#live-performance

#live-performance

Coming off my latest Tension tour - taking in 54 cities over more than six months - was quite emotional. By the time I began the European leg in Finland, I was thankful for my room at Hotel St George in Helsinki. Even though it's in the heart of the city, it was the perfect calming tonic. It has a spa and there are covers over the TVs, so I wasn't hit with a media wall unless I actively wanted it.

Cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond is this year's Joe's Pub Vanguard artist, and as part of their curated residency, "drag terrorist" CHRISTEENE played four sold out shows at the venue. Tuesday (1/27) was the final night, and CHRISTEENE covered songs by Lana Del Rey, Sinead O'Connor, Patti Smith, R.E.M., Tori Amos, Tina Turner, and more in addition to playing originals, backed by a band that included Mary Feaster on bass, Lyla Vander on drums, Cole Stone Frisina on sax, Joanie Drago on guitar, James Jackson on guitar and banjo, Cornelius Loy on theremin, and Adam Rineer on piano.

Originally from Illinois and now based in Maine, where he has lived for the past four years, Pokey LaFarge brings a lived-in perspective to American roots music. Drawing from early jazz, blues, swing and folk traditions, his songwriting balances warmth, rhythm and emotional clarity without slipping into nostalgia for its own sake. Over the years, LaFarge has grown into a confident bandleader, known for performances that feel loose but intentional, with space for both musicianship and connection.

Duman'li Gece is a Turkish phrase translated as "smoky night." Its application is often a feature of electronica/indie artists seeking to imbue their work with atmosphere as they develop beat-centric and/or ambient works. In the hands of Silicon Valley-based rock/fusion band Mechanical Turk, Duman'li Gece is a rallying cry for the band's synthesis of Turkish rock traditions and Western sonic textures.

Jim E Brown, the self-professed 19-year-old singer "born in Manchester on September 10, 2001, just one day before the 911″ just wrapped up a short bicoastal run of shows with two sold-out nights at Trans-Pecos in Queens. At night 2 (1/24), backed by a full band Jim E. played such hits as "I Urinated on a Butterfly," "I Know I'm Going to Die of a Stroke," "I'm Naked in my Room Huffing Nitrous Balloons," "I'm Writing Love Letters at McDonald's" and, at five different times throughout the set, "Rat in Bin."

Inflatable hammers. Matching red lab coats that strip down into boxer's outfits. A rainbow parachute, like the one you remember from gym class. A bubble machine. Confetti, sprinkled into plastic cups and thrown on the crowd. Three mini trampolines. These are only a few of the props and toys featured in the live show of dance-pop oddball Gelli Haha. The artist, born Angel Abaya, makes an outrageous commitment to spectacle and playfulness. It works unbelievably well.

Dragging his hand across the piano keys, Nick Cave leaps into the air and charges towards the crowd like a preacher breaking from the pulpit. Bring your spirit down! he cries repeatedly, arms flung wide as the choir roars behind him. It's barely 10 minutes into their set at Fremantle Park in Perth, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have the audience in the palm of their hands.

For Emmylou Harris, it's no cliche to say that every song is a story. The country legend has spent 50 years roaming between folk, bluegrass, rock'n'roll and Americana, curating her own songbook of deeply humanitarian music. On this first stop of her European farewell tour, she says goodbye to Scottish fans as part of the Celtic Connections festival, offering up a suitably career-spanning set-list accompanied by memories of Gram Parsons, Nanci Griffith, Bill Monroe, Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson, to name just a few.

I like to touch people,

They experienced major burnout, band members fell out for the first time and founding member James Johnston pulled out of this tour due to mental health and addiction issues. But their new songs feel rooted in renewal, reconnection and newfound purpose. Neil pays tribute to his departed bandmate on the urgent and zippy Friendshipping, which is an ode to the importance of maintaining such relationships.

Jenny Lewis took her unabashed love for her dog, Bobby Rhubarb, to "Such Great Heights" by "marrying" the cockapoo at her 50th birthday bash. "I married my dog for my 50th birthday," Lewis wrote in a social media post featuring photos from the festivities. "BLESS!" Get Rilo Kiley Tickets Here Lewis, who turned 50 on January 8th, dressed in a white wedding gown for the occasion.

Surrounded by an orchestra and dozens of lights arranged in circles on the floor, EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami gave a more meditative, cinematic rendition of "Golden." The new version placed a greater emphasis on orchestration and the song's drama, particularly highlighting the warm harmonies that Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami sing beneath EJAE's towering melody. As they performed, the rings of lights beneath them began to glow with the song's galloping beat.

