Concerts
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Though the calendar year has flipped and Billboard’s January Boxscore report celebrates the beginning of a new year in touring, the top of the charts carry over what became a constant toward the end of 2022. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour earned $40.9 million during the month, securing his seventh at No. 1 on the Top Tours chart overall, and third in the last four months.
Beyond extending his record for time atop the ranking, notably, January’s Oceania leg of John’s sprawling farewell tour pushed the entire run’s gross to $817.9 million – making it the highest grossing tour of all time. It surpasses Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour ($776.4 million), which set the previous high mark in 2019, and U2’s The 360 Tour ($736.4 million), which had held the title since 2011.
Simultaneously, John leads the Top Boxscores chart with $11.3 million at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Jan. 17-18. Since the charts launched in February 2019, it’s the ninth time an artist has ruled both rankings, and the second for John, who first did so in January 2020. BTS is the only other act to double-up twice.
John’s $40-million January breaks down to two stadiums shows apiece in Newcastle (Jan. 9, 11), Melbourne (Jan. 14-15) and Sydney (Jan. 18-19), plus single shows in Brisbane (Jan. 22) and Christchurch (Jan. 25).
Not only does John crown the Boxscores ranking, he follows himself at Nos. 2 (Melbourne), 4 (Newcastle), 6 (Brisbane), and 11 (Christchurch). Blanketing the chart with four top 10 appearances, he set himself apart from the pack in stadiums during Australia and New Zealand’s summer, while the Northern winter kept last year’s holdovers dormant and 2023’s from beginning later into the spring.
The strategy does extend to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at No. 2 on Top Tours and at Nos. 5, 9 and 12 on Top Boxscores. The funk-pop-rock band earned $15.1 million from the first three of its Oceania shows, with five more to chart in February. This follows the $59.6 million in Europe and $117.4 million in North America last year, playing stadiums in both continents during the warmth of June through September.
With far less history in Oceania than on the Western hemisphere, the Chili Peppers enlisted Post Malone to join the January and February shows. The bulked-up billing helped transform the band from an arena act to a stadium act in the region, having last reported shows in Oceania on 2007’s Stadium Arcadium Tour. Audience in Auckland flipped from 22,000 in ’07 to 48,000 in 2023, while Brisbane’s crowd grew from 22,000 to 40,000.
Playing Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium just a week after John, the two combined for $13.9 million and 91,000 tickets sold, enough to be the top grossing venue of the month worldwide.
On the Top Venues, 15,001+ capacity chart, Suncorp is followed by Sydney’s Allianz Stadium and Melbourne’s AAMI Park at Nos. 2-3, respectively, plus Manchester’s McDonald Jones Stadium at No. 6, forming a powerful Oceania block over western mainstays like the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (No. 4), the O2 Arena in London (No. 5) and Madison Square Garden in New York (No. 8).
Continuing the 2022 carryover at the head of Top Tours, Harry Styles is No. 3, after finishing at No. 4 on last year’s annual recap. He earned $12.4 million from 62,000 tickets sold, all from four arena dates. On Jan. 26-27 and 29, Styles played the final three dates of his 15-show mini-residency at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Those dates grossed $9.6 million and pushed the entire Inglewood run to a gross of $47.8 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing headline engagement in Boxscore history.
Additionally, Styles played two shows at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. One of those shows, played on Jan. 31, counts toward his monthly total, and the other, played on Feb. 1, will count toward his February earnings.
While January typically is a lull between the final dates of major tours in November and December and the opening nights for the year’s biggest attractions in February and March, January 2023 proved that there are ways to kick off the year in style, pun intended. From John and the Chili Peppers going to Australia, to The 1975 and Future conducting brief, monthlong runs before calendars get too packed, January can be a sneaky time for sleeper ticket sales.
Further flagged by Omicron-era woes, the January 2021 Top Tours chart featured six tours above $5 million, 18 above $1 million, and cut off the 30-position ranking at $548,000. One year later, those numbers improve to eight, 28, and $975,000.
After 2022 marked KCON’s in-person return following two years online, the world’s biggest K-pop festival has set 2023 dates for events in the U.S., Japan and Thailand in the coming months.
