Reviews
Billie Eilish Assumes Her Role as Pop Icon at Governors Ball 2021
Billie Eilish was only 16 years old the last time she played Governors Ball back in 2018, but she still felt like it was something different. “It was my favorite show I’d ever done,” she told the crowd on Friday night (September 24th) as she headlined Day 1 of Gov Ball, which has relocated to Citi Field from Randall’s Island, “And this might be that the second time.” A Billie Eilish show in 2021 is certainly a marquee event, and last night’s crowd knew that very well — thousands of fans showed up to cheer on one of the biggest stars in the world and experience live music again. Regardless of where you were situated in the crowd, you could physically hear the army of fans singing Eilish’s words back to her, almost louder than she even expected. Advertisement Related Video Oftentimes when ar...
Governors Ball 2021 Day 1: The 5 Best Things We Saw
It was just a few months ago that Foo Fighters welcomed back live music in New York City with their Madison Square Garden show, and that already feels like a lifetime ago. If that was the city healing, the return of Governors Ball is NYC thriving. The festival kicked off its 10th anniversary celebration on Friday night, beckoning the throngs of music-hungry youths to its new location at Citi Field. The parking lot setting is a far cry from the barely-accessible Randall’s Island of years’ past, and frankly that’s a good thing. There was already enough anxiety about being in such massive throngs once again (checked for vaccinations and negative tests though they were) without worrying about cramming onto a bus or missing the last ferry to get off the island. That relative ease compared to ye...
Eddie Vedder Debuts New Band, Covers R.E.M., Kings of Leon, Pretenders, Prince and More at Ohana Fest
Eddie Vedder was slated to pull headlining double duty at his Ohana Festival this weekend with a solo set on Saturday and bringing Pearl Jam back to Southern California for the first time since 2013. However, following Kings of Leon’s sudden withdrawal on Thursday to tend to a family matter, Vedder sprung into action. The day was slightly marred by a thunder and lightning warning, but things got cooking with the Regrettes, Black Pumas and a blistering set by My Morning Jacket that was extended due to the Kings’ absence before Vedder took the stage. Previously at Ohana, Vedder performed solo acoustically with help from a few guests on occasion. Not tonight. Enlisting and debuting an all-star group of musicians, including super-producer Andrew Watt, bassist Pino Palladino, Glen Hansard and c...
NYFF Review: Joel Coen Goes Solo in Style with The Tragedy of Macbeth
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: The Coen Brothers plus Shakespeare — whaddaya need, a roadmap? Actually, you might; or at least a program note to explain why The Tragedy of Macbeth has only one Coen on hand. It’s not a retro affectation that Joel Coen is taking sole director credit, as he used to on the joint Coen projects (until 2004’s The Ladykillers, Joel took “director” and Ethan handled “producer,” even though they were always really doing both). Ethan is taking a break from making movies, while Joel has mounted a black-and-white version of Shakespeare’s famous (and fleetest?) tragedy, with Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth, who becomes convinced he must take bloody action to fulfill his destiny and become king of Scotland, and France...
The Fugees Return to the Stage in Epic Fashion
On a windy rooftop above Pier 17 of New York’s South Street Seaport—and approximately three and a half hours after the show’s advertised start time—the Fugees performed together for the first time in 15 years, presenting a colossal show taped to be aired as part of this weekend’s Global Citizen Festival. Billed as a pop-up show, it was far from that. With a pageantry rarely seen at a rap show, the set opened with the one-by-one emergence of a 20-piece mixed-style orchestra (14 horn players in formal attire, multiple guitarists, keyboardists, and bass players, backup singers, and a DJ), followed by Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and finally, Ms. Lauryn Hill, wearing a red-ruffled couture gown (which word is she designed). As an instrumental horn and key version of “The Score” led into “How Many ...
Baby Keem Moves Into The Spotlight With The Melodic Blue
On his breakout mixtape, 2019’s Die for My Bitch, rapper-producer Baby Keem chants “I am 50 Cent” over and over in an almost-monotone fashion, bringing in the disorienting beat-switch on “MOSHPIT.” Though he claims to have been “just randomly saying it,” in a Complex interview after the mixtape’s release, his references and similarities to the G-Unit founder don’t end there. The music video for “Gang Activities,” off of 2018’s The Sound of Bad Habit, pays homage to the “In Da Club” video, featuring shots of Keem hanging upside down from a telephone pole. On his latest release, The Melodic Blue, Keem samples Che Ecru’s “Fuck Instagram,” targeting a phrase where the Boston artist slips into a slurred, snappy melody reminiscent of Curtis Jackson’s choruses on tracks like “P.I.M.P.” or “Like M...