In 2025, we crammed rap and rock legends, instrumental virtuosos, Broadway musicals and, well, puppets and robots behind a desk in the NPR Music office. Never forget: Tiny Desk has the range. We published 115 (!) concerts this year. There's no way to encompass the scope of such a stellar and diverse roster Bad Bunny! Living Colour! Wiz Khalifa! PinkPantheress! so we asked the team that produces, films, engineers and edits these videos to share their favorite Tiny Desks of 2025, yearbook superlative style.

The late '90s saw the advent of new subgenres variously dubbed trip-hop, downtempo, electronica and chillwave. The overall style was exemplified by Massive Attack, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Morcheeba, Zero 7...and Thievery Corporation. Deeply hypnotic melodies, sophisticated arrangements, top-flight guest vocalists and an undeniably sexy vibe are among the hallmarks of the music. Decades later, it still sounds fresh. Thievery Corporation was and remains better than most in blending world music elements into the heady mix.

When Willie Nelson performs in and around New York, he parks his bus in Weehawken, New Jersey. While the band sleeps at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, he stays on board, playing dominoes, napping. Nelson keeps musician's hours. For exercise, he does sit-ups, arm rolls, and leg lifts. He jogs in place. "I'm in pretty good shape, physically, for ninety-two," he told me recently. "Woke up again this morning, so that's good."

Since their 2017 debut, the quartet, J.Seph, BM, Somin, and Jiwoo, has challenged industry norms by blending genders, genres, and perspectives, using contrast as a storytelling tool rather than a constraint. That bold, genre-bending identity, paired with their explosive live performances, keeps fans, affectionately known as Hidden KARD, coming back for more. That signature energy was on full display as the group emerged through a cloud of fog, striking a balance between hype and intimacy.

Kendrick Lamar made a surprise appearance at his former label Top Dawg Entertainment's 2025 Christmas Concert and Toy Drive in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 18th. During the show, the rapper joined his "Grand National" tourmate SZA to perform two of their recent collaborations. This included their worldwide No. 1 hit, "luther," from Lamar's latest album, , and "30 for 30," off SZA's SOS deluxe reissue, . Kendrick also performed his solo track "squabble up." Watch fan-shot footage below.

The song, in which a young woman confesses to being simply "a little much" for the people around her, is built around a steady, descending piano part that sounds more like the skeletal framework musicians use to teach each other chord changes than a fully fleshed-out song. Listening to it feels almost like sitting next to the singer as she's coming up with the song in real time, noodling away at the piano in the early morning hours,

Recently, in casual conversations, I've been asked for my opinion about the October report that "No Rap Songs Are in the Billboard Hot 100's Top 40 for the First Time Since 1990" more so than my thoughts on any particular rap album or song from this year. I never gave anyone the "Yeah, this rap shit is dead" answer they seemed to be looking for, but the question did make me have to think about what gets me excited about rap these days.

"the way these instruments are meant to sound."

All of the artists on the lineup for the second annual R&B Xmas Ball Dru Hill, Joe, Toni Braxton and Boyz II Men have Christmas albums from the last two decades, but rather than putting a twist on carols or crooner standards, this is an evening that merely uses Christmas as an excuse for a night out to hear earnest, heart-rending 90s R&B. Slow jam Joe. Photograph: Laura Rose/The Guardian Dru Hill deliver classic R&B in matching outfits, as their 2000s music videos as seen on kebab shop TVs nationwide play out behind them, while a set of mostly slow jams from Joe sets the stage for Braxton.

Larry Vuckovich celebrates his 89th year on the eve of his birthday, which is December 8! He will be playing with his favorite guitarist, Kai Lyons. Larry and Kai have been regularly expanding their diverse and wide-ranging repertoire. Besides the great jazz classics of top composers, they will cover seldom heard standards, great Latin and Brazilian pieces, World Music gems, and as always funky, boogaloo blues selections.

When the drums kick in on "Basil's Kite," singer Tim Kinsella, who is either moderately drunk or just extremely loose, immediately dives into the crowd. Suddenly, five crowd-surfers are joining him, their gum-soled shoes pointing upward like lopsided lightning rods. Kinsella, kept afloat by a small forest of his fans' arms, throws back his head as he howls the words.