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Once again, KCON will hold its flagship event in California with KCON 2023 Los Angeles between Aug. 18-20 at the Crypto.com Arena and LA Convention Center. Barring 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, the West Coast iteration of the festival has been held throughout the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center) and LA Convention Center since 2015, with 2023 marking its 10th time in the city’s famous L.A. Live campus.
Last year, KCON LA reported 90,000 fans attending across its three days of convention, panels, workshops meet-and-greets and concert activities headlined by artists like Stray Kids, ATEEZ, ITZY, The Boyz, Kep1er, TO1 and more.
After visiting Tokyo in October, KCON also revealed that it will return with its KCON 2023 Japan between May 18-20 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba. The fest last visited the city for its two-day KCON Premiere Chiba event last year where K-pop boy band TO1 performed alongside J-pop acts like JO1 and INI. KCON 2022 Japan was held at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena with TO1, ATEEZ, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, fromis_9, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans, Monsta X‘s Kihyun and more K-pop and J-pop acts performing.
KCON Los Angeles and Japan join the preciously announced KCON Thailand, taking place next month at the IMPACT Arena and IMPACT Exhibition Center throughout March 18-19 in Bangkok’s northern suburb of Muang Thong Thani. The festival has TO1, ATEEZ, Kep1er, JO1, BamBam, iKON,(G)I-DLE and more K-pop and J-pop acts scheduled to visit.
KCON followed up in a press release that each location would have “signature programming as well as content tailored for each region” and that KCON will be live streamed globally without regional limitations.
Despite increasing competition from new K-pop festival startups like last year’s KAMP and the upcoming We Bridge Music Festival & Expo, as well as more Korean artists appearing on long-running U.S. music fests like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Governor’s Ball, KCON has managed to keep its attendance and audience engagement strong for more than a decade now.
“KCON, which started out with an audience of 10,000 in 2012, has now grown into the world’s biggest K-culture festival,” said Kim Hyun-soo, Head of Live Entertainment Business at CJ ENM, in a statement. “This year, KCON will meet global fans in Thailand, Japan and the U.S., advancing the spread of K-pop and K-culture around the world.”
“I can’t believe we threw a rave at Madison Square Garden,” Skrillex announced at the mid-way point of his marathon set at the venue Saturday night (Feb. 18.) in New York City.
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Indeed, gazing around around the packed arena — where hanging Knicks jerseys were lit with the flickery glow of the six disco balls spinning for the show — the vibe was vastly more Boiler Room than big room, with loads of fans in sunglasses, fuzzy hats, bunny ears and other ravey paraphernalia altogether giving the arena a loose, festive, familial feel that ramped up in tandem with the music during the five-hour headlining show from Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again…
Indeed, after a long absence, dance music was back at the Garden for a night that felt ecstatic, historic and rare. Throughout the evening both Skrillex and Fred again.. noted that playing MSG had been Four Tet’s idea, and what a stroke of genius it was, with the show selling out two — yes, two — minutes after going on sale the Wednesday (Feb. 15) prior, after having been announced just earlier that day.
The trio — key figureheads from different generations of dance music who’ve been referring to each other as “brothers” in their recent Instagram posts — played b2b2b from 7p.m. until the house lights came back on at midnight. It was altogether the climax of a week-long commandeering of New York City, with the guys playing small room pop-up shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan on Tuesday and Thursday and on Friday (Feb. 17) pulling a crowd of thousands to Times Square to celebrate that day’s release of Skrillex’s sophomore album, Quest For Fire.
This masterclass of album rollout hype-building began in January with a litany of new Skrillex singles, with the impeccably orchestrated effort reaching a place beyond frenzy last night when, around 10:30 p.m., Skrillex got on the mic to announce “I dropped an album last night, and I dropped another one right now.”
Indeed, the 20,000-person celebration for Quest For Fire incorporated the surprise release of Don’t Get Too Close, the second Skrillex album in 24 hours and his third in nine years, with the pair of LPs coming after the long stretch following the producer’s 2014 debut, Recess. “Surpriiiiise!” Skrillex said upon announcing this second album, which features Justin Bieber, Pink PinkPantheress and Bibi Bourelly among others, and which Skrillex described as “not really as much rave music as something you guys can listen to on the way home.”
