Our Annual Report continues as we celebrate the Best Concerts of 2023. We’ll be honoring all the best in music, film, and TV of the year all month long, so find it all in one place here.
Live music has been under quite the spotlight over the past few years. The effective shutdown of the industry in 2020 and efforts to keep it alive in 2021 rallied concertgoers everywhere, leading to the snapping of the rubber band that was 2022, when live music returned with a vengeance. But as the light of attention grew brighter, hotter, and more intense, the worst aspects of the landscape became just as blinding as its best.
While live music discourse in 2023 has taken many forms, its presence has been near constant. The conversation surrounding Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s practices peaked as the calendar year tipped over, culminating in January’s Senate hearing and a series of seemingly generous but no less controversial moves on the part of the company. Then, thanks to one of the coolest motherfuckers Jeff Rosenstock, touring economics fell into focus, with specific questions arising regarding merch cuts. Not wanting to be left out, audiences nabbed (or, perhaps, forcefully took) a short time in the hot seat as well, as incident after incident after incident after incident made everyone wonder if people will ever be able to behave in a crowd again. Yeah, it was a weird year.
And still, the power of live music persists. Despite all of the conflict, callouts, and assholes in the audience, 2023 saw some of the grandest musical showcases of the decade. Rock ‘n’ roll legends proved the genre’s legs; pop stars hit peak levels of spectacle; underground legends reminded fans just how powerful community can be. Undoubtedly, concerts — and the music industry as a whole — remain at best unsustainable and at worst broken, but standing before speaker stacks (hopefully with earplugs) and pyrotechnics (hopefully tastefully employed) serves as an undeniable reminder of why live music is worth fighting for.
So, for a fleeting second, join us in taking a moment to celebrate the miracle that is live performance as we recount some of the biggest, most mind-melting, and best concerts of the year.
— Jonah Krueger
Editorial Coordinator