Oasis Knebworth 1996 Is a Warm, Luxurious Bath of ’90s British Nostalgia: Review
The Pitch: In 1996, Oasis was riding high off the success of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and an entire generation of British fans were entranced by Noel and Liam Gallagher’s earnest, po-faced lyricism and catchy acoustic tunes. They were big, to be sure, but their decision to host a two-day gig at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire on August 10th and 11th, 1996, was a surprise both to fans and organizers. Knebworth, after all, was the kind of venue that hosted legends like Led Zeppelin and Queen. Even so, the event became one of the biggest concerts in English history, drawing nearly a quarter-million people to Knebworth’s stages between the two days. And, for those die-hard Oasis fans, it would prove to be one of the most pivotal weekends of their lives....
Netflix Offers a Kid-Sized Companion to Kevin Smith with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Review
The Pitch: In the realm of Eternos, in which high technology and magic exist hand-in-hand, prince Adam (Yuri Lowenthal) lives as a villager on the outskirts of his society, with no memory of who he is and the destiny he is to fulfill. But when he runs across a thief named Teela (Kimberly Brooks), who’s just betrayed the villains who hired her to steal a mysterious, powerful sword, he soon learns the sword grants him the Power of Grayskull, a heaping helping of muscles, and the incredible powers of He-Man. Together, Adam, Teela, and their friends must assemble to protect the sword from those who want to use Grayskull’s powers for evil — including Adam’s long-lost uncle Keldor (Ben Diskin), whose true identity is easy to spot once you slap an “S” on the front of his name. You Know, For ...
TIFF Review: Last Night in Soho Thrives More as a Tribute to ’60s London Glitz Than Coherent Horror
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a sheltered young woman with an all-encompassing 1960s obsession, leaves the English countryside home she shares with her grandmother to study fashion in London. When life in the dorms leaves her feeling stressed and isolated, Ellie finds a room of her own to rent in Soho. At first, the move seems ideal: Her landlady, Miss Collins (Diana Rigg, in her final role) is stern but kind. The room appeals to Ellie’s need for space and her aesthetic. And it comes with an exciting bonus: Every night, she’s transported to 1966, where she follows a glamorous young woman named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she romps through Swinging London’s nightlife. Alternately watching Sandy...
The Beach Boys Amplify Their Legacy With Feel Flows
By late 1969 the Beach Boys were in deep trouble. The sunshine surf rock sound that skyrocketed the band to international fame was now firmly out of fashion, replaced by harder rock. Their long-running distribution deal with Capitol for their Brother Records imprint was over. It had been three years since their last big hit, 1966’s “Good Vibrations,” a transcendent piece of psychedelic pop, co-written by primary songwriter Brian Wilson and frontman Mike Love. That song should have set them on a new course from Pet Sounds towards Wilson’s long-gestating masterpiece SMiLE. Instead, the band famously lost steam, in part due to Wilson’s well-documented struggles with mental health. Their 15th studio album, 20/20, released in early 1969, was mostly a patchwork of castoff material. In a grim foo...
TIFF Review: Listening to Kenny G Explores What Makes Him So Beloved (And Despised)
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: When some people think of Kenny G, they think of the platinum-selling recording artist who’s shaped their childhoods, soothed their workplaces, and even soundtracked the most intimate moments in their lives. But for others, the thought of Kenny G fills them with scorn. He’s a sellout, a fake, a mop-haired purveyor of anodyne saxophone schlock. He disrespects the improvisational, group-centered dynamics of jazz in favor of treacly solo showmanship, and — even worse — subjected the world to “smooth jazz.” The man’s a paradox wrapped in an enigma topped with a curly perm he’s maintained since the 1980s — the best-selling instrumentalist of all time who nonetheless remains a pop-culture punchli...
My Morning Jacket Return Rock to Forest Hills Stadium: Concert Review
In August of 2019, My Morning Jacket performed at Queen’s Forest Hills Stadium, part of a special four-show stretch after a nearly two-year hiatus. The gigs were also billed as their last for a potentially longer period (and that was even without the unexpected virus that shelved all live music for over a year). Thankfully, the threat of another break — or full-on retirement — was staved off by the shows themselves, inspiring the band to get back in the studio and continue on. Two years and one month later, MMJ returned to Forest Hills on Friday, September 10th for the first concert of a two-night stint. A new self-titled record — their first freshly recorded material in six years — is on the horizon; pandemic lockdowns are in the rearview (for now); and the Jacket’s brand of jammy, psyche...