This was just one of many high points of the extended affair, with Fred — wearing a black T-shirt and saggy khakis — getting on the mic at 8:15 p.m. to advise a crowd steadily filling out the venue from the pit to the rafters that, “We’ve got four more hours. We’re going to build this thing slow.”
Indeed, the show started with the house lights on, with the scene and sound, as promised, growing darker, louder and more intense (think lots of lasers, the aforementioned disco balls and, inevatibly, a burst of white confetti) as they together played the breadth of Skrillex catalog, from classic collabs like “Where Are Ü Now” with Jack Ü and Bieber and “In Da Ghetto” with J. Balvin, to long stretches of straight-up body pummeling dubstep including the all-time Skrillex classic “Bangarang” (special shout out to everyone in Section 106, rows 1-5, who all headbanged in tandem), along with every track from Quest For Fire, a deeply texturous, sophisticated, heavy, smart, danceable and often euphoric album that’s not only been extremely well received in the 60 hours since its release, but which sounds even better through stadium speakers.
Quest For Fire‘s Lead single “Rumble” — which based on the crowd reaction can be filed as a new classic less than two months after its release — was rinsed at least four times, with plays later in the night trading the “killers in the jungle” lyrics for “Skrillex in the jungle, Fred again.. in the jungle, Four Tet is in the jungle.” The words became a sort of mantra for the show itself and the three artists at its center, who powered the sweaty, loud, often raucous party from a simple set-up located on a slightly raised platform on the floor of the Garden. While MSG famously became an EDM prestige play during the genre boom 10 years ago, Saturday night the vibe was much more pared down from the massive stage setups of old, reflecting the maturation of the U.S. scene itself.
Added to this friend group was Porter Robinson, who came out to play his ecstatic Quest For Fire closer “Still Here (with the ones that I came with)” a sentiment that felt especially special and true given the duration of Robinson and Skrillex’s friendship. (“I love you,” Robinson told Skrillex over the mic, the only thing he said during his appearance.) Everything else from Quest For Fire — particularly “Tears,” “Hydrate and “Inhale Exhale” — sounded tough, rich, massive and the right kind of aggressive. It was especially thrilling when Skrill stretched out the Missy Elliott featuring “RATATA” — winding the crowd up by stop-starting five or so times until letting it play out, to ecstatic effect.
“This is a very special night,” Skrillex announced amidst this long tease. “This night will never happen again.”
But while Skrillex was the reason for the season, it was also very much Fred Again.. and Four Tet’s show. Each of the U.K. producers played their own biggest songs, including Fred’s “Kammy (like i do),” “Strong” and “Jungle” — the latter of which came near the end of the set and created such intense energy rush throughout the crowd that a lot of people were simply just screaming with their hands in the air. Four Tet, dressed first in a pink hoodie and then a pink T-shirt, was playful as always, remixing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” over percussion-heavy IDM while dropping loads of riddim and U.K. bass, along with his most recent hit “Looking at Your Pager” and his edit slow-build edit of Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever,” which deserves an official release and which saw many in the crowd FaceTiming those who couldn’t be there, with those joining via screen seen dancing in their respective kitchens and living rooms.
It was, as intended, a special night, with the factors leading to show creating a singular energy that everyone in the room could feel — and that Fred, Four Tet and Skrillex seemed acutely aware of throughout the evening.
“A couple of days ago, we were in the Empire State Building just hanging out, and I had to go downstairs to make a phone call,” Skrillex announced at one point. “I knew we had just put the tickets on sale for this show. I thought maybe the day of, maybe we’ll almost sell out — you know, maybe. But then Kieran comes downstairs and he’s like, ‘It’s done. It’s done mate.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean it’s done?’ He’s like, ‘It’s done, all the tickets are done.’ I almost fainted, all the blood rushed out of my face.”
