Concerts
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Stevie Wonder used his Detroit homecoming as an opportunity to clap back at presidential candidate Donald Trump for disrespecting the city during the campaign.
“I just gotta say for the record, I don’t like nobody talking bad about Detroit,” the Motown icon told a sold-out crowd on Tuesday night at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on the latest stop of his Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart tour. He then led the audience in a chant of “Don’t cha do it!,” pointedly aimed at Trump.
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Wonder was referencing the Republican candidate’s disparaging remarks during an Oct. 13 speech to the Detroit Economic Club, where he warned that if his Democratic opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, is elected, “the whole country will end up being like Detroit — a mess.”
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He also called Detroit “a developing area more than most places in China.” His remarks generated equally harsh criticism from Detroit and Michigan civic leaders as well as labor leaders.
Wonder, who has publicly, endorsed Harris as “not just any woman, a wonderful woman, and she has done the work consistently.”
He announced the Sing Our Song! tour less than three weeks before its Oct. 8 opening in Pittsburgh, playing 11 shows in mostly swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the wake of his surprise single, “As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.”
The swipe at Trump — on a night former President Barack Obama was campaigning for Harris nearby at Detroit’s Huntington Center (introduced by Eminem) — was not Wonder’s only political comment on Tuesday.
Later in the show he recited, for the first time ever, the lyrics of a new song, “Politic Playa,” which Wonder said will appear on his next album, Through the Eyes of Wonder, slated for release in March. T
he pointed song includes verses such as “you campaigned throughout the nation, saying you’ll unite the land/But when you get in office, you completely change the plan,” with a chorus that runs, “Politic playa/Why you playin’ politics so wrong/Politic playa/You get what you want, then you’re absent, up and gone.”
Introducing “Village Ghetto Land,” on which he sang accompanied only by a 12-piece string section, Wonder, who was born in Saginaw and moved to Detroit when he was four years old, recalled the violence and poverty he witnessed in the neighborhood in which he grew up.
“I just remember all this stuff was going on…a lot of what we saw then is what we’re seeing now, and that’s unacceptable. We gotta fix that,” he said, turning his attention to politicians as he added, “It’s not about what they say; it’s what they do. And my freedom and my rights for what I want can’t be bought.”
Wonder took one more shot at Trump while vamping during “Do I Do,” referencing the Economic Club remarks again before saying, “All this has gotta stop…Let’s make America LOVE again.”
Wonder’s Detroit show was also distinguished by some special moments, including a bit of fellow Motowners the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” early on and the tour debut of “My Eyes Don’t Cry,” which had a line of fans on the arena floor doing an impromptu hustle.
During his mid-show break from the stage, meanwhile, Detroit’s Perfecting Greater Grace Singers choir performed Aretha Franklin’s “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” before Wonder’s six backing vocalists paid tribute to the late Frankie Beverly with a rendition of Maze’s “Before I Let Go.”
Wonder also had to overcome some technical problems that shorted out the PA system three times during the night.
After the first — which interrupted “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” — was resolved he thanked the fans “for being patient, ’cause we can work it out, right?” before launching an impromptu rendition of the Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” which he covered for a Top 20 single in 1970. The second and third came in rapid succession during “Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing,” and an exasperated Wonder, while remaining composed, commented, “I’m sure the sound crew feels messed up.”
When it was finally fixed, he quipped “Oh, Stevie, Stevie, we forgive the mess up, and we’ll never mess up like that again.”
Wonder has four more dates on the Sing Your Song! tour, which wraps up Nov. 2 in Chicago.
Jason Isbell is leaving the 400 Unit at home next year for what is being billed as an “Intimate Evening” with the six-time Grammy winner.
The tour begins on Feb. 15 in Chicago and runs through the end of March, with select stops in smaller markets, including Portsmouth, NH, and large cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Nashville.
Isbell recently wrapped an eight-show residency at Music City’s Ryman Auditorium to mark the release of Live From The Ryman Vol. 2, a collection of recordings from four of the last six years of sold-out shows at legendary venue.
