Live Reviews

A Beautiful Zombie: The Psychedelic Furs At Kentish Town Forum

It's decades since they made a new record, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't. Jeremy Allen is seduced by a night of nostalgia and goes home wanting more.

Space Odyssey: Mogwai Live At The Brudenell Social Club

At a tiny one-off gig at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, Mogwai create thunder and eruption - and something beautiful in the spaces in between.

Das Ist Gut: DAF At M’Era Luna Festival

The mighty veterans of gothic electronica made one of their rare live appearances at the M’Era Luna festival in Hildesheim. David Stubbs put on his darkest clothes for the black celebration

Fruity, Creamy, Squelchy: Lone Taxidermist & Aja Ireland Reviewed

A damp, dark basement is filled with custard, cream and oozing thudding bass. Melissa Steiner reports back from the launch gig for Lone Taxidermist's new album

Justified & Ancient Seems A Long Time Ago: The JAMs In Liverpool

Is music just a lifestyle soundtrack? Does life require chaos? Why is Jarvis Cocker here? Novelist Adelle Stripe visits Liverpool to witness the return of the KLF

Sing, Cuckoo! Sing, Cuckoo! Green Man Festival Reviewed

Where Julian Marszalek witnesses a three-way battle for the past in an uncertain and tumultuous present, and Alix Buscovic parties with wicker men and wicked women

Who Will Stop The Rain? Lana Del Rey Live At Oya

Chris Roberts travels to Oslo’s Oya Festival and finds Lana Del Rey stopping the rain and moving fans to tears. Plus Pixies, The xx, Feist, The Shins, Mac DeMarco, Ryan Adams, Angel Olsen and more

Furious, Glorious: OFF Festival reviewed

From SIKSA to PJ Harvey, Silver Apples to Thee Oh Sees, Julian Marszalek revels in the righteous anger and the sense of joy at Poland's OFF Festival.

Performance & Authenticity: Devendra Banhart Live At Hackney Empire

Veronica Irwin watches Devendra Banhart charm the crowd, and realises that what she thought was hipster appropriation might instead be something rather wonderful.

But You’re Not Really Here: Lana Del Rey Live At Brixton Academy

Lana Del Rey is a modern-day Karen Carpenter, reckons Jeremy Allen at her Brixton show - tragic and kitsch, familiar and unknowable, a simple complex pop star.

Things Learned At: Sónar 2017

Ben Cardew and Karl Smith head to Barcelona for hugging, raving and cosmology. Featuring: Björk, Floorplan, Arca, Bad Gyal, GAIKA, Thundercat, Dopplereffekt, Nadia Rose and MIIIN.

Vulnerability At Its Finest: Frank Ocean Live At Lovebox

With his music, Frank Ocean gives us insight into his deepest thoughts and feelings. Veronica Irwin asks why we don’t care.

Forever Watching Love Grow: New Order Live At MIF

New Order play a euphoric home-ground gig at Manchester International Festival. Jude Rogers feels the love, and considers the band's legacy as an integral part of modern Manchester history

Thank You For The Music: Arcade Fire Live At York Hall

Arcade Fire were once in the business of anthems - now they're in the business of bangers. David Bennun is seduced and overwhelmed.

Differing Experiences: Radiohead Live At Glastonbury

Radiohead's headline spot was a set of ups and downs, or so our man-on-the-ground Patrick Clarke believed. But the outside world did not agree - so when is a disappointment actually a triumph?

Green Day, The Gilman Street Project And The Wide Reach of East Bay Punk

Veronica Irwin went to see Green Day live at Hyde Park at the weekend. Here she reflects on how they represent East Bay punk on an international scale

Europe, Endless? On Watching Kraftwerk Live, A Year After Brexit

Almost exactly a year after the UK voted to leave the EU Luke Turner finds the experience of watching Kraftwerk play live has acquired an unexpected melancholy aspect. Do we Brits no longer deserve their European futurism?