Whether or not this supergroup will continue beyond Saturday night remains to be seen, but the show demonstrated how much cross-collaboration they’ve done over a relatively short time, with Four Tet on Quest For Fire‘s “Butterflies,” Four Tet working on Fred’s “Jungle,” Fred working on “Rumble,” etc. What’s certain is that the NYC takeover and the music that’s powered it has, if only ephemeral, been a meeting of the masters, with Saturday night pulling a Venn diagram of the fans who love them. Many younger fans knew more Fred than Four Tet songs, with others in the crowd dancing more heavily to Four Tet’s output and pretty much everyone in attendance going hard for Skrillex, who 12 years after exploding into the scene, remains one of its best and most beloved artists.
“I want to thank everyone here so much for just being here,” Skrill continued in his speech. “It’s simple, it’s not that deep, we’re just here dancing together. I really like this crowd, everyone here looks really respectful. Everyone’s got room to dance, everyone’s taking care of each other; everyone’s allowing each other to be themselves. We’re all family out here. There’s enough s–t going on in the world. We can have this moment right now and just love each other and appreciate the differences in each other and love each other for the different parts. Fred, Kieran and I are all from different backgrounds, but somehow we made it on the stage at MSG with all you people, and, I don’t know — that’s it.”
Skrillex — who started the night in a black puffer jacket and who by the end was wearing a Skrillex jersey given to him by someone in the crowd along with a towel on his head — then spent the next several minutes just standing on the decks, soaking up the the energy of the arena as thousands of fans held their phone flashlights in the air and cheered for him. One felt truly happy for the guy, who — after previously addressing that he’s had a tough year following the death of his mother– has returned in rare form with an excellent album (two, actually) a sold-out show at one of the world’s prestige venues and backing from a pair of good pals who also just happen to be fellow scene heroes.
Perhaps Skrillex could have done it all on his own, but certainly it felt better and more special to celebrate alongside friends. That same energy extended into the the crowd, where people who’d been strangers at the beginning of the night were seen hugging each other goodbye, grateful to have shared the experience.
The set fittingly wrapped with a mashup of Skrillex’s 2011 “Cinema” remix, Four Tet’s “Teenage Birdsong” and Fred’s “Danielle (smile on my face)” then a Skrillex-led singalong of Fred’s “Billie (loving arms.)” Fred, who spent a good deal of the show dancing on the decks, then got on the mic once more, closing the night with incredulous gratitude.
“Thank you so much for coming out tonight,” he said. “I swear, it is the honor of our lives, thank you so much. We will never forget this. What is going on?”
Janet Jackson is an unshakeable icon — unbreakable, even. The past few years reminded us just how grand her legacy is. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and enjoyed her Metamorphosis Las Vegas residency. Last January, the fiercely private star allowed the world into her personal journey with A&E and Lifetime’s Janet Jackson two-part documentary. And in December, she announced her 2023 Together Again Tour.
A 33-date trek across North American arenas/amphitheaters, it kicks off on April 14 in Hollywood, Fla. and follows both 2017’s socially conscious State of the World Tour and her four-month, 18-show 2019 Metamorphosis residency in Las Vegas. With a truly staggering catalog filled with chart-topping albums and singles, it’s difficult to tell what tunes Miss Jackson will choose.
Will she revive her previous ideas from 2020’s Black Diamond World Tour (which was canceled due to the pandemic) or completely scrap them? How will she celebrate this May’s 30th anniversary of her blockbuster fifth album Janet? Will she forgo her usual offerings of ‘80s classics and replace them with deep cuts? Aside from Ludacris as the opening act, who will be the special guests?
There are many questions as to how she’ll fill up a standard two hours, but we attempt to answer them all below with our dream setlist for the Janet Jackson: Together Again tour — a journey through over three dozen of the pop and R&B legend’s classic tracks, deep cuts, features and collaborations. Now, let’s get to grooving!
Billboard is returning to SXSW in Austin, Texas, this year for three nights of star-studded concerts, plus an interactive content house featuring conversations with musicians and industry leaders.
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To kick off Billboard Presents The Stage at SXSW, rapper-singer Lil Yachty, presented by Doritos, will perform on March 16, with opening acts Lola Brooke and Armani White; Latin stars Feid and Eladio Carrión, presented by Samsung Galaxy, will perform on March 17; and electronic giants Kx5 (Kaskade x deadmau5), presented by Carnival, will perform on March 18.
Billboard Presents The Stage at SXSW will take place at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin. Tickets go on sale at 11 a.m. CT/noon ET here on Friday (Feb. 17).
Several artists will also take part in conversations during a variety of events hosted at The Billboard House (800 Congress) on March 17. The one-day-only interactive content house will feature brand activations, photo moments, bites, cocktails and more. Entry is on a first come first serve basis, with a reserved amount of spaces available exclusively to SXSW Music and Platinum Badge holders and SXSW Music Festival wristband holders.
Billboard will also be donating a portion of ticket proceeds to Waterloo Greenway Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that aims to create an urban park system in partnership with the city of Austin. The organization’s first phase, Waterloo Park, opened in 2021 to provide downtown green space, community programming and performing arts and entertainment at the Moody Amphitheater.
In addition to the presenting sponsors, Billboard will be sharing Reels on its official Facebook page across the three-day experience, and fans will have the opportunity to create custom Facebook Reels with unique experiential activations throughout SXSW.
Billboard’s parent company PMC is the largest shareholder of SXSW and its brands are official media partners of SXSW.
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The Cincinnati Music Festival will take over the city’s Paycor Stadium for two nights in July with its patented mix of old school soul and R&B legends and hip-hop superstars, with Snoop Dogg, Al Green, Babyface and Jill Scott topping the bill on July 21 and 22.
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The annual gathering of the vibe will kick off on July 20 at the adjacent Andrew J. Brady Center with a tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with a lineup to be announced soon. Night one will feature Green and Scott joined by Jodeci, Midnight Star and Gerald Albright, while the second evening will include a visit from intergalactic funk icons P-Funk, as well as sets from Avery Sunshine and Norman Brown.
Tickets for the shows are on sale now through Ticketmaster and the festival’s office (513) 924-0900.
“We are thrilled with this year’s lineup for the Cincinnati Music Festival presented by P&G,” said producer Joe Santangelo in a statement. “It’s the first time for Snoop Dogg to perform at the Festival and Al Green last performed in 1974. We know they will both be huge draws for our fans. It’s also an honor for us to plan a Thursday performance to pay tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop.”
After cancelling two go-rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the beloved fest returned last summer with a stacked lineup featuring Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Anthony Hamilton, the O’Jays and more.
CMF began life as the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival in 1962 as an all-jazz event and has evolved over the year to embrace a wide variety of acts, from Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to Luther Vandross, New Edition, Whitney Houston, Earth Wind and Fire and many more, drawing more than 50,000 fans to the concerts and the adjacent Festival 513 street party.
It’s no great secret why Buddy Guy has chosen to make this year’s touring cycle his last.
“My next birthday (July 30) I’m gonna be 87, man,” the blues icon tells Billboard from his home in Chicago, where he’s operated a club, Buddy Guy’s Legends, since 1989. “My late friends — Muddy (Waters), B.B. (King) — all of them were, like, 20 years older than me and they used to look at me and say, ‘Boy, wait’ll you get to be my age….’ And they’re no longer here for me to tell them that it’s true.
“You get in the 80s, man, and the little aches that didn’t used to ache, they come on and you don’t know where they’re coming from. I can play, but getting from Point A to Point B, the trips that take all day on the bus or the airport and all that…Anybody would say, ‘That’s enough.’”
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But Guy is quick to add that an end to touring doesn’t mean a complete retirement.
“I’m still going to probably play some of the big festivals,” promises Guy, who began the Damn Right Farewell Tour on Feb. 12 at the Mahnidra Blues Festival in Mumbai, India and has dates booked through early October. “The New Orleans Jazz Festival wanted me to play there for the rest of my life, which is once a year, so that’s not too bad. But what’s coming up this year is a lot. We’re gonna make it to a lot of places we’ll probably never play again.”
