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As marketing strategies go, The Cure aligning their long-awaited comeback record with the spookiest week of the year is proving to be a devilishly wicked one. In the build-up to the Friday (Nov. 1) release of Songs of a Lost World, the group’s first LP in 16 years, the band played an intimate set in London for the BBC, which aired on Halloween Eve on TV and radio. Their release day show at east London’s Troxy on Friday evening featured a performance of the new album in full and a further amount of greatest hits and fan favorites.
The goth icons’ show at the stunning Art deco building was not adorned with candle-lit pumpkins and fake spiders, but it was fittingly dark and ghoulish. The wares on the merch table came in one color only: black.
Even frontman Robert Smith knew he ought to cut through the gloom on a day of celebration like this. Prior to the show’s start and during the intermission, sound effects of a deluge of rain played out on the PA. “I’m begging you to not have the thunderclap just before we come back on stage again,” he joked with his team during one their return to stage following an intermission.
The 16-year wait since 2008’s 4:13 Dream has been the longest in the band’s history, but this has not been an entirely dormant period. The group have toured extensively, headlined Glastonbury Festival in 2019 and embarked on an accompanying promotional tour — notably their Shows of a Lost World run in 2023 — before the album was completed and released. There was even time for collaborations with Chvrches and Gorillaz, and a scrap with Ticketmaster (which our Bob won.)
The tune largely remains the same, but Songs of a Lost World confronts new challenges. Smith has said the songs on this record were influenced by the death of his brother and the collective loss through the pandemic. Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell was diagnosed with cancer, and bassist Simon Gallup, the longest-tenured member after Smith, briefly left the band in 2021 saying he was “fed up of betrayal” before returning months later. Life is fragile, but The Cure’s presence has remained a constant, even as they approach their 50th anniversary in 2028.
The record has been heavily delayed by Smith’s own admission. He is a perfectionist, but the best kind: everything that comes out is exact and impactful. Words are not wasted, nor are the enormity of the productions that envelope them. It’s been worth the wait.
This momentous release day show – which was live-streamed on YouTube – proved to be a celebration of a band still very much at the top of their game, and may go down as one of their most memorable of their storied career.
A Brooding Opener
The pioneering alternative band’s 14th album is an unapologetically gloomy meditation on mortality. Read Billboard’s preliminary ranking and review.
As I Lay Dying’s longtime guitarist Phil Sgrosso has departed the San Diego metalcore band, just days after guitarist Ken Susi, bassist Ryan Neff and drummer Nick Pierce also announced their exit.
The guitarist took to social media to share a statement detailing why he’s choosing to split from As I Lay Dying, leaving just controversial frontman Tim Lambesis in the lineup. Lambesis spent nearly three years in prison after he was arrested for soliciting an undercover agent to murder his then-wife, Meggan Lambesis. Tim gave the agent $1,000 in cash and instructions on how to kill her, including her photo, address, security-gate code and dates he would be with their children to give him an alibi, prosecutors said.
“Thank you for your patience as I took time to gather my thoughts before speaking on the current state of As I Lay Dying,” Grosso began his statement. “With recent events, including the departure of band members and the cancellation of our European tour ahead of a new album release, it’s clear we’re in a difficult and serious situation.”
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He added the the band “no longer offers a healthy or safe environment for anyone involved—whether creatively, personally, or professionally,” and after “witnessing some concerning patterns of behavior,” Grosso “realized that I can no longer, in good conscience, enable further actions that could negatively affect anyone working within this space.”
He continued, “For these reasons, I feel it’s in my best interest to completely distance myself, both creatively and personally, from As I Lay Dying.”
Grosso added that the door to As I Lay Dying isn’t totally shut, and that if the band puts in the “right adjustments and restructuring, our music can continue to thrive and explore new possibilities in a healthier environment.”
Read his full statement here.
On Friday (Oct. 25), Susi, Neff and Pierce shared individual statements detailing their own departures, which you can read more about here. The band’s touring manager, Alex Kendrick, also announced his exit.
The group’s eighth album, Through Storms Ahead, is still set for release on Nov. 15.
Warren Haynes has — characteristically — a lot on his plate these days, including this week’s release of his new solo album Million Voices Whisper. But his eye is also firmly on his home state of North Carolina and his hometown of Asheville, which was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last month and is still in the throes of rebuilding and recovery.
