Cities have started to reopen (NYC is in the early stages) and some people are finding socially remote ways to host concerts, but the world of live entertainment as we know it is still far from normal. . Aside from watching the many livestreams that happen every day, one thing we’ve turned to in these non-concert times is the live concert footage, and luckily there is YouTube which has an incredible array of live footage. from all the history of pop music, from movie clips of concerts, TV performances and other professional filming footage, to tons of videos made by fans of shows. If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve picked out some of our favorites. Here are five more:
Run The Jewels @ Terminal 5 – 03/01/2017
Run The Jewels just released their vital new album last week, and if it weren’t for these gigs-less times, they’d be backing it up on tour with Rage Against the Machine. (The tour has been rescheduled for 2021.) Since we’ll have to wait some time to finally see RTJ live again, here’s a great pro-tour video of the four-night sold-out race at New York’s Terminal 5 that the duo did in 2017. Killer Mike and El-P have always brought it to the stage – their chemistry is undeniable, and their strong, booming rhythms and boundless energy are simply designed to be experienced in person. [Andrew Sacher]
Freddie Gibbs @ The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA – 06/27/2018
Another new album that I can’t stop listening to is Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo, here is a pro-tour video of a full concert on the Freddie tower. He opened the show by performing Freddie in full, then he did a handful of older songs, including two from Freddie Gibbs & Madlib’s debut album. Freddie is a real rapper, and it always shows on stage, where his rhymes are as tight as they are in the studio. And compared to the smoky and relaxing sounds of Alfredo, Freddie is loud and blunt in this video, and that’s always a good side of him, too. [Andrew Sacher]
Massive Attack @ Arkéa Arena Floirac Bordeaux 2019
Trip hop icons Massive Attack celebrated their classic third album of 1998, Mezzanine, on tour last year, recontextualizing it in today’s world, mixing the original tracks from the album with covers of songs sampled there. The shows also featured album singers Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Horace Andy and some truly stunning visuals they created with filmmaker Adam Curtis. Unsurprisingly, the songs with Fraser are the real stars. The best moment might be the cover of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” by Pete Seeger. this massive attack almost turns into a Cocteau Twins song as footage of war atrocities and The Wizard of Oz play in the background. [Bill Pearis]
Leikeli47 @ BrooklynVegan SXSW at Cheer Up Charlies – 03/16/2018
We hosted masked, genre-defying rapper / singer Leikeli47 was at one of our BrooklynVegan SXSW parties with Margin Walker in 2018, where she delivered one of the best sets we’ve seen all week. She constantly got the crowd moving (and sometimes joined them to dance on stage) as she performed songs from her excellent 2017 LP. Wash and adjust. Leikeli rightly received wider recognition with the release of Acrylic later in 2018, and it’s fun to see her totally win the crowd before that. [Amanda Hatfield]
Billy Bragg @ Salle Termon 07/17/1999
Billy Bragg brings the same heart to his political anthems as to his romantic songs and is a master at both. He is also a master speaker and his live shows are as much about his inter-song jokes as it is about classics like “Levi Stubbs Tears”, “Greetings to the New Brunette” and “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”. You get a lot of both at this 1999 big show in Ireland. [Bill Pearis]
Check out more photos from the 2017 Run The Jewels Terminal 5 race:
For more of our favorite live videos, head over here.