The tour puts a cap on one aspect of what’s been a legendary career by any measure, one that’s stretched across more than 70 years and 19 studio albums and has included associations with forebears such as Waters, King and many more, as well as acolytes like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the late Jeff Beck and Steve Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnny Lang, John Mayer and Christone “Kingfish” Antone. Clapton has called Guy “the best guitarist I’ve ever heard” on frequent occasions. Carlos Santana considers him “probably the most naked musician on the blues scene — just raw and intense in every note he plays.”
It’s not only peers who have sung Guy’s praises. He’s won eight Grammy Awards plus a Grammy lifetime achievement honor — performing during the afternoon premiere ceremony at this year’s event — as well as 23 Blues Music Awards. He’s received a Kennedy Center Honor, a National Medal of Arts, an American Academy of Achievement Award and a Billboard Century Award in 1993. He’s been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Musicians Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. A portion of U.S. Highway 418 going through his hometown of Lettsworth, La., is named Buddy Guy Way, and there’s a marker that bears his name on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi Blues Trail.
“I did the best I could,” the characteristically humble Guy says. He considers those honors “as a dream come true for me, ’cause sometimes I had to pinch myself and say, ‘Did I really make it in there?’ — like the hall of fame and all that stuff. I didn’t start out thinking anything like that would happen — COULD happen, to be honest with you.”
Guy’s biography has the elements of a classic blues song. He grew up a child of poor sharecroppers. When not picking cotton, he learned to play on a two-string diddley bow made from a piece of wood and wires from a window screen. “My brothers and sisters used to tell my mama, ‘Get him outta here with that noise,’ ’cause I didn’t know how to play anything. I was just fooling around,” remembers Guy, who penned a memoir, When I Left Home: My Story, a decade ago. Eventually a stranger who saw him playing on his sister’s porch steps told him, “Son, you could probably learn to play if you had a real guitar” and bought the youngster a Harmony acoustic that Guy subsequently donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Where I grew up, you’d have sandlot baseball teams to play games, and that’s about it,” Guy says. “I wanted to do something the rest of the other kids couldn’t do, and that was play guitar. And I heard Lightnin’ Hopkins and T-Bone Walker, all those great blues players and thought that’s something I wanted to try, too.
“The first thing I learned how to play was ‘Boogie Chillen” by John Lee Hooker. I was so excited when I figured it out that I walked a mile and found every distant relative I had and said, ‘Look! Listen!’ They’d say, ‘Yeah, that kind of sounds pretty good there.’ I finally had something — and I was afraid to quit so I held it so long my fingers started bleeding.”
By the mid-50s Guy was in Baton Rouge, working as a janitor at Louisiana State University and playing in bands around town. He recorded a pair of demos during 1957 for Ace Records, which were not released. Later that year he moved to Chicago, where he became the hot new arrival on the scene, learning at the feet legends such as Waters — who brought Guy a bologna sandwich when he first came to hear him — Willie Dixon, Junior Wells (whom Guy backed on several albums under the pseudonym Friendly Chap) Ike Turner and others. He played in competitions with Otis Rush and Magic Sam, signing an early deal with Cobra Records before joining the Chess label in 1959.
Chess gave him work, including sessions for Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, Sonny Boy Williamson and more. But the Chess brothers were not fans of Guy’s raw, aggressive playing style and pushed him to record more polished fare. Guy, who had a day job driving a tow truck, wouldn’t release an album with Chess until I Left My Blues in San Francisco in 1967. Across the pond, however, British players had discovered Guy through his session work and began singing his praises and seeking him out when they came to Chicago.
“It got back to Leonard Chess that Jimi Hendrix wanted to know who I was,” Guy says. “When Leonard Chess found that out he sent Willie Dixon to my house, and Willie said, ‘Put a suit on. Leonard wants to see you.’ When I went there Leonard bent over and said, ‘I want you to kick me in my butt.’ I said, ‘For what?!’ And he pointed out what those British guys were saying about me and said, ‘You came here with this and we were too dumb to listen.’”
