Our Annual Report continues as we celebrate the Best Concerts of 2023. We’ll be honoring all the best in music, film, and TV of the year all month long, so find it all in one place here.
Live music has been under quite the spotlight over the past few years. The effective shutdown of the industry in 2020 and efforts to keep it alive in 2021 rallied concertgoers everywhere, leading to the snapping of the rubber band that was 2022, when live music returned with a vengeance. But as the light of attention grew brighter, hotter, and more intense, the worst aspects of the landscape became just as blinding as its best.
While live music discourse in 2023 has taken many forms, its presence has been near constant. The conversation surrounding Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s practices peaked as the calendar year tipped over, culminating in January’s Senate hearing and a series of seemingly generous but no less controversial moves on the part of the company. Then, thanks to one of the coolest motherfuckers Jeff Rosenstock, touring economics fell into focus, with specific questions arising regarding merch cuts. Not wanting to be left out, audiences nabbed (or, perhaps, forcefully took) a short time in the hot seat as well, as incident after incident after incident after incident made everyone wonder if people will ever be able to behave in a crowd again. Yeah, it was a weird year.
And still, the power of live music persists. Despite all of the conflict, callouts, and assholes in the audience, 2023 saw some of the grandest musical showcases of the decade. Rock ‘n’ roll legends proved the genre’s legs; pop stars hit peak levels of spectacle; underground legends reminded fans just how powerful community can be. Undoubtedly, concerts — and the music industry as a whole — remain at best unsustainable and at worst broken, but standing before speaker stacks (hopefully with earplugs) and pyrotechnics (hopefully tastefully employed) serves as an undeniable reminder of why live music is worth fighting for.
So, for a fleeting second, join us in taking a moment to celebrate the miracle that is live performance as we recount some of the biggest, most mind-melting, and best concerts of the year.
— Jonah Krueger
Editorial Coordinator
Buy Now from Consequence Shop
Beyoncé’s “Renaissance World Tour”
Beyoncé, photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
There is no other showman working right now like Beyoncé. She’s the queen for a reason, after all, and the hours of dedicated work that went into putting the dancehall joy of RENAISSANCE onstage was immediately clear to anyone lucky enough to score a ticket — even before her documentary digging into that very process dropped. While her most recent album was the star of the show here, Beyoncé dipped into familiar favorites throughout. From the visuals to her backup dancers to ever-impressive vocals, everything worked. — Mary Siroky
BLACKPINK at Coachella 2023
BLACKPINK, photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
BLACKPINK knew they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when they began conceiving their headlining set for this year’s Coachella — and it’s safe to say they seized the moment. The performance was an ecstatic whirlwind and featured everything that made BLACKPINK so beloved in the first place: their infectious confidence, powerful vocals, and remarkable showmanship. When the show broke open halfway through to have each of the four members command their own solo performance, it felt like we were witnessing a star being born four times over. They came back together for several more explosive hits at the end of the show, and #pinkchella was etched into the history books. — Paolo Ragusa
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 2023 Tour
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, photo by Ryan Bakerink/Getty Images
How wonderful when the man matches up to his legend. On a balmy summer night in Chicago, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage for three rambunctious hours, never tiring, never breaking. Springsteen himself set the tone, the tireless septuagenarian, leading Wrigley Field from hit to hit as if on a personal mission to make sure the music didn’t stop. It took stamina, technique, and above all, effort — the kind of effort only made possible by genuinely enjoying yourself. We saw Springsteen the artist, Springsteen the athlete, and Springsteen the fountain of joy. — W. Graves
Get 2024 Bruce Springsteen Tickets Here
Foo Fighters’ Return to Touring
Foo Fighters, photo by Josh Druding
After such a tumultuous 2022 for Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, the rock ‘n’ roll giants were certainly feeling the weight of loss and grief. It seemed strange to imagine the band on stage without Taylor Hawkins, and even stranger to think of them leading a show with any mood other than “Let’s Rock!!!” However, when the band announced their album But Here We Are, subsequent tour, and Josh Freese as their new drummer, it became clear that the Foos had to get back on the road, if only to honor their fallen brother. Their 2023 shows were life-affirming, full-band testaments, with Grohl vowing to close every show with “Aurora” in memory of Hawkins. It’s magnificent every time. — P. Ragusa
Get 2024 Foo Fighters Tickets Here
Genesis Owusu at Boston Calling 2023
Genesis Owusu, photo by Ben Kaye
Three months before Consequence named him our August 2023 CoSign, I caught Genesis Owusu at Boston Calling. I’d loved his sleeper debut, Smiling with No Teeth, and BC’s own booker had personally hyped him, so I was intrigued to see what he brought to a festival set. I hadn’t anticipated it becoming my favorite live performance of the year, a show making him the unquestioned favorite for that artist of the month accolade. It was an art piece constructed only of the performer, three backup dancers, and some BDSM rope. Brash without being aggressive, simplistic while remaining bold, the frenzied energy broke the barrier between performer and audience — literally, as Owusu jumped into and with the crowd. — Ben Kaye