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Earlier this year, Isbell won his fifth and sixth Grammy when 2023’s Weathervanes (recorded with the 400 Unit) earned best Americana album and the track “Cast Iron Skillet” scored best American roots song. The Alabama native and former Drive-By Trucker first broke out in solo form in 2013 with his Dave Cobb-produced fourth LP Southeastern. His next two albums, Something More Than Free (2015) and The Nashville Sound (2017), were Grammy magnets and each won awards for best Americana album and roots song (for “24 Frames” and “If We Were Vampires,” respectively).
Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 25 via Isbell’s website.
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JASON ISBELL SOLO DATES
February 15 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
February 16 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
February 17 – Portsmouth, NH – The Music Hall
February 18 – Providence, RI – Providence Performing Arts Center
February 21 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
February 22 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
February 28 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
March 1 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
March 14 – Los Angeles, CA – Walt Disney Hall
March 15 – Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Theatre
March 20 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
March 21 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
March 22 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
March 28 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
March 29 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theater
Jason Isbell
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Cruel World festival will return in 2025 with headliners New Order and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Southern California promoter Goldenvoice (the folks behind Coachella) will head back to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, May 17, with additional performances from legendary acts Devo, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Death Cult, Garbage, […]
At Travis Scott’s Circus Maximus show in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 18, fans were treated to a massive surprise when The Weeknd, who also happened to be in the country, joined him on stage for four of their collaborative tracks.
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Scott had teased the surprise during his first Sydney show on Oct. 17, telling the crowd, “I’m gonna see my friend tomorrow morning and see if he can get on the stage. I was trying to get him today.”
He then performed “CIRCUS MAXIMUS,” a track featuring The Weeknd, fueling the excitement for night two.
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Both artists also dropped cryptic videos from Sydney’s iconic Luna Park before the performance. The park’s enormous, illuminated face at its entrance bears an uncanny resemblance to the imagery from Scott’s ASTROWORLD—a carnival vibe that’s been a major part of his branding. Fans quickly caught on, adding to the buzz that something big was brewing.
True to his word, The Weeknd made his appearance on stage the following night (Oct. 18), performing alongside the rapper for an assortment of their numerous collaborations together, including, “CIRCUS MAXIMUS,” “Pray 4 Love,” “SKELETONS,” and “WAKE UP.”
The pair’s long-standing collaboration and chemistry were evident as they lit up the stage, much to the crowd’s delight. Scott introduced The Weeknd to the audience as “the greatest of all time.”
“This man right here gave me my first arena tour ever,” Scott told the audience of the Weeknd. “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be on this stage right now.”
Scott’s Circus Maximus Australian and New Zealand tour continues through Oct. 31, with a final show in Auckland, New Zealand. After wrapping up his tour Down Under, Scott and his Cactus Jack crew are set to take over Complexcon in Las Vegas on Nov. 17.
The rapper’s Circus Maximus tour continues to break records, following the global success of Utopia, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart, earning 496,000 album-equivalent units (including 252,000 in pure album sales) in its first week.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd is in Australia for his After Hours Til Dawn tour, with upcoming shows at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Oct. 22 and 23. This marks his first return to Australia since 2017, with fans eagerly awaiting his next album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, which has already teased singles like “Dancing in the Flames” and “Timeless.”
“I feel a strong pull to perform in Australia before moving on to the next chapter and want to make sure you all know I hadn’t forgotten about you,” The Weeknd said in a statement announcing his new Australian tour dates back in August. “When I return now, it will be the right time, and I promise it will be such a special experience. I can’t wait to see you all!”
Mike Dean, Chxrry22 and Sydney’s own Anna Lunoe are currently supporting The Weeknd on the four Australia dates.
Check out The Weeknd’s surprise performance with Travis Scott below.
Singer-songwriter GOAT Joni Mitchell took over the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday (Oct. 19) for the first of two “Joni Jam” concerts.
Despite the size of the open-air, highway-adjacent venue, a crowd of 17,000 worshipful fans was gifted with a show that felt like an intimate, inviting look into life for Mitchell at 80: shooting the breeze with friends and admirers from the comfort of a plush (yet appropriately regal) chair, sipping pinot grigio by the mellow lamplight and singing a song (or 25) when the spirit takes her.
Cozy at that may sound, getting to this warm hug of a victory lap has been a hard-fought victory for Mitchell — a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak or walk, and she had to watch videos of herself playing guitar to relearn her own songs. But the Canadian artist, who suffered from polio as a child, is no stranger to uphill battles, and after years of keeping out of the public eye following her health crisis, the Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer stunned the world in 2022 by making an unannounced return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival.