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Haynes tells Billboard that his family is safe and has largely returned to Asheville, though his brother’s record store, like so many businesses, suffered debilitating damage. He won’t be able to host his annual Christmas Jam concert there this year, but he’ll be part of Soulshine, which will take place Nov. 24 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Haynes’ band will be joined by the Dave Matthews Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and Goose, as well as guests such as Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Trombone Shorty, Joe Russo and more. Tickets are on sale Friday (Nov. 1) with a pre-sale for Haynes’ fan club on Thursday (Oct. 31). Proceeds will go to relief efforts in both North Carolina and Florida, which was subsequently hit by Hurricane Milton.
“The object now is ty try to raise as much money as possible,” Haynes says. “It was terrible to watch. I was on tour and was watching CNN and saw them panning the River Arts District, which is where my brother’s store is; they panned as far as the building next door to it, and it was underwater. I was like, ‘Sh-t my brother’s store is right there,’ but at that time I couldn’t reach anybody, and they couldn’t reach me. But I was lucky enough to be able to talk to them in the beginning, and he assured me that everybody was okay. After that it was just really frustrating not knowing and watching the news and hoping. Now I just want to do whatever I can to help everybody.”
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Haynes will be bringing some new music to Soulshine. Million Voices Whisper is the guitarist’s first solo outing since 2015’s Ashes & Dust (a collaboration with Railroad Earth) and sports 11 tracks, with four more songs on the deluxe edition. It was produced by Haynes and features a reunion with Allman Brothers Band cohort Derek Trucks on four tracks, as well as Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson on “Day of Reckoning” — which includes a second version on the deluxe edition that opens with the trio harmonizing on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Find the Cost of Freedom.” He also co-wrote “Smooth Sailing” with Stax legend Booker T. Jones.
The set also marks the recording debut of the latest Warren Haynes Band lineup, which features John Medeski on keyboards, bassist Kevin Scott from Haynes’ Gov’t Mule and Dirty Dozen Brass Band drummer Terrence Higgins.
“In the beginning of the process all the songs kinda had a Muscle Shoals sort of feel,” recalls Haynes, referencing the Alabama home of the legendary FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound studios where dozens of soul and rock classics were recorded. “So it started out to be that kind of record, but then, as I continued writing they all started drifting into their own directions but still seemed to hang together. Once I have a group of songs that seem to work together, that usually tells me it’s time to make a record.”
Million Voices Whisper‘s starting point, however, was “Real Real Love,” a song Haynes began writing with Gregg Allman before his death in 2017. “I had a copy of his lyric, which was incomplete, so I finished the lyric, and to my knowledge there was no music or demo or recording of it,” Haynes says. “So I wrote music for it but I wrote it in a way that would reflect as much of the way (Allman) would have written it as I could.” Once that was done Haynes reached out to Trucks in order to bring the Allman Brothers flavor to the recording. That led to a writing session at Trucks’ farm near Macon, Ga., which yielded the Million Voices Whisper tracks “These Changes, “Hall of Future Saints” and “Back Where I Started,” all of which Trucks played on.
“It was great, the first time the two of us had collaborated in the studio like that in a long time,” says Haynes, adding that there may be more to hear from the duo in the future — including, of course, the Soulshine benefit. “There’s definitely talk about it. We’ll see where it all goes. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we really enjoy it when it happens, and writing for those three days and then being together in the studio for my record was a blast. There’s just something uncanny about the way the two of us work together. It’s comes about very easily.”
The Haynes-Trucks tandem, meanwhile, is also represented on the new release of the Allman Brothers’ final concert from Oct. 28, 2014 at the Beacon Theatre in New York. “That was a fantastic show,” Haynes says of the epic 29-song performance. “I have amazing memories of everybody really rising to the occasion and us going out on a high note. And the new mix sounds really great. I’m glad people are getting to hear it.”
Haynes is looking to play some shows with his band to support Million Voices Whisper, including more Dream and Songs Symphonic Experience dates with orchestras — and the release of a Don Was-produced album that was recorded with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra prior to the pandemic. For now, however, Haynes has a solo in-store appearance set for Nov. 2 at Looney Tunes in West Babylon, N.Y., with his band and Gov’t Mule set to play at the Island Exodus 15 festival during January in Jamaica.He’s also leaning into a big 2025 with Gov’t Mule, which will mark the 30th anniversary of the group’s debut album. The celebration, he says, will include “a bunch of cool, special shows” as well as releasing unheard material from the band’s archives.
