Veterans like Neil Young and the Rolling Stones, along with new rock torchbearers like Olivia Rodrigo and Mannequin Pussy, made this a good year for guitars, drums and attitude.
The world may have transformed into a cruel, dark, Hobbesian state of nature in 2024, but it’s been a pretty amazing time for live rock music. The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed in stadiums, Pearl Jam, Weezer, David Gilmour and Olivia Rodrigo played in arenas, Neil Young and Crazy Horse performed in sheds, and Yes cut themselves in half and still managed to to outplay all of their competitors in theaters and amphitheaters across the country.
I’ve seen a lot of rock concerts in the last 12 months and it wasn’t easy to choose the 10 best moments. In fact, it was tempting to dedicate half the list to Neil Young because he was so in his element on stage this year, with both Crazy Horse and Chrome Hearts. Of course, that would have been unfair to everyone else who helped make these 365 days one of the best for rock concerts in recent memory. Here, in no particular order, are the best guitar and drum shows of 2024.
1 Neil Young and Crazy Horse – May 14th at Forest Hills Stadium, Queens, NY
For reasons that are not yet fully understood, Neil Young and Crazy Horse have canceled their summer tour halfway through, leaving scores of disappointed fans across the United States. But those of us who were lucky enough to attend at least one of the shows that took place witnessed something truly remarkable: Young, 79 years old, was joined by Crazy Horse’s rhythm section, drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot , both 80 years old, accompanied and performed with the same passion and intensity as on their first tour in 1969. They were joined by guitarist Micah Nelson (young enough at 34 to be her grandson), who played parts originally written by Danny Whitten and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro with deep respect and perfect precision.
The setlist consisted almost entirely of music they recorded with producer David Briggs between 1969 and 1994, as well as selections from the 1996 album Broken Arrow, which they recorded in his honor shortly after his death. I was lucky enough to attend six of the 15 shows, but the first night at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens stands out for Young’s brilliant response to the PA system’s ins and outs during “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).” Instead of pausing the song and waiting for the technicians to fix the problem, he simply urged the band to get through the chaos. The result was a beautiful chaos of feedback and anger that perfectly summed up the song’s message. No other rock icon of his generation gives performances that are even close to this.
2 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – September 15th at Asbury Park Beach, Asbury Park, NJ
When Springsteen returned to touring with the E Street Band in early 2023 after a five-year hiatus, he carefully crafted a setlist that told a story about mortality, loss, grief, and finding joy and meaning in the remaining days. It left little room for variation from night to night and frustrated the hardcore fans who follow it around the world.
That setlist was thrown into a shredder on September 15 when Springsteen headlined the Sea.Hear.Now festival in front of 35,000 fans on Asbury Park Beach. The nostalgic evening focused on profound pieces from the early days of his career such as “Thundercrack”, “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” and “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”, which caused a storm of enthusiasm throughout the boardwalk. It felt like the entire Bruce Nation had come together to experience 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 at the top of the list.
3 Pearl Jam – September 4th at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Madison Square Garden has been sacred ground for Pearl Jam since they first headlined the New York arena at Yield in 1998“tour performed. They began their two-night run in September of that year with an unusually uneven evening in which they never quite found the right groove, but the next night with an incredible set that tops their list of the best MSG shows in history stands, came back to life. 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” performed at the request of Howard Stern, and a emotional cover version of Steve Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot,” with the man himself watching from the audience. The concert ended with a glorious “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Van Zandt, Watt and Glen Hansard all playing.
4 David Gilmour – November 9th at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
David Gilmour’s tours are very rare and often quite short. This year’s North American tour Lucky and strangeHe limited his tour to four evenings in Los Angeles and five in New York City. That meant fans from all over the East Coast flocked to Madison Square Garden in November to catch one in the arena. They were rewarded with a great evening of music focused on his new album and tracks from the latest incarnation of Pink Floyd. Gilmour had originally promised to completely ignore the Roger Waters-era Floyd, but eventually relented and added “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. There are many more classics from the era on Waters tours, but Gilmour shows provide a more authentic Pink Floyd experience.
5 Mannequin Pussy – May 16th at Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY
I first saw Mannequin Pussy two and a half years ago at the 250-seat St. Vitus in Brooklyn. Lead singer Marisa Dabice worked the audience into such a punk rock frenzy that night that they slammed into the microphone stand and chipped one of her teeth – although she hardly seemed to mind as she belted out songs from the breakthrough album “Perfect“ the 2019 volume blared. The whole evening was an incredible moment of ‘n’ roll catharsis for me, after seeing way too many shows where most fans couldn’t look up from their phones, let alone form a mosh pit so intense that it injured the lead singer became.
The experience turned me into a die-hard Mannequin Pussy fan, and I attended their show in May for the fifth time. By this point they had made it into the 1,800 capacity Brooklyn Steel thanks to their excellent new album I Got Heaven. Dabice and the rest of the band were ready for the big stage, turning songs like “Drunk II,” “Sometimes,” and “Loud Bark” into stadium-ready anthems. If they continue to grow at this rate, it won’t be long before they appear in a real arena.