A proper headlining gig followed in June 2023 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, and her soul-scraping turn at the 2024 Grammys allowed an even wider audience to experience the depth and gravitas Mitchell is still capable of bringing to a performance.
Joining her at each of those gigs was Brandi Carlile, an avowed acolyte whom Mitchell has described as “my ambassador.” Naturally, Carlile joined Mitchell onstage Saturday at the Bowl, too, radiating joy and nervous excitement as she sang with her hero and served as the de facto emcee/hype woman for the evening. Carlile even revealed that the Joni Jams – when held in Mitchell’s real-life living room “five or six years ago” – helped Mitchell heal following the aneurysm. It started out with friends and musicians singing Mitchell’s own material to her as she recovered, an experience Carlile said was “terrifying”; before too long, Mitchell began harmonizing and taking a verse or two from the comfort of her couch. Now, she’s regained enough vocal control to command an audience of thousands.
“Joni is about to destroy us right now,” Carlile said with a Cheshire Cat grin before Mitchell sang the Blue standout “A Case of You” in a resonant, husky tone. That statement could easily have been inserted into any number of between-song moments, given how frequently folks could be spotted wiping away tears to the icon’s lyrically incisive meditations on love, pain and our brief lives on a rock circling a giant ball of gas.
“I’m honored to have her as a friend because she brought me out of retirement,” Mitchell said of Carlile during the show, laughing.
Thanks to a backing band that included Blake Mills, Robin Pecknold, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Batiste, Allison Russell, Wendy & Lisa, Rita Wilson, Celisse and more, Mitchell’s remarkable songs were treated more like jazz compositions than pop songs, stretched out and contracted depending on the lead vocal, embellished with curious flourishes in some moments then pointedly unadorned the next. Even if the Bowl got a little chilly toward the end of the evening, the warm tapestry of Mitchell’s music kept spirits warm.
Here are some of the highlights from an unforgettable evening.
‘Hejira’ Highlights
More than 18 months in, everyone can agree that Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour is more than just your average concert. It’s an event. Swift herself even used that word to describe what her record-slashing trek has become during the second of three sold-out nights at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday (Oct. 19). Fans by […]
P!nk has called off four upcoming concert dates on her Summer Carnival Tour. “Due to reasons beyond my control, we need to postpone our next four shows in Lincoln, Sioux Falls, Milwaukee, and Des Moines,” the pop star wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday (Oct. 19). She did not elaborate on what the reasons […]
Shawn Mendes paid tribute to Liam Payne at his show Friday night (Oct. 18) at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater. Speaking from the stage, an emotional Mendes told the crowd he had met Payne “a couple of times” and described his impressions of the late One Direction member, who died at age 31 after falling from […]
Halsey is ready to bring her brand-new music to an up-close-and-personal crowd. On Thursday (Oct. 17), the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter announced a concert for Nov. 21 at the 1,400-capacity Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, exclusively for Wells Fargo Autograph Credit cardholders. “I’m so excited to perform new music in such an intimate venue,” Halsey said in […]
Taylor Swift tickets are completely sold out at press time. If you go on Ticketmaster, you’ll see the same message for all remaining tour dates: “Sorry, tickets are not currently available online.”
It won’t be easy to come by tickets at a reasonable price, but there are a few options to explore. Here’s how I would look for tickets for Swift’s concerts in Miami, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Toronto and Vancouver.
How to find face value tickets to a “sold-out” concert on Ticketmaster:
Don’t get your hopes too high, but a small number of tickets typically do get released on Ticketmaster last minute, depending on availability. With The Eras Tour being such a hot ticket, quiet drops are often only accessible to those who have Verified Fan status for that city.
The night of Wednesday, Oct. 16, for example, Ticketmaster opened a queue to purchase tickets for the upcoming weekend’s Miami concerts with this message: “A few last-minute ticket releases have been made available to a number of fans who previously registered for and were screened by Verified Fan for this city.”
Why weren’t all tickets able to be purchased by fans at on-sale when they’re so ridiculously in demand? Often some seats are held by the venue, promoter or artist’s team for various business reasons, and if those aren’t put to use they eventually get put on sale for face value on Ticketmaster. For The Eras Tour, based on personal observation and fan reports on social media, it also seems that extra seats that weren’t originally on the floorplan sometimes get added after the crew sets up, if space allows. It’s a shot in the dark, but any unused or just-added seats will go to someone. Swift’s final Eras shows can all be found here on Ticketmaster.