Rather than feeling pulled by those different concerns, however, Haynes feels inspired. “I look at it as an opportunity to keep from getting stagnated,” he explains. “Doing all these different things keeps me motivated and inspired. I feel like if I only did one thing all the time I’d get sick of it and burned out much more easily. This way, with my solo stuff, the Mule, everything else, it keeps me really excited and really engaged.”
You can add ska-punk legends Fishbone to the increasingly lengthy list of musicians who are not fans of Donald Trump. The veteran band released a pointed broadside against convicted felon Trump on Thursday (Oct. 31), just days before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Proud to have this new song out… it was actually written back in 2017, but never got on tape until now. Sad part is that it’s only gotten worse,” the band wrote on Instagram about the bubbling verbal takedown “Racist Piece of S–t” (also tagged as “RxPxOxS” to seemingly beat censors.)
“Here’s the thing, this song pulled no punches… if you are a fan of this band from the start, you know we have never been shy of speaking our truth,” they wrote on Instagram of the track whose lyric video features a cascade of news headlines about the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
And, indeed, the lyrics to the two-tone takedown are precise and concise. “I see you coming down the street/ With tiki torches and hate speech/ You’re not a proud boy/ You’re just a F$@k Boy/ Drinking the kool aid Of a mad orange king,” singer Angelo Moore spits in reference to the white supremacist rally Charlottesville in 2017 in which neo-Nazis spewed antisemitic and racist hates speech at an event where Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
The song continues with lyrics aimed at one of the celebrity supporters of the former reality star, before getting to the pointed chorus. “Another Kid Rock/ With all the hate talk/ Murder Sickness global crisis coup d’état vanilla isis/ Ohhhh.. you’re just a racist piece of s–t,” Moore sings, adding, “The Power zombies said/ Let’s put this lie to bed/ Here’s an ignorant pillow for your empty racist head.”
“As artists, this is our platform, be it music, art or words. If you don’t agree, that’s fine,” Fishbone said in their statement. “Just don’t come in here telling us to shut up and dribble, you are talking to the wrong brothers. We speak our reality and if you are still “undecided” well, maybe this song and perspective will open you up with a straight up call out of what is at stake.”
The Los Angeles group has long made standing up to racism and fascism part of their brand, mixing uptempo party jams with conscious lyrics on their beloved 1988 second album, Truth and Soul, including on the punk blitz “Subliminal Fascism” and funk rocking “Ghetto Soundwave.”
In an email interview with Rolling Stone, founding keyboard/trombone player Christopher Dowd said he knew he had to write a song about Trump a decade ago when Trump announced his first run for the White House. “The timing of this release couldn’t be more perfect,” Dowd told the magazine. “With Election Day five days away, maybe hearing this song, if you are ‘undecided,’ will trigger your subconscious to think about who could win and what that would look like to the country and the world. One person in a leadership position can automatically make you guilty by association. So will you want to be associated and represented by a person with non-apologetic racist tendencies or a person that doesn’t?”
The post ended with an urgent plea to vote on Tuesday (Nov. 5)in the election that pollsters continue to say is a near dead-heat between Vice President Kamala Harris and twice impeached Trump.
Listen to “Racist Piece of S–t” below.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” becomes the fifth song in the 13-month history of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart to reign for at least four weeks, spending its fourth straight frame at No. 1 via the Nov. 2-dated ranking, while A.J. & Big Justice’s social media smash “We Bring the Boom” is one of the week’s top debuts.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Oct. 21-27. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Maps” joins similar reigns by Alek Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” and Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me,” both in 2024, for four weeks each; Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” ruled for six weeks in 2023; while the all-time leader, Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” secured the top spot for 10 weeks beginning in May.
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Released in 2003 on Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ debut LP Fever to Tell, “Maps” reigns via a pair of trends on TikTok, one involving a dance while the other has creators using a filter to remove their facial features and have them cascade back down onto their countenance in the clip. While the original version of the song has been widely used, a sped-up remix has also contributed to the success of “Maps” on the chart.
