Recorded in an intimate acoustic setting in New York in 1994 and now available in a stunning 4K remaster, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance stripped away the electric ferocity and left something rawer and more exposed, with Kurt Cobain delivering “About A Girl,” “Come As You Are,” and a hauntingly rendered cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” with a vulnerability that made the televised format feel like the most private room in the world, producing a session that has spent three decades being cited as one of the essential documents in rock history, and still earns that description every single time.
Video: Lady Gaga Closed the First-Ever iHeartRadio Music Festival With an Hour of Pure Spectacle and Real Emotion
Closing out the inaugural iHeartRadio Music Festival at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in 2011, Lady Gaga extended her planned 45-minute set into a full hour she called a “Surrogate Monster Ball,” moving through explosive renditions of “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” and “Poker Face” against a biker-themed stage production before the night shifted into something far more personal, with Gaga delivering an acoustic version of “Hair” dedicated to Jamey Rodemeyer, a young fan who had recently died by suicide after being bullied, and closing with a surprise duet alongside Sting that cemented the entire set as the defining moment of the festival’s first edition.
Video: No Doubt’s 2012 iHeartRadio Festival Set Was a 90-Minute Reminder of Why They Never Really Left
Breaking a decade-long hiatus at the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, No Doubt delivered a 90-minute set as part of the Push and Shove Tour that turned 20,000 people into a single, unified 90s flashback, with Gwen Stefani commanding the stage as only she can, Tony Kanal’s ska grooves locking in tight, Tom Dumont’s guitar flares cutting through the arena air, and the horn punctuations that made ‘Tragic Kingdom’ a 16-million-selling genre revival doing exactly what they always did to a crowd that had been waiting years to hear them again.
Video: Kylie Minogue’s One-Night-Only 2003 ‘Body Language Live’ at Hammersmith Is a Pop Time Capsule
Filmed November 15, 2003 at the Carling Apollo Hammersmith in London, ‘Body Language Live’ captures Kylie Minogue at a pivotal creative moment, delivering a theatrical, multi-act show that gave its audience the first live hearing of tracks from her ninth studio album, including “Slow,” “Red Blooded Woman,” and “Chocolate,” woven seamlessly alongside global smashes like “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” “Spinning Around,” and “Love at First Sight” in a performance that showcased exactly why no one commands a pop stage quite like she does.
Video: Interpol’s 2022 Primavera Sound Set Celebrated 20 Years of ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’ in Perfect Fashion
Interpol took the Primavera Sound stage in Barcelona in 2022 with the full weight of ‘Turn on the Bright Lights” 20th anniversary behind them, delivering a set built around the minimalist guitar arrangements, pulsating rhythm section, and Paul Banks’ signature melancholic vocals that defined post-punk for a generation, moving through essential cuts like “Obstacle 1” and “PDA” alongside newer material from ‘The Other Side of Make-Believe’ with the kind of restrained, atmospheric intensity that has always been their sharpest weapon.
Video: Shakira’s 2025 Sueños Festival Set in Chicago Was the Longest in the Festival’s History
Shakira headlined Chicago’s Grant Park at the 2025 Sueños Music Festival with a career-spanning set that ranked as the longest in the festival’s history, moving from global anthems like “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” through raw ballads like “AntologÃa” and “Inevitable,” and into recent viral moments including “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” with a crowd-fueled energy that made the entire downtown Chicago skyline feel like the right backdrop for one of Latin music’s greatest live performers.
Rising Artist Saint Harison Bares His Soul on New EP ‘ghosted’ and Powerful Single “glass houses”
Saint Harison has been working toward this moment for a long time, and ‘ghosted’ arrives today as the most honest thing he’s ever made. The new EP is out now, anchored by the powerful single “glass houses,” a track that showcases the unmistakable vocal presence he’s been building and the emotional depth that defines this entire project.
“glass houses” was produced by Akeel Henry, Daoud, and D’Mile, currently holding the number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for his work on Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might.” The collaboration brings serious creative firepower to a song that Saint wrote right at the end of making the EP, filling a gap he’d sensed in the story but couldn’t name until he walked into the studio that day.
He explains the song’s philosophy directly. “There’s really nothing more freeing than the acceptance of human-ness. I like the quote ‘hurt people, hurt people’ because love, empathy, understanding is so much more powerful than hate and revenge. I’m so happy I was able to put my philosophy of that into this song.”
A stripped-back live performance video for “glass houses” is also out now, directed by Darrin James and produced by Freenjoy, featuring Akeel Henry on piano and Marcus Reddick, known for his work on Beyoncé’s “Desert Eagle” from ‘Cowboy Carter’, on bass. It’s an intimate, quietly stunning piece of film.
‘ghosted’ began taking shape immediately after Saint’s previous release ‘lost a friend’, and the EP carries everything that journey put him through. “I can’t wait for you to hear the late nights, the tears, the overthinking, the healing, the spirals and the growth,” he says. “It’s the most honest I’ve ever been in my music. Every track feels like a piece of a chapter I had to live through in order to write it.”
The collaborators assembled for this project reflect how far Saint has come. “I’ve been able to work with some creatives on this project that 6 years ago I would have cried if they looked in my direction.” That growth is audible throughout ‘ghosted’, an EP built to last.
Boston Rock Veteran The Sheila Divine Delivers His Most Urgent Album Yet With ‘The Middle Ages’
Aaron Perrino has never made a comfortable record, and ‘The Middle Ages’ is the furthest thing from comfortable he’s ever put his name to. The sixth Sheila Divine album is out now on Trash Casual, arriving alongside new single “I Climbed Inside A Whale,” and it’s a deeply human document of grief, rage, love, and the particular exhaustion of being a thinking person alive in this moment.
