Basically, no shows are taking place due to the coronavirus outbreak (although some artists are doing live streams instead), but if you’re already watching a show, or just need a ‘a brief distraction from the craziness of the world right now, luckily there’s YouTube which has an incredible range of live footage from all over pop music history, film clips from concerts, TV performances and live music. other professionally shot footage, to tons of fan-shot videos from shows. If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve selected some of our favorites. Here are five more:
Fountains of Wayne in Chicago, 2005
We lost Adam Schlesinger to COVID-19 yesterday, and his career was deep and wide. He played in rock bands but was also an in-demand songwriter, working in pop, stage and screen. He’s perhaps best known as one half of Fountains of Wayne, the ’90s/00s power-pop band that married big hooks with tongue-in-cheek tales of suburban boredom and awkward romance. “Stacy’s Mom” was their Top 40 hit, but most of the FoW songs could have been singles, as this live show from Chicago shows in 2005. Sure, they’re playing that one, but also “Red Dragon Tattoo”, “Radiation Vibe”, “Denise”, “Sink to the Bottom”, “Valley Winter Song”, “Sick Day”, “I’ve Got a Flair”, “and more. The band, which includes vocalist/co-writer Chris Collingwood, Jody Porter of the Posies and drummer Brian Young, is a tight-knit unit and they sound great here.If you’ve never delved into the Fountains of Wayne catalog, this is not a bad place to start. [Bill Pearis]
Iron Maiden @ The Beat Club, Bremen, Germany, 1981
Ever since BV started doing these live video posts, I knew I wanted to share one from Iron Maiden. But with a career as massive as theirs and no shortage of live footage to enjoy, I privately agonized over which one I would commit to. So today I present to you one of my all-time favorites; Iron Maiden live at Beat Club Germany, 1981, during their “Killers” tour. Here is Maiden at a pivotal moment in their career. On the career side, they have just started to hurtle down the track at full speed before launching into the stratosphere of the greatest metal bands of all time. This video features one of my favorite iterations of the band, with Paul Di’Anno absolutely killing it as frontman, while behind the kit, Clive Burr (RIP) serves as the rock-solid backbone of the band. With Dave Murray and Adrian Smith on guitars and founder Steve Harris on bass, you can’t go wrong. It’s such a raw, honest, no-frills performance, devoid of all the elaborate stage distractions they’re known for today. It’s as much punk rock as it is metal and a vital document in the band’s varied history. [Jeff Bergstrom]
Deerhunter @ Mezzanine in San Francisco – 02/24/09
Deerhunter have always been a great live band, but my favorite band lineup was when the late Josh Fauver was on bass, and the gigs they played with him in the late 2000s and early 2010s were among their sets the most fascinating. As they often did in those days, they opened this 2009 show with Cryptograms‘, with a huge cloud of fog and pastel colored lights obscuring the group almost entirely. It turned the trippiness up to 11 from the start and sucked you straight into this killer set full of era favorites like “Cover Me (Slowly)”, “Agoraphobia”, “Nothing Ever Happened”, “Famous Last Words,” and more. [Andrew Sacher]
Grateful Dead @ The Closing of Winterland – New Year’s Eve, 1978
What can really be said about the now legendary New Year’s Eve concert the Grateful Dead played as their final show at Bill Graham’s Winterland Arena in San Francisco that hasn’t been said yet? They played three sets and two encores in about five hours, and they were in relaxed but festive form and sounded great all night. Not to mention that this show included the reintroduction of “Dark Star,” which hadn’t been performed in over four years. This playlist does not have the completed five hours (which you can buy on DVD), but that should take up a pretty good chunk of your time. [Andrew Sacher]
Robyn in Stockholm, Sweden, 2011
This Body language-era show surprises Robyn at the height of her prowess in the ecstatic catharsis of the dancefloor. Especially in our time of social isolation, you couldn’t do better than turn up the heat and dance on your own. [Amanda Hatfield]
For more of our favorite live videos, head here.