Guy continued to play shows and made records for Vanguard, Isabel and JSP during the ’70s and ’80s, some with his younger brother Phil Guy, who followed in his guitar-playing footsteps. He was part of the Festival Express train tour in Canada with the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and others before opening the Checkerboard Lounge on Chicago’s South Side in 1972 with L.C. Thurman. Guy gave up his stake 13 years later and set up Buddy Guy’s Legends — where he’s in residence throughout every January — in the city’s South Loop.
That came just in time for Guy’s own legend to finally gain momentum. First he was Eric Clapton’s invited guest for the 24 Nights concert series at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1990 and 1991. Then Guy signed with Silvertone Records (still his label home) for 1991’s Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, his first release in nine years. He’s released 12 albums since — including last year’s The Blues Don’t Lie — many featuring a who’s who of players vested in keeping Guy’s career alive and vital.
“Those guys are great,” he says. “They’ve always been good for me, and they never took anything except the music — and they’ve always told people where they got it. The Eric Claptons, the Rolling Stones, the Bonnie Raitts, they haven’t forgotten people like myself.”
Despite that eminence, Guy still considers himself a student of music. “I took things from the (younger) people, too,” he acknowledges. “You’re never too old to learn something.” A case in point was his Grammy-nominated 2001 album Sweet Tea, for which producer Dennis Herring took him to Mississippi Hill Country and introduced him to the music of Junior Kimbrough — whom he called “this kid” at the time — and R.L. Burnside. “I said, ‘What the hell is this?’” Guy recalls. “Y’know, I played with Muddy Waters, Son House, Fred McDowell…I thought I had found everything to come out of Mississippi…but I went back there and started digging in again.”
Throughout his resurgence, Guy has conducted himself with a kind of missionary exuberance, sworn to keep the blues alive as he saw a generation of elders, and even some contemporaries, pass away. (He played with Stevie Ray Vaughan in East Troy, Wisc., on Aug. 26, 1990, the day before Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash. The two were supposed to have lunch together the following day in Chicago.) He’s still happy to help nurture new talent, whether on stage at Legends or by paying for the occasional recording session for an upstart. Guy has been particularly aggrieved at the lack of mainstream media support for the genre, especially at radio, where it’s consigned to specialty programs, NPR and satellite.
“Blues is like a stepchild now,” he says. “I’ve kept doing it so people don’t forget Muddy and Wolf, B.B., all the rest of ’em. But the big FM stations don’t play blues — if they do, I don’t hear it. And if people can’t hear it…It’s like they say about cooking; you don’t know how good the gumbo is in Louisiana until you go down there and taste it. Whether you like it or not is up to you, but at least you tasted it. And the blues is being treated like that. I don’t care how good a blues record you make — if nobody hears it, it’s just there. It bothers me because I’ve dedicated my life to the blues, and a lot of other people have, too. What did we do to be treated like that? I don’t know, man, but I’d like to see it get straightened out.”
Bright Eyes fans who missed last year’s first-in-a-decade tour of Conor Oberst and his bandmates Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott will get a second chance at seeing the trio this Friday, when tickets go on sale for eight new Bright Eyes shows at small venues across the Midwest and South as he tours ahead of his performance at the Corona Capital festival in Guadalajara, May 21.
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Demand for the brief tour is expected to be high as Oberst and crew follow up last year’s extensive U.S. and European tour in support of their 2020 record Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was, which debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
While the 2022 tour generally received positive reviews from fans — including a July performance at LA Greek’s Theatre that music writer Jeff Miller described as “moving with confidence, playing with heart, and still foraging his woe-is-me persona in a wholly relatable way” — the tour did struggle midway through, with Oberst even walking off stage during a May gig in Houston.
But Oberst and the band were able to iron out the issues and close 2022 with a kinetic and powerful set at the Corona Capital festival inside Mexico City’s sprawling Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. From opening his set with anxious and frenzied rendition of his 2020 album opening “Dance and Song” to taking the guitar for a shaking and exhausting ride through “Old Soul Song,” Bright Eyes crew delivered a set that went as close to the edge of Oberst’s discontent as anyone dare venture.