The top three of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 remains intact from the previous week (Oct. 26), with Alphaville’s “Forever Young” and Akon’s “Akon’s Beautiful Day” following at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. While it’s Akon’s second week at No. 3, Alphaville has now stood at No. 2 for three weeks in a row and hasn’t fallen below No. 3 since mid-September.
Vines’ “Being Loved Isn’t the Same As Being Understood,” following its No. 8 debut on the Oct. 26 survey, crashes the party as the lone new entrant in the top five, jumping to No. 4 in week two. The song, self-released in March by the artist known also as Cassie Wieland, continues its ascent thanks to a trend on TikTok where the user posts about either themselves or someone they know, usually as a photo collage, to “sum up the kind of person” they are or were. Some of the top-performing clips discuss a person who has since died.
“Being Loved Isn’t the Same As Being Understood” sported a 99% leap in official U.S. streams to 116,000 in the week ending Oct. 24, according to Luminate.
Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song,” following its first week in the top 10 (No. 10) on the Oct. 26 chart, also rises four spots, leaping 10-6. The 2024 tune, which leapt another 4% in streams to 13.5 million in the week ending Oct. 24, has benefited from a variety of trends since it first began exploding on TikTok in the summer, often relationship- and romance-related.
It’s followed by Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s “Tu Boda,” which vaults 14-7, its first week in the top 10. The song has exploded on TikTok – as well as on streaming services – in recent weeks, particularly following the release of its music video on Oct. 14.
“Tu Boda” concurrently catapults 157% in streams to 15.2 million in the week ending Oct. 24, enough to blast the song to a No. 23 debut on the Billboard Hot 100.
The tune’s TikTok ecosystem includes edits and trends involving the 2005 movie Corpse Bride, plus lip-synch content.
The Cramps’ cover of “Goo Goo Muck” sports the week’s top TikTok Billboard Top 50 debut, starting at No. 9. Released in 1981 on the rockers’ album Psychedelic Jungle, the tune returned to prominence in 2022 when it was featured in the Netflix series Wednesday.
In recent weeks on TikTok, “Goo Goo Muck” has been embraced in a link to its status as a Halloween-time standard, following a trend where the user is running from danger but then runs back when realizing their pursuer is attractive, often starting to take off their shirt in the process.
Gabriela Bee’s “Maybe” is the third new entrant into the top 10, rounding it out at No. 10 after its No. 11 debut on Oct. 26. Usages of the song revolve around its “Maybe one day I’ll get married/ And you’ll be my maid of honor” lyric, with creators either remembering their own weddings or noting who they’d like to be the maid of honor at their wedding.
And A.J. & Big Justice bring the boom to the TikTok Billboard Top 50, with “We Bring the Boom!” debuting at No. 15. The father-and-son TikTok stars released what’s become their theme song to streaming services in July, and the tune has only risen as prominence as the duo (plus others often featured in their uploads, from family members to The Rizzler) has gained in popularity on the platform, currently boasting over 2 million followers.
The majority of the top-performing videos using “We Bring the Boom!” are from the A.J. & Big Justice account itself, though others have gotten in on the song’s accompanying dance as well — including professional athletes in game.
In the tracking week ending Oct. 24, “We Bring the Boom!” earned 327,000 streams in the U.S., up 24%.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Billy Corgan posted a note from his wife Chloe on Wednesday (Oct. 30) about an incident at the Smashing Pumpkins singer’s suburban Chicago tea shop in which a car crashed through the front window. “Important notice about Madame Zuzu’s! Thank you for your support and understanding,” Corgan wrote on X in a post that included the note from his wife.
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“This afternoon at Madame Zuzu’s, a car (in circumstances which remain under investigation) drove over the curb and into Madame Zuzu’s and sadly injuring one person — my mother, Jenny; who was spending the day and lunching with my son Augustus,” wrote Chloe Mendel Corgan. “Thankfully, he was able to leap out of the way and was not injured.”
The couple thanked the Highland Park and Deerfield first responders for their help and Chloe noted that the shop will be closed until further notice, with an update coming soon. Madame Zuzu’s, which serves a variety of teas and vegan items, opened in its current location in Sept. 2020.
