The world may have devolved into a cruel, dark, Hobbesian state of nature in 2024, but it was a pretty amazing time for live rock music. The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were in stadiums, Pearl Jam, Weezer, David Gilmour, and Olivia Rodrigo headlined arenas, Neil Young and Crazy Horse hit the shed circuit, and Yes cut itself in half and still managed to out-prog all their competitors at theaters and amphitheaters all over the country.
I saw a lot of rock concerts over the past 12 months, and picking the top 10 moments was not an easy job. In fact, it was tempting to devote half of the list to Neil Young because of how on fire he was this year onstage, both with Crazy Horse and the Chrome Hearts. Of course, that’d have been unfair to everyone else who helped make these 365 days some of the best for rock concerts in recent memory. Here, in no particular order, are the top guitar-and-drums show of 2024.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse – May 14 @ Forest Hills Stadium, Queens, N.Y.
For reasons that have yet to be fully explained, Neil Young and Crazy Horse called off their summer tour at the midway point, leaving scores of disappointed fans all across the United States. But those of us lucky enough to attend at least one of the shows that did take place witnessed something truly remarkable: Young at age 79, backed by the Crazy Horse rhythm section of drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot, both 80, performing with the same passion and intensity they had on their first tour back in 1969. They were joined by guitarist Micah Nelson (young enough to be their grandchild at a mere 34 years old), who played parts originated by Danny Whitten and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro with deep respect and perfect precision.
The setlist was drawn almost entirely from the music they recorded with producer David Briggs between 1969 and 1994, along with selections from 1996’s Broken Arrow, an album they created in his honor shortly after his death. I was fortunate enough to attend six of the 15 shows, but the first night at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens stands above the rest for Young’s brilliant reaction to the P.A. cutting in and out during “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).” Instead of stopping the song and waiting for technicians to sort out the issue, he simply pushed the band to play through the chaos. The result was a beautiful trainwreck of feedback and fury that perfectly summed up the message of the song. No other rock icon of his generation is still putting on performances even remotely like this.
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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Sept. 15 @ Asbury Park Beach, Asbury Park, N.J.
When Springsteen returned to the road with the E Street Band in early 2023 following a five-year break, he meticulously crafted a setlist that told a story of mortality, loss, grief, and finding joy and purpose in the days that remain. It left little room for variation from night to night, frustrating the hardcore fans who follow him all across the globe.
That setlist was put into a shredder on Sept. 15 when Springsteen headlined the Sea.Hear.Now festival in front of 35,000 fans on the Asbury Park beach. The nostalgic evening focused on deep cuts from early in his career like “Thundercrack,” “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” and “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” that sent shockwaves of joy down the entire boardwalk. It felt like the entirety of Bruce Nation came together to witness this moment together. When Springsteen stops touring, sometime around his 100th birthday in 2049, and fans look back at the best shows of the post-reunion era, this one will be high on the list.
Pearl Jam – Sept. 4 @ Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.
Madison Square Garden has been sacred ground for Pearl Jam since they first headlined the New York arena on the Yield tour back in 1998. They kicked off their two-night stand in September of this year with an uncharacteristically uneven night where they never quite found the right groove, but came roaring back to life the following evening with an incredible set that ranks high on their list of best MSG shows in history. Highlights included furious renditions of “Not for You” and “Do the Evolution,” a wild “Rearviewmirror” with guest guitarist Andrew Watt, a rare rendition of “Glorified G” played at the request of Howard Stern, and an emotional cover of Steve Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot” as the man himself watched from the crowd. It wrapped up with a glorious “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Van Zandt, Watt, and Glen Hansard all playing along.
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David Gilmour – Nov. 9 @ Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.
David Gilmour tours are very infrequent and often quite short. He limited the North American run of his Luck and Strange tour this year to four nights in Los Angeles, and five in New York City. That meant fans from all across the East Coast flocked to Madison Square Garden in November to catch one in the arena. They were rewarded with a glorious night of music that focused on his new LP and tunes from the final incarnation of Pink Floyd. Gilmour originally pledged to completely ignore the Roger Waters era of Floyd, but ultimately relented by adding “Speak to Me/Breathe,” “Time,” “Fat Old Sun,” “Wish You Were Here,” “The Great Gig in the Sky” and, of course, “Comfortably Numb” into the set. You get many more classic-era tunes when Waters tours, but Gilmour shows feel like a more authentic Pink Floyd experience.
Mannequin Pussy – May 16 @ Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, N.Y.
I first saw Mannequin Pussy two-and-a-half years ago at the 250-capacity St. Vitus in Brooklyn. Lead signer Marisa Dabice whipped the audience into such a punk-rock frenzy that night that they rammed into the mic stand and chipped her tooth — though she barely seemed to care, roaring through songs from the band’s 2019 breakthrough LP Perfect at breakneck speed. The whole evening was an incredible moment of rock & roll catharsis for me after witnessing way too many shows where most fans are unable to look up from their phones, let alone form a mosh pit so intense it injures the lead singer.