Starting May 10, the 42-year-old Omaha native and his bandmates will perform at the famed Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, First Avenue in Minneapolis and the brand-new Salt Shed in Chicago on May 12, before heading south for a second chance in Houston where he will once again perform at the city’s famed White Oak Music Hall, almost exactly one year from the anniversary of the cancelled 2022 gig. It’s an audacious move, and while his camp is cautious not to overhype his return, it’s encouraging for many to see him face the past on his own terms.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Central. Purchase tickets here.
BRIGHT EYES 2023 TOUR DATES
May 10 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
May 11 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
May 12 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
May 13 – Columbia, MO – Rose Park
May 14 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom*
May 15 – Little Rock, AK – The Hall
May 17 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theater
May 18 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
May 21 – Guadalajara, MX – Corona Capital Guadalajara
Bright Eyes Spring 2023 Tour Dates
Brandi Carlile, Phish lead singer Trey Anastasio and American reggae band Stick Figure are slated to headline this year’s Levitate Music and Arts Festival, which is slated for July 7-9 at the Marshfield Fairgrounds near Cape Cod, Mass. Other notable artists on the bill include Goose, Ziggy Marley, Rebelution and Peach Pit.
This year’s event will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival as well as the 20th anniversary of the Levitate surf and skate shop brand that launched it.
“It’s humbling,” says Levitate co-founder Daniel Hassett of the upcoming festival. “We’re excited to use this milestone to dig into our roots and expand our arts and mural programming, partner with more local vendors than ever, [double] our kids’ programs and [expand] our greening efforts.”
Over the past 20 years, the Levitate brand has grown considerably. In addition to launching an apparel line and kids’ summer camps, it expanded its flagship store; launched an outdoor restaurant, music and events venue; established a fall touring series called Levitate Flannel Jam; and founded the non-profit Levitate Foundation.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what Levitate has become,” adds co-founder and artist director Jess Hassett. “The line-up is full of amazing female artists including Brandi Carlile, Lucius, Celisse, and Melt. Pro-skater Nora Vasconcellos will be exhibiting her incredible skills and our arts and mural program will feature a bigger and more diverse group of brilliant artists than ever before.”
Tickets for the festival go on sale Tuesday; 1% of each ticket sold will go to the Levitate Foundation. Visit www.levitatemusicfestival.com for more information and the full lineup.
The inaugural Evolution Festival in St. Louis, Missouri will bring rock, hip-hop, blues and country sounds to town on August 26-27 with headliners Brandi Carlile, the Black Keys, the Black Crowes, Brittany Howard and Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals. The festival from producers Contemporary Presentations and the Just Listen Company — along with co-executive producers Steven Schankman and Joe Litvag — will feature more than a dozen performers taking the stage in Forest Park under the banner: “This is our town. This is our time. This is our EVOLUTION!”
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Among the other acts on the bill are: Ice Cube, Morgan Wade, Cautious Clay, Michigander, Modern English, Nikki Lane, The Sugarhill Gang, The Nude Party, Smidley, Carriers, The Knuckles, Yard Eagle and Punk Lady Apple. The festival will take place in Forest Park at Langenberg Field and the Boathouse, located between the Muny (St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre) and the Dwight Davis Tennis Center.
“St. Louis is home. My partner Joe and I are both born and raised here, and we’ve both always worked hard to create unforgettable live entertainment experiences here for our hometown community,” said co-exec producer Schankman. “We both agreed that there is something missing here, an event that will welcome everyone from our great city to come together to celebrate our diversity, inclusion, and to offer a renewed focus on our musical culture and the arts. Evolution Festival does just that, and this event will not only create long-lasting memories, but it will be a strong economic driver for the city, the region, and the state for years to come, as well.”
The fest will also focus on bourbon and BBQ, with pit masters “Phil the Grill” Johnson and James “Boatright’s BBQ” on hand for the weekend that will also feature award-winning BBQ from a number of national, regional and local chefs. A portion of proceeds will benefit Forest Park Forever, a non-profit conservancy helping to maintain and sustain Forest Park; the festival will also work with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital through Music Gives to raise money and awareness for the fight against childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Tickets for Evolution will go on sale on Friday (Feb. 17) at 10 a.m. CST here.
See the full concert poster below.
Courtesy Photo