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In August, Corgan and his wife announced that they are expecting their third child, who will join son Augustus, 8 and daughter Philomena, 5. “We are overjoyed to announce that our family is growing!” Mendel Corgan, 31, told People magazine. “It’s an exciting time for us, although unexpected!” Corgan, 57, added, “On Sunday, we shared the news with our children, Augustus Juppiter and Philomena Clementine. While Augustus was overjoyed, Clementine, the younger of the two, asked if the baby was made already and shed a few tears of concern, which was honestly adorable. Now, both kids are beaming, and it makes it so much fun to share the joy of bringing more love into our family. We are truly blessed.”
The Smashing Pumpkins are gearing up to launch the South American run of their The World Is a Vampire tour, which will kick off in Brasilia, Brazil at the Arena BRB on Friday (Nov. 1).
See Corgan’s post below.
Radiohead singer Thom Yorke left the stage at his solo show in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday night (Oct. 30) after a heckler yelled at him about the war between Israel and Hamas. According to fan footage of the incident at the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl, after the man yelled comments about the “Israeli genocide of Gaza” and made references to the deaths of children during the now year-long war between Israel and militant group Hamas, Yorke stopped the show and challenged the person to say it to his face on stage.
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“Come up here and say that. Right here, come on,” said a peeved sounding Yorke as he stood on stage holding his acoustic guitar while some fans booed the heckler, with one telling the person to “shut the f–k up.”
“Hop up on the f–king stage and say what you wanna say,” Yorke continued. “Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it. You want to p–s on everybody’s night?”
After the person then reportedly responded with another comment about the war in Gaza, Yorke seemingly had had enough and said, “OK, you do it, see you later then” and walked off stage. According to The Guardian, the singer returned a few minutes later to play the final song of his set, Radiohead’s “Karma Police.”
Yorke is on his Everything tour, on which he’s playing solo material as well as songs from Radiohead and spin-off group The Smile.
Back in 2017, Yorke defended Radiohead’s decision to perform in Tel Aviv, Israel against critics who have called for a boycott of performances in the country over the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians; Yorke has also criticized the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, saying that BDS prevents necessary dialogue and cultural interactions that could create a positive impact.
In June, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood posted a lengthy note in response to renewed criticism of his long-running collaboration with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa after the pair played a show in Israel in May in the midst of the war sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli women, children and civilians during a raid by Hamas fighters who also took more than 250 hostages.
In the ensuring war, Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 42,000 Palestinians according to Palestinian authorities, while also laying waste to much of the infrastructure in Gaza in a war that has now widened to include airstrikes in Iran and Lebanon.
Three days after former president/felon Donald Trump held a vengeful, race-baiting rally at Madison Square Garden, Cyndi Lauper – a musical icon and champion of LGBTQ and women’s rights – sought to cleanse the air at the iconic New York City venue on Wednesday (Oct. 30) during her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.
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“It’s about time [women] start stepping forward and voting for ourselves. We need equality – and I ain’t going back, that’s for sure,” she said early in the evening, before alluding to Sunday night’s MAGA rally: “We need a lot of love here tonight to dissipate a lot of the hate that was here. I wasn’t going to say this, but then I did,” she added with an unapologetic shrug. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is, too, donating proceeds from wig sales at her merch table toward her Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund at the Tides Foundation, which collects funds for “safe and legal abortions… women’s healthcare, prenatal care, postnatal care, cancer screenings — women’s health.”
The Billboard Hot 100-topping, EGT-winning musical icon has never shied away from being politically, creatively and musically outspoken – and the world has been better off for it. So while a Cyndi Lauper farewell tour is a bittersweet affair (one audience member vehemently screamed “no!” when she talked about this being her last major trek), you can’t blame her for wanting to go out while still in peak musical form.
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At 71, Lauper has not lost an iota of her distinctive vocal power. She roared through “She Bop,” belted “I Drove All Night” with 100mph gusto and brilliantly wove through her vocally fragile yet formidable cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” For those ‘80s classics, her band – led by musical director William Wittman, who played on her career-launching classic debut She’s So Unusual (1983) – wisely hewed close to the original arrangements, bringing a crackling new wave punch to the material instead of trying to recast them through a modern lens. When you’re hearing these songs, you want those floating synths, snap percussion and sprightly guitars – not to mention the sublime recorder solo on “She Bop” that Lauper herself performed onstage.