Warped Bliss: The Quietus At Field Day 2017

Heralding the start of the UK's 2017 festival season - and what a promising start it was too with the sun shining for most of the day - Thomas Hobbs, Patrick Clarke, Aurora Mitchell, Tara Joshi, Anna Wood and Christian Eede report back on what this year's edition of the festival had to offer. (Photographs by Valerio Berdini unless stated)

DJ Windows 98 Live: Arcade Fire’s Win Butler & Haiti

Arcade Fire's Win Butler promised Reflektor would sound like a mix of "Studio 54 and Haitian Vodou," prompting calls of cultural appropriation. Now, he co-owns a Haitian restaurant and fuses American pop and Haitian konpa as DJ Windows 98. Haitian music nerd David Henderson traces Butler's Haiti obsession back to its source

Maverick Magic: Adam Ant Live Royal Albert Hall

Adam Ant tours his anthems and his insect nation fill the Royal Albert Hall. It’s a comeback which can only be hailed as triumphant. Chris Roberts argues that the later, solo hits are every bit as dynamic as the Antmusic which gave us the early Eighties’ brightest star

Buildings Are Transient Things: Einstürzende Neubauten Live

Newcastle's Boiler Shop was the birthplace of the industrial revolution. Now a new music venue, it was the perfect setting in which to witness the graceful evolution of Einstürzende Neubauten. Photos by Jay Dawson / Boiler Shop

Singular Talent: Iron Maiden Live In Nottingham

Michael Hann enjoys watching Iron Maiden, some thirty years after he first saw them live but he has a novel suggestion for their next tour... Photographs by John McMurtrie

Pop For The Politically Disillusioned: Charlotte Church Live

There's a club if you'd like to go... you might end up singing a mash up of Faithless, Fat Boy Slim and Snap along with a leftwing Welsh pop & opera singer and forget that the world's ending, says Daniel Dylan Wray

Fear, Anger, Love: The Quietus At CTM Festival 2017

At 2017's edition of CTM Berlin, a festival now in its eighteenth year, Karl Smith finds a project dedicated not just to forward-thinking music and experimentation but also to a sense of unification in a time when it is sorely needed

Pop’s Lingua Franca: La Femme Live At Le Zénith

Jeremy Allen enters the psychotropical live spectale of La Femme, who could be the next Christine and the Queens, if they'd only change

Fourth Nation: Rabih Beaini At Novas Frequencias

After a week at Novas Frequencias festival in Rio, Tara Joshi considers cultural intersections and Lebanese artist Rabih Beaini

Three Songs All Flash: Jean-Michel Jarre Live In Paris

It's about time that electronic innovator Jean-Michel Jarre was invited to sit at the top table with Kraftwerk, argues Jeremy Allen after watching him play live

On Coming To Metal In Middle-Age: Neurosis Live At Koko

Tariq Goddard didn't realise that he liked metal until he went to see Neurosis live at Koko and found their "songs of engagement and endurance" chimed with his own advancing years. Photos © Benedetto Manzella for the Heathen Harvest Periodical, 2016

Aural Obliteration: The Bug’s Sirens At Illuminations Festival

At this year's Illuminations Festival in London, Mollie Zhang gets immersed in Kevin Martin's Sirens project and considers the power of all-encompassing sonic obliteration as therapy in a world of immediacy

In Search Of A Higher Plane: Le Guess Who? Festival 2016

With performances from The Ex — as well as their spotlighting of Ethiopian music in Fendika and Zerfu Demissie — and Brazil's Elza Soares, at he tenth anniversary year of Utrecht's Le Guess Who?, Noel Gardner finds a festival that has shifted its weight and broadened its vision in search of more. (Photographs by Tim van Veen, Jan Rijk and Jelmer de Haas)

Embracing Reality: Iceland Airwaves 2016

Leonard Cohen’s O2 Concert Is Part Of A Remarkable Renaissance

As Leonard Cohen brings his world tour to the O2 Arena, Luke Turner discovers that even the biggest venue makes for a perfect pulpit for the master of song. First published in 2008