reunion tour in the 2010s, and then we were supposed to see this show, but she died barely eight months earlier. I felt the need to go to honor her and see friends. It was the right decision. The show helped lift some of the weight off me. Midnight Oil sounded great, and it was their final tour. They belted out classics and left us all ready to resist tyranny and love each other.

#2: Love and Rockets – Riviera – Chicago – June 06, 2023

Here is the band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. I missed them in their heyday, and the closest I’d come until this show was seeing David J play an acoustic set at Levitaiton Music Festival. Love and Rockets flattened the place, sounding as strong as ever and reminding all of us that they were and still are rock stars. I was on cloud nine for the whole show.

#1: Failure – Bottom Lounge / Chicago – July 01, 2022

Failure are one of my favorite bands of all time. I don’t joke when I tell people that their Fantastic Planet album can be life-changing. This reunion tour caught me off-guard. I stumbled upon the announcement and then word that they had a VIP package that included a meet-and-greet and attendance at their sound check. It was another emotional show for me, as I was still reeling from my wife’s death and hearing “Another Space Song” live brought me to tears. The show was powerful for a lot of us. I saw a lot of people beaming throughout it, and the band were all happy to chat with us, sign anything, and talk with us about everything from music to films, and, in my case, grief. Again, I don’t joke when I say this show was instrumental in my healing. I’ll always thank Failure for it.

There have been plenty of good shows already in 2026, so come back in early 2027 to see which of those make the list for the best of the year.

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Top 25 concerts of 2021 – 2025: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached the top ten of concerts I saw over the last five years, and it includes more bands I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. Starting with…

#10: Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade – Kemba Live!, Columbus, OH – May 31st, 2022

Les Claypool’s side project, The Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, put out one album and a cool double-live album many years ago. I didn’t think he’d revive the project and knew I had to see this tour as soon as it was announced. Sure enough, it was a cool show full of weird psychedelic rock, Sean Lennon on lead guitar, and them covering Pink Floyd’s Animals in its entirety in the middle of the show.

#9: Viagra Boys – Salt Shed – Chicago – February 24, 2023

This was bonkers. It was, according to Viagra Boys’ lead singer Sebastian Murphy, their biggest show in the U.S. so far. It was packed, sweaty, loud, and crazy. The entire indoor stage at the Salt Shed felt like it was shaking and that a drug-fueled orgy might break out at any moment.

#8: TV on the Radio – September 27, 2025 – Levitation Austin – Austin, TX

Here’s the next band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see. TVOTR didn’t have a new album to promote, but they were touring and headlining one night of the Levitation Music Festival. I would have gone to the festival just to see them, and they didn’t disappoint. They brought everything I wanted: Energy, fury, power, and joy.

#7: Orbital – Radius – Chicago – March 23, 2024

Here’s the third band in this part of the list I wasn’t sure I’d ever see. Orbital’s tour was another surprise and it was great to see them in a reasonably small venue. They sounded excellent, and the show felt like being transported back in time to a 1993 rave. I hadn’t danced that much in a long while.

#6: Elton John – Soldier Field – Chicago – August 05, 2022

It was a hot and humid night at Soldier Field when Sir Elton John played his final Chicago show on his final tour. It was a big, fun, and emotional show, and he and his band sounded great. In terms of sound quality, this probably is the best show I heard of the last five years. Every note was clear.

Up next, the top five, and they’re all bands I wasn’t sure I’d ever see.

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Top 25 concerts of 2021 – 2025: #’s 20 – 16

The numbers get smaller, the concerts get bigger. Here are more of the best shows I attended in the last five years.

#20: Frankie and the Witch Fingers – The Brass Rail – October 08, 2021

FATW always brings the fire, and the small stage in Ft. Wayne, Indiana (a little over an hour drive from my house) could barely contain it. They were still somewhat unknown back then and are rocking major festivals and releasing double-albums by now.

#19: Deap Vally – Thalia Hall – Chicago – February 10, 2024

How could I not see Deap Vally’s final tour, let alone at one of my favorite venues? The duo unleashed a roaring set that left everyone wanting and hoping for more at some future date. Will it happen? No one but Deap Vally knows, but they left us with a great gift if that was the final curtain.

#18: LCD Soundsystem – Aragon Ballroom – Chicago – May 26, 2024

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen LCD Soundsystem, but it was the first time I’d seen them with my fiancé, who’d become a fan of them early in our dating life. Seeing them after a few years of absence and seeing her joyful reaction to their fun, danc beat-filled show was a lovely moment.

#17: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Sleeping Village – Chicago – March 28, 2023

Holy crap. This was the first time Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs played in Chicago and I almost didn’t go to this show. I didn’t decide until a day before it, as I felt like I needed to be there. I’m glad I listened to my gut because this was such a strong set that I was surprised the back wall was still standing by the end. They were a bit surprised by how many showed up to see them and I became a big fan that night.

#16: The Damned – Concord Music Hall, Chicago, IL, June 02, 2024

Here’s another band I wasn’t sure I’d get to see live…enough though I’d seen them before this show. Confused? That’s because The Damned reunited their 1980s lineup that included Paul Gray and Rat Scabies for this tour. This lineup, with Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible, was the lineup of The Damned I’d heard when I discovered them back in high school. They put on a great set that had me smiling and moshing the entire time, and Rat Scabies’ heartfelt reaction to the crowd cheering for him was lovely.

We’re almost halfway through the list? Who lies ahead? Come back tomorrow!

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