If you’re still in search of tickets a day or two before the concert, you want to set yourself up for the best chance at snagging them in a very limited-release: You know that meme of the Sims mom distracted by the computer while the Sims baby is on fire? Imagine that level of laser focus on the event ticketing page, minus any real-life neglect and imminent danger: “Not now, honey, I’m refreshing Ticketmaster.” (Dark humor, folks!)
Best of luck, sincerely, to those of you trying to get your family of Swifties to a Miami, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Toronto or Vancouver concert.
A girl holds up a sign asking if anyone has a spare ticket as Taylor Swift fans arrive at Wembley Stadium ahead of her performance on Aug. 15, 2024 in London, England.
How to find resale tickets at a price you’re willing, if not thrilled, to pay:
Desperation can sink in if you really want to see Swift with your kids on The Eras Tour and have exhausted all opportunities to find direct tickets from the original point of sale. That’s where the resale market comes in: StubHub is probably the most popular place for that, but there’s also websites like SeatGeek, TickPick and Vivid Seats.
I’ve purchased tickets from StubHub and TickPick in the past and had a fine experience with both. Eras resale tickets are overpriced, most of the time obscenely so, and riddled with fees, but real. In the rare case there’s an authenticity or delivery issue with your purchase (which has never happened here, but the possibility exists), customer service policies say they’ll replace your tickets with “comparable or better tickets” (StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee), or “equal or better quality” (TickPick’s BuyerTrust Guarantee). Check the policies on the website you’re buying from before you go through with an order to make sure you’re comfortable with all outcomes.
How to find the best seats for the best deal through the resale market:
Get familiar with how ticket resale outlets work. Unless you see the obvious Deal of the Eras Tour, don’t buy immediately. Test the website’s different options for sorting available tickets. Memorize the seating chart so you know what sections you want to zone in on. If you’re a family of more than three people, consider splitting up if that helps save a few bucks or gets everyone in better seats — with one parent sitting with one kid, and the other parent sitting with the other kid, or however it works out for the makeup of your family. Keep checking the websites you’d feel comfortable buying from for new ticket listings until the price and seats feel right for your situation.
If you’re not finding exactly what you want and willing to take a risk, you might consider heading in the direction of the venue without tickets just in case a better option pops up. Confirm with the venue if you can park there without a ticket, or park somewhere that’s on the way to the stadium and search. It takes strategic thinking and high hopes. Just remember, if you’re with your kids you’ll want to be at peace with buying from whatever’s left and still spending a good amount of money. For other artists price ranges often lower dramatically across resale platforms as start time nears on the day of the show, but not always. Do not rely on this. Be aware that this has not been the trend with Swift’s Eras Tour tickets.
As disappointing as it is to witness, I’ve spent enough time on real-time ticket-buying research to see incredible seats go unsold on these websites because the total never goes down to a price point anyone’s willing to pay.
Do not buy Eras Tour tickets here, or at least proceed with caution:
Steer clear of buying tickets via an unprotected transaction with strangers via social media. Certainly there are groups made on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit that are meant to feature listings from fans intending to sell tickets they can no longer use directly to other fans, like this account with more than 300,000 followers, but the possibility of being scammed is very real. The people voluntarily running these accounts are connecting Swiftie buyers with sellers and are not responsible for someone scamming you.
If you’re going to gamble anyway, be smart about it. Be aware that tickets sold on Ticketmaster have digital delivery on the Ticketmaster app this tour. A screenshot of the order confirmation is not enough proof that legit tickets will actually show up for the concert — a screenshot can be faked. Use PayPal’s Goods and Services option for any exchange of money, not Apple Pay, Cash App, Venmo or Zelle.
One tip I’ve picked up from research in fan spaces is to ask the seller to get on a video call with you to complete the transaction while they show you the ticket order in their actual Ticketmaster account, at that very moment. Is this whole process a little sketchy? Yep. Is it foolproof? Nope. Could you end up with great seats at a nice price from a kind Swiftie? Of course, but remember, you might never be able to recover the money lost to a con artist.