Best shows you saw in 2025

in chronological order

sturgill simpson, 01/12/25 cancun
billy strings, 04/05/25 st augustine
greensky bluegrass, 08/09/25 alta WY
lukas nelson, 08/10/25 alta WY
billy strings, 08/16/25 missoula

Acid Bath(twice)
Metallica
Pantera(twice)

Waxahatchee - Luck Reunion
Tyler Childers - Smoothie
Red Clay Strays - Saenger
Alabama Shakes - Saenger

Amyl and the Sniffers
Oliver Anthony
Wet Leg

I only went to a few shows this year. An Evening with Dream Theater at Radio City Music Hall was fantastic. I also saw The Weeknd two out of three nights at Metlife.

Death to All
Weird Al
Killswitch Engage/Shadows Fall
Marilyn Manson

The Darkness were fun

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Slobberbone

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wow. they are still going? I brought them to the Spanish Moon/Bayou many times while i was finishing college. Such a great band live and otherwise.

I saw a lot of random shows this year including comedy bands, blues guitarists, hair metal, hardcore, emo, country, ska, punk, etc.

The top 5 would probably be:
5. Mac Sabbath at the House of Blues NOLA. This show was just crazy fun and silly. They really put on an incredible performance that left me craving fast food for some reason.

4. Weird Al at the Saenger. This wasn't the most hyped show, but the constant costume changes, interactive video segments, and zany antics really made it feel like he was turning his classic music videos into a broadway play. Would absolutely see again.

3. A Day to Remember, Yellowcard, and The Wonder Years in Austin at the Moddy Center. This likely would have been ranked higher if I'd had floor seats with my friends, but the sheer chaos witnessed from the upper deck was truly a spectacle to behold. Yellowcard is sounding as good, if not better, than I've ever heard them and ADTR still goes hard AF.

2. Mumford & Sons, Lainey Wilson, Trombone Shorty, Nathaniel Ratliff, and like 1000 other people at Champion's Square. This was the ultimate sleeper concert. I had no idea what to expect from it, but I never would have anticipated what I got for $30. It was dozens of incredible musicians and vocalists sharing a stage, goofing off, and doing really interesting and fun covers of random popular songs and each other's hits. I don't even know how to describe it better, but it was awesome. When the lead singer of Mumford started singing "Damn, I feel like a woman", Lainey Wilson starts busting out laughing, and Trombone shorty's face says "oh wait, I know this part!" right before he belts out on trombone the "bah da da du du dah daht!" hook at the end of the chorus was priceless. A couple of the coolest versions of "House of the Rising Sun" and "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends" I've ever heard. If there's a live album version of this concert, I'm buying it.

1. My Chemical Romance and Evanescence in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium. This was easily the best stadium experience I could have asked for. The upper decks in Tampa were absolutely rocking, I mean every single person jumping up and down like it was the biggest college football game you've ever seen. MCR had one of the most elaborate stage shows I've ever seen with pyrotechnics, a cast of dozens of actors, an elaborate storyline, all ending in a crazy apocalyptic end. Only...that was intermission. After all of that, the band came back out on a tiny stage in the middle of the general admission floor and just said "yeah, that was the Black Parade, we're My Chemical f&%king Romance" and then proceeded to play a wild stripped down set full of b-sides and deep cuts. It was like the best of both worlds. You got the Kiss level elaborate arena style show plus the intimacy and energy of a punk show all in a giant f&%king football stadium that was packed to the gills and exploding with energy.

My favorite local band show I saw was one event at Brickyard South which featured Pyrate, Blue Widow, Kinky Vanilla, The Bloomies, and Neo Soul 5000 in a multi-genre show featuring two stages which alternated (i.e. one tearing down/setting up while the bands play the other stage). Pyrate is classic metal in the vein of Dio and Judas Priest. Blue Widow is a RATM style band. Kinky Vanilla dn the Bloomies are both indie pop/rock, and Neo Soul 5000 is an interesting hip/hop/r&b outfit that often feels like the musical guests on Chappelle's Show in the early 2000's when a bunch of different rappers would just collab on something fiya. Just a really cool show that I was in no way involved in, lol.

It may be recency bias, but the Muscle show in Lafayette Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic. That show was everything great about modern hardcore music. The crowds were engaged without being overly violent, the music was fun without being too nihilistic, and the dumb cave man riffs went heavy as hell.

Some other shows that were good but didn't quite make the list:
Killswitch Engaged at The Fillmore
Hozier at the Smoothie King Center
I Set My Friends on Fire at The Goat (RIP)
L.A. Guns at Southport Hall