Happy New Year’s to everyone! I hope your holidays were fantastic and you are ready to start 2018 off with some great shows! While most acts are still taking things slow, there are some decent shows to check out with that sweet Christmas cash your Nana gave you!
The Killers @ ACC
January 5th, 2018
$59.00-$80.00 | All Ages
After being away for five years, the Vegas band released their excellent 5th album Wonderful Wonderful and are headlining shows again. We got a peak two years ago at Wayhome to see if they still had their chops, which of course they did, and now we get to see their new material live.
Lana Del Ray @ ACC
January 15th, 2018
$69.00-$325.00 | All Ages
The Queen of Sad put out her fifth album in just seven years, a remarkable output for such a big name artist these days. While it didn’t generate the buzz her previous albums did, she is still booking giant spots and she looks to be a potential festival headliner this summer picking up what Osheaga knew in 2016.
WALK THE MOON @ Danforth Music Hall
January 16th, 2018
$35.00-$152.00 |All Ages
The electro pop/punk rockers scored a massive hit with Shut Up and Dance on their last album, and instead of trying to replicate the song of the summer from a few years ago they went in the opposite direction. The band’s latest albums What If Nothing has influences from Paul Simon, The Talking Heads and Peter Frampton among others making it their weirdest and most interesting record yet.
TOKiMONSTA @ Velvet Underground
January 19th, 2018
$20.00-$25.00 | 19 +
The LA-area DJ and producer signed to Flying Lotus’ label has been on the verge of breaking out for several years now. After having working with artists like Anderson .Paak, Kool Keith, MNDR and remixing songs for Hundred Waters, Jessie Ware and Beck her set will be diverse and a ton of fun to catch. This is also one of only two North American shows lined at the time.
Shakira @ ACC
January 20th, 2018
$50.00-$417.00 | All Ages
Other than her track from Zootopia and the Brazil World Cup, I was shocked to see how steadily the Columbian superstar has been putting out albums. Although her music is mostly in Spanish these days, she still is a top drawing act in the English world. I’m sure you either forgot about her like I did, or are absolutely pumped for her show expecting it to be an early highlight of 2018.
G. Love & Special Sauce @ Horseshoe Tavern
January 21st, 2018
$29.50 | 19 +
I don’t have a ton to say about this group, but I did see them open for Jason Mraz years ago and they are signed to Jack Johnson’s label so they are super cool in my books. Their Folk meets Hip-Hop meets RnB is really fun and I’m sure their live show will be wild.
Henry Rollins @ Danforth Music Hall
January 22nd, 2018
$29.50-$50.00 | All Ages
The punk icon is touring a special kind of show called his Travel Slideshow. Rollins will be showing photos and footage he has recorded from around the world and he will be telling stories to go along with the images. With as excellent of an orator Rollins is, this is a can’t miss event that will probably be very emotional and political at times.
Typhoon @ Lee’s Palace
January 23rd, 2018
$18.00 | 19 +
The eleven (!) piece indie rock band is releasing their 4th album on January 12th after a five year absence. I was super excited to see them at Bonnaroo back in 2014, but they backed out due to sickness so I’m going to try to catch this one!
St. Andrws @ Hard Luck
January 26th, 2018
Synth Rock group St. Andrws hail from Toronto and they look to be the soundtrack of late night city hang outs in 2018. Their name is hard to google, but expect big things to come from them after their debut EP Home came out last year.
MØ with Cashmere Cat @ Danforth Music Hall
January 29th, 2018
$25.00-$40.00 | All Ages
MØ has been a household name ever since first appearing on the Major Lazer track for Lean On and later again on Cold Water, but she also put out an EP of her own last year and worked numerous times with produce Cashmere Cat who is playing with her. The producer put out the excellent electronic record 9 last year in the vain of acts like Mura Mas