Having a band that tight and well-oiled also afforded Lauper the freedom to stretch out vocally and let loose physically – which was abundantly clear toward the end of an ass-walloping “Money Changes Everything” where she hammered out various riffs on the chorus while writhing around on the ground.
Lauper’s setlist doesn’t shortchange on the hits, but half of the fun of the show is her off-the-cuff banter, delivered in that indelible, no B.S. Brooklyn fashion. “I still can’t parallel park for sh-t,” she quipped after “I Drove All Night”; while sharing a story about a famous actor who told her he was a big fan of The Goonies, she assured the crowd she would never namedrop, then paused significantly and said “Andrew Garfield” before singing the bouncy “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”; and when introducing “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a Gene Pitney cover she used to sing with her pre-fame band Blue Angel, she joked about struggling to figure out the song before learning proper key changes: “I tried to sing like him and I kinda sounded like Ethel Merman.” Rolling her eyes, pulling faces and delivering one-liners out of the corner of her mouth, Lauper is a naturally hilarious human who effortlessly commands an audience’s attention. (It’s a shame the 1988 adventure comedy Vibes, which she starred in alongside Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk, was a box office flop, because she’s genuinely fantastic in it — you can’t help but wish she’d done more big screen work.)
Like so many funny people, Lauper can also use humor to help land an emotional gut punch. “Can you imagine if men could get pregnant?” she asked before singing “Sally’s Pigeons,” a harrowing, real-life-inspired tale of a back-alley abortion that ends in death. “What did Gloria Steinem say? It would be a sacrament.” Eyes were also glistening during “True Colors,” which Lauper performed on a small stage in the middle of the arena while a colorful scarf twisted through the air; her extended pause after delivering the “don’t be afraid” lyric at the end was particularly poignant.
And, of course, “Time After Time” had more than a few people wiping their eyes – not to mention dropping their jaws when surprise guest Sam Smith came out to join Lauper on the Hot 100 No. 1, blending their dulcet tones with her restrained, emotive delivery. (Smith watched the remainder of the show completely rapt from the side of the stage.)
The show wrapped, naturally, with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Lauper performed in a red polka dot outfit from Yayoi Kusama. After singing the line about “boys [who] take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world” and wailing “I want to be the one to walk in the sun,” Lauper added a post-Roe appropriate lyrical update: “Everyone wants to have fundamental rights.” Before leading fans in a final sing-along of the chorus, she urged the crowd to give it their all: “Say it loud enough to get rid of all the bad energy in here,” she shouted, smiling. Based on the vitality, power and joy she brought to the MSG on Wednesday, it’s safe to say that the famed Manhattan arena has gone through the musical equivalent of a sage burning, fumigation and re-sanctification under her watch.
Next year’s emo-tastic lineup for the annual When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas has yet another stacked lineup of all your Hot Topic faves. Just weeks after this year’s event swept up all its glitter and guyliner, organizers revealed that the October 18, 2025 edition will feature the return of Panic! At the Disco, who announced their split in early 2023 and played their final shows in early 2024 in Europe.
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Not only that, but the band will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their beloved 2005 debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out in its entirety, regaling the crowd with renditions of classics including “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage,” “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” and “But It’s Better If You Do.”
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Other acts lined up to hit the Las Vegas Festival Grounds for the show include: Weezer, Blink-182, Avril Lavigne, The Offspring, All Time Low, The Used, Knocked Loose, Yellowcard, Simple Plan, Taking Back Sunday, Jack’s Mannequin, The Story So Far, Alexisonfire, Bad Religion, The Gaslight Anthem, I Prevail, Ice Nine Kills, Motionless in White, Plain White T’s, Straylight Run and many more.
Sign-up for the presale beings on Friday (Nov. 1) at 10 a.m. PT., with the general onsale kicking off on Friday at 2 p.m. PT.
This year’s WWWY fest took place on Oct. 19-20 and featured My Chemical Romance playing their landmark album The Black Parade, as well as sets from Nada Surf, 3OH!3, Neck Deep, New Found Glory, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Atreyu, Saves the Day, Silverstein, Coheed and Cambria and many more.
See the full lineup and Panic’s announcement below.