The experience turned me into a die-hard Mannequin Pussy fan, and their show this May was my fifth time seeing them. By this point, they scaled way up to the 1,800-capacity Brooklyn Steel thanks to their excellent new LP I Got Heaven. Dabice and the rest of the band were ready for the big stage and turned songs like “Drunk II,” “Sometimes,” and “Loud Bark” into arena-ready anthems. If they continue growing at that pace, it won’t be long before they’re in an actual arena.
Weezer/Flaming Lips/Dinosaur Jr. – Sept. 11 @ Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.
Weezer haven’t exactly shied away from playing Blue Album songs in concert ever since dropping the album back in 1994. At a typical show, you’re likely to hear six or seven of the 10 tracks, and they even played it in full in 2011 on the Memories Tour. But they went all out for the 30th this year, casting themselves as astronauts on a journey through the cosmos in search of the Blue Planet, making a brief stop on the Pinkerton Asteroid Belt along the way. When they finally discovered the Blue Planet (after 15 songs), they performed the album in sequence. It was a euphoric moment, and the most potent dose of Nineties nostalgia I’ve ever seen delivered on a concert stage.
Setting the stage for the night were Flaming Lips, playing MSG for only their second time ever, and Dinosaur Jr., who took the stage at 7 o’clock to a nearly empty arena. They didn’t seem to mind, tearing through “Feel the Pain,” “Freak Scene,” and their cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” They are basically the only band from their era touring with the complete original lineup intact, and the power of J Mascis’s guitar is undiminished. They’re the Cheap Trick of their time, and I mean that in the most flattering way possible.
The Rolling Stones – April 28 @ NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas
It was reasonable to expect the Rolling Stones to sound just a bit rusty when they kicked off their Hackney Diamonds tour in Houston. They’d been off the road for two years, had brand new songs to test out in front of a live audience, and were fronted by a man on the verge of his 81st birthday. But normal rules of time, aging, and physics don’t apply to the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger spent two solid hours running laps around the stage, and belting out songs like “Get Off of My Cloud” and “Angry” without breaking a sweat. The Exile on Main St. deep cut “Rocks Off” was a definite high spot, as was the unveiling of new background singer Chanel Haynes on “Gimme Shelter” and “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.” If this is the start of a final chapter for the Stones, it’s a pretty remarkable one.
Tie: Yes – Sept. 1 @ Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, N.Y.;
Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks – Sept. 27 @ St. George Theatre, Staten Island, N.Y.
In a better world than this one, the surviving members of the Close to the Edge-era Yes lineup have reunited and are back on the road. In this world, it’s impossible to see more than a single one of them at a time. I experienced the closest thing possible to a reunion in September when I kicked off the month by attending the Steve Hackett-led incarnation of Yes’s opening slot for Deep Purple at Jones Beach, and capped by month off by catching Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks in Staten Island.
They both played “Yours Is No Disgrace,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Starship Trooper,” and “Roundabout.” They were both in shockingly great form, and delivered the songs flawlessly. I cannot pick one over the other. Now, guys, get your shit together and play this music, reunited, while you’re both above ground.
Bob Dylan/Plant and Krauss/Lukas Nelson – June 30 @ PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J.
Over the past few years, it’s been mostly impossible to see Bob Dylan perform anywhere in America besides dark, hushed theaters where ushers dive on anyone that dares to take to a phone for even a split second. (These people are my heroes. I want them at every show, even if their flashlights are often more annoying than the actual phones). But this summer, Dylan hit the outdoors sheds alongside Willie Nelson, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and John Mellencamp. (The latter two acts each played roughly half the tour each.) This meant phones were allowed, and Dylan was playing to large masses of very casual fans, often in broad daylight.
He seemed to enjoy the change of atmosphere, and loosened up a bit with a set that mixed oddball covers like Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie” and the Grateful Dead’s “Stella Blue” with familiar standards like “Love Sick,” “Ballad of a Thin Man,” and “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.” At the show in Holmdel, New Jersey, Plant and Krauss won over the crowd by playing “Rock and Roll,” “The Battle of Evermore,” and other Zeppelin tunes, while Lukas Nelson sat in for his ailing father. It was a perfect summer evening.
Olivia Rodrigo/The Breeders – April 5 @ Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.
Anyone who mistakenly believes that rock is dead wasn’t at Madison Square Garden when Olivia Rodrigo headlined the arena with special guest the Breeders. Rodrigo blazed through nearly every song on Guts and Sour backed by a killer all-female band, and played electric guitar herself on “Obsessed.” It’s hard to believe she’d never performed a concert in her life prior to 2021. Earlier in the night, the Breeders made the parents in the audience very happy when they broke out “Cannonball.” There is no plausible definition of “rock & roll” that doesn’t include every moment of this concert.