Perrino describes the album’s emotional territory without flinching. “All of my pissed off Gen X angst about aging, the failure of capitalism, death, heartbreak and what the future holds in the back half of my life where everything is so grim.” That’s not a selling point, it’s a statement of purpose, and ‘The Middle Ages’ delivers on every word of it.
10 new tracks navigate the full range of lived experience. The wrenching loss of his mother. Parental anxiety about his children’s futures. The strains of congested city life, fractured relationships, and genuine fury at the state of the nation. Album opener “Gods Of War” opens with weighty soundscapes and guttural yells. The title track sustains a tense relentlessness throughout. “We Once Burned” carries embittered fatigue in every bar.
But ‘The Middle Ages’ isn’t without light. “Celebrate The End” finds wonder inside loss. “Hurry Up” builds into something genuinely anthemic. And “The Apocalypse ellell ell” places the refrain “the apocalypse sells, die, die” directly alongside repeated declarations of “Well I have hope,” a collision that captures the album’s entire emotional architecture in a single track.
Perrino has assembled a strong lineup of Boston scene allies for the record. Will Claflin and Steven Lord handle guitars, Paul Buckley plays drums, and Andy Rooney holds down bass. Mixing comes from Wally Gagel, known for his work with Cold War Kids and Superchunk, and mastering from Pete Weiss, whose credits include Morphine and Juliana Hatfield.
Collaboration has always been central to how Perrino works. “The more people that touch it, the more it manifests into something,” he says. The Sheila Divine has spent decades confounding expectations, from breaking out with college radio hit “Hum” on Roadrunner Records to building a cult following in the Belgian indie rock market. ‘The Middle Ages’ is the next chapter from a songwriter who refuses, as he puts it, “to live in a world where people trade empathy for apathy, curiosity for cruelty, humility for hubris.”
UK Post-Punk Outfit NOVABLOOD Commit Fully to Instinct on New Single “Fake It”
NOVABLOOD don’t labour over their songs. They build them fast, leave them alone, and trust what comes out. “Fake It,” the new single from the Carlisle, UK post-punk outfit, is a direct product of that philosophy, assembled within 24 hours and left largely untouched, and it’s one of the most immediate things the band has released.
The track triggered itself into existence from a single synth line. “It was literally completed within 24 hours and one of many tracks which pinpoint the essence of the album,” the band explains. “Raw, stripped, big attitude and Paul’s guitar just brings it all together.”
That description captures the track precisely. Synth and guitar move alongside each other without resolving, the rhythm section stays fixed underneath, and nothing is added for decoration. The tension holds without release, a deliberate structural choice that gives “Fake It” its particular kind of grip.
The single is taken from ‘You’re New To This Aren’t You?’, NOVABLOOD’s new album out now via Mint 400 Records. Written between July and October 2025 in vocalist and producer Mark Zowie’s home studio across brief, concentrated sessions, the record commits fully to a stripped post-punk framework where vocals arrive as presence rather than performance, guitars cut across the rhythm rather than reinforcing it, and space and repetition carry the load.
Following 2023’s ‘Destroy The Magic’, which moved across a broader electronic spectrum, the new album deliberately narrows its focus. The band documents a persistent sense of unease across its runtime, fractured communication, emotional distance, and the disorientation of existing inside systems that never fully settle.
Even the title carries a deliberate edge. “It’s difficult not to read that title without it coming over in a condescending manner,” Zowie says. “Which I absolutely love about it.”
NOVABLOOD aren’t refining their sound. They’re committing to it completely.
The Aislers Set, Tony Molina, and Dear Nora Head Up the Inaugural SF Bay Popfest This August
San Francisco is getting its own indie pop festival, and the inaugural lineup is a genuine statement of intent. SF Bay Popfest runs August 20-23 at Bottom of the Hill, presented by Oakland Weekender in partnership with Speakeasy Studios SF and Slumberland Records, bringing together 16 bands and DJs across 4 nights of pure pop songcraft and indie ethos.
The headliners alone make this worth the trip. The Aislers Set return to San Francisco with the full band for what’s being billed as one last hurrah at the soon-to-close Bottom of the Hill, a genuinely significant moment for anyone who knows what that venue and that band mean to the Bay Area scene. Dear Nora comes back to the Bay with a classic lineup. Tony Molina, West Bay legend and Slumberland pioneer, brings his gift for melody distilled to its purest form. And local favorites The Umbrellas round out the headliners with their shambolic guitars, rich songwriting, and duet vocals that nod toward the Pastels side of anorak indie.
The full lineup stretches across the country and into Canada, with Jeanines traveling from Massachusetts, Lightheaded from New Jersey, WUT from Vancouver, Paper Jam from Denton, TX, and Pillow Fight from Los Angeles joining Bay Area acts Galore, Wifey, The Kitchenettes, Monster Treasure, and Slumberland artists Artsick and Kids On A Crime Spree. Remedy & Wren and DJs Kid Frostbite, Jessica B, Poindexter, and Wam Bam Ashleyanne complete the bill.
The weekend pass at $110 includes an exclusive Teenage Fanclub tribute CD featuring tracks from the SF Bay Popfest bands, making it one of the better festival value propositions around. Individual night tickets are $30. Daily lineups drop August 20-22 for evening shows, with a matinee closing things out on August 23.
SF Bay Popfest 2026:
August 20, 21, 22 – Evening Shows, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
August 23 – Matinee, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA