U2 opened the brand new state of the art Sphere in Las Vegas, kicking off their U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency.
The show, which featured Bram van den Berg sitting in for Larry Mullen, Jr. on drums, had the band performing their entire 1991 album Achtung Baby, although not in order. The set included “So Cruel” for the first time since 1992, and “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World” for the first time since 1993.
The set also featured U2 classics including “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “With or Without You,” “Elevation” and “Beautiful Day,” as well as their then-new single “Atomic City.”
Although they initially announced only 25 shows, U2 extended the residency several times, and wound up playing 40 shows, wrapping the residency on March 2, 2024.
Rod Stewart, ‘The Encore Shows’ (Live Nation Las Vegas)
Rod Stewart‘s once again rolling the dice on Las Vegas.
The star will return to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in 2026 for another round of The Encore Shows, his current residency show. He has dates mapped out from May 27, 2026, through June 6, 2026.
“Next year will mark 15 years at The Colosseum and I still get terribly excited each time I return,” Rod says in a statement. “I love this theatre. So come along and we’ll forget the world outside for a couple of hours at The Encore shows!”
Rod initially launched his residency show The Hits at the Colosseum in 2011; that show ended in 2025. Rod returned in 2025 with The Encore Shows, featuring his hits, deep cuts and new production.
A Citi presale starts Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT via citientertainment.com. Fan club presale tickets are available starting Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT, while other presales begin Thursday at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT via ticketmaster.
The new dates going on sale are May 27, 29 and 30, and June 2, 4 and 6. There are also limited tickets available for Rod’s final Vegas dates of 2025: Oct. 1, 3, 4.
If you don’t want to wait to see Rod in Vegas, you can travel to Florida in early 2026. He’s just announced shows at the Seminole Hard Rock Live on Feb. 27 and March 3, as well as a March 5 show in St. Augustine.
(L-R) Jeremy Allen White and Bruce Springsteen attend the New York Film Festival Spotlight Gala at Alice Tully Hall on September 28, 2025 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios)
Bruce Springsteen appeared at the New York Film Festival premiere of his biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Sunday, where he surprised the audience with a performance of “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Springsteen shared video of the performance on Instagram, and before the performance he thanked the audience for coming out, and then gave shout outs to the film’s cast and director, Scott Cooper.
He noted that Jeremy Allen White, who plays him on the big screen, put “his whole heart and soul in the part,” adding, he did a wonderful job “playing a much better-looking version of me.” He also thanked Jeremy Strong, who plays his manager Jon Landau, for his “creativity and his inspiration,” noting, “he played a much, much better looking Jon Landau.”
He called out Stephen Graham “for being the living embodiment of my late father,” and Gabby Hoffman for playing his mom, noting, “They’re all gone now, so it’s nice to have this piece of film.”
Springsteen also shared some “last thoughts” before the song.
“These days we have daily events reminding us of the fact that we’re living through these particularly dangerous times,” Springsteen shared. “I spent my life on the road, I’ve been moving around the world as kind of a musical ambassador for America, trying to measure the distance between American reality, where we’ve often fallen short of our ideals of the American dream.”
He added, “Seeing that America, as battered as she feels right now, but for a lot of folks out there, she continues to be a land of hope and dreams, not of fear or divisiveness or government censorship or hatred…That America is worth fighting for.”
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hits theaters and IMAX on Oct. 24. Tickets for IMAX screenings are on sale now.
Mike Mills of R.E.M., and Darius Rucker perform during R.E.M.’s 40th Anniversary Of Chronic Town Celebration Concert at Coca-Cola Roxy on December 15, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by R. Diamond/Getty Images)
It was just announced that R.E.M.’s Mike Mills is teaming with former The Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and Hootieand the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker to form the new band Howl Owl Howl, and to mark the news, Rucker has shared his take on a classic R.E.M. track.
In a post on Instagram, Rucker performs the Automatic for the People track “Everybody Huts,” dubbing the performance “episode 1 of Songs I Wish I’d Written.”
And it looks like the folks at R.E.M. are impressed with his rendition, sharing Darius’ cover on Instagram with the caption, “Such a beautiful version… looking forward to @howlowlhowl.”
Howl Owl Howl is set to release their debut track, “My Cologne,” on Oct. 31, and will hit the road for a nine-date tour starting Nov. 3 in Indianapolis. A complete list of dates can be found at howlowlhowl.com.
: Singer and guitarist John Lennon of the rock and roll band “The Beatles” during his “Lost Weekend” period in 1974 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
A unique piece of John Lennon memorabilia is set to go up for auction in October.
The tinted prescription glasses the Beatles legend wore during his “Lost Weekend” era of 1973 to early 1974 are set to go on the auction block as part of Propstore’s Music Memorabilia Live Auction.
Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” was a period of 18 months where he was separated from wife Yoko Ono and in a relationship with his former assistant May Pang.
The round metal frames, known as Windsor Glasses, were first worn by Lennon during the filming of the 1967 Richard Lester movie How I Won The War. They also appeared on the cover of his 1973 single “Mind Games.”
Lennon infamously lost the glasses during a fight at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in March 1974, which started after Lennon and musician Harry Nilsson got drunk and began heckling the Smothers Brothers during their performance at the venue.
The glasses were originally part of a Sotheby’s Collector’s Carousel auction in June 1987. They were then sold again during Christie’s Popular Culture: Rock & Pop Memorabilia Auction in July 2008.
They are estimated to sell for somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000. Bidding will open in person and online on Oct. 23. More info can be found at Propstoreauction.com.
In other Lennon news … A video has been released for the song “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from John and Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory.
The song is part of the upcoming box set Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition), produced by the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. It will be released Oct. 10, on what would have been John’s 85th birthday.
Ace Frehley performs in concert at Haute Spot Event Venue on July 13, 2023 in Cedar Park, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
KISS founding member Ace Frehley has canceled a Friday concert appearance in California after injuring himself in a fall.
“Dear Rock Soldiers, Ace had a minor fall in his studio, resulting in a trip to the hospital,” read a post on the guitarist’s social media pages. “He is fine, but against his wishes, his doctor insists that he refrain from travel at this time.”
“As a result, he is forced (to) cancel his performance at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, California on Friday, September 26th,” the post continues.
Frehley’s page encourages fans to go to the show anyway and check out Quiet Riot and Vixen, who are also on the bill.
The post also gave fans an update on what Ace has been up to, noting he “looks forward to continuing on his tour and finishing work on his next album, Origins Vol. 4.”
Origins Vol. 2 is a covers album that was released in 2020. Origins Vol. 3 is expected out sometime in 2025, although no release date has been revealed.
Frehley’s next scheduled concert is Oct. 11 in Decatur, Illinois. A complete list of dates can be found at AceFreheley.com.
The debut album from Robert Plant and Saving Grace, titled Saving Grace, is out now, and to mark the release the artists have shared a video for one of the tracks.
The clip is for their cover of Moby Grape’s “It’s a Beautiful Day Today,” a track penned by Bob Mosley for the album Moby Grape ’69.
Plant and Saving Grace — drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, cellist Barney Morse Brown and vocalist Suzi Dian — have been touring together since 2019, but this is their first album.
Plant describes Saving Grace as “a song book of the lost and found.” In addition to the Moby Grape tune, it has them covering songs by Memphis Minnie, Blind Willie Johnson and Low.
Robert Plant and Saving Grace are set to kick off a North American tour Oct. 30 in Wheeling, West Virginia, wrapping Nov. 23 in Valley Center, California. A complete list of dates can be found at RobertPlant.com.
Cover of Spinal Tap charity tribute album ‘The Majesty of Rock’/(courtesy of Teen Cancer America)
Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters and Foreigner are among the artists contributing songs to The Majesty of Rock, a digital tribute album to the mock-rock band Spinal Tap.
The officially sanctioned album, which also features contributions from Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, The Go-Go’s, Kyuss, Robyn Hitchcock, Soul Asylum and more, is raising money for the nonprofit Teen Cancer America, which aims to improve the lives of teens and young adults who have cancer.
“The spirit of Spinal Tap has always been about turning it up to 11, and that’s exactly what we aim to do for young people with cancer,” Shannon Sullivan, executive director of Teen Cancer America, says. “This tribute album is a fun, powerful way to raise crucial funds and awareness for the unique challenges facing this age group.”
She adds, “We are incredibly grateful to the brilliant artists who have lent their talents to this project and to the creators of Spinal Tap for allowing us to celebrate their genius for a cause that is so important.”
The Majesty of Rock features 32 covers from the Spinal Tap catalog, including a performance from Teen Cancer America’s Play It Back Players. Only 5,000 digital copies are available for download for a minimum donation of $19.84, a tribute to the year the original This is Spinal Tap was released.
This is Spinal Tap was directed by Rob Reiner and starred Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. It followed a fictional heavy metal band being filmed for a documentary.
The film’s sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, is in theaters now.
Mötley Crüe’s ‘Theatre of Pain (40th Anniversary)’/(BMG)
Mötley Crüe is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their third studio album, Theatre of Pain, with a new limited-edition deluxe vinyl box set.
Dropping Nov. 14, the box set includes a remastered version of the album on colored vinyl with reimagined artwork, as well as an LP of rare demos and a double-LP of a never-before-released 1985 concert in Long Beach, California, both of which also come on colored vinyl. It also comes with a 76-page hardcover book with never-before-published photos from the band’s Theatre of Pain tour.
As a preview of the set, Mötley Crüe has shared a previously unreleased live version of their classic tune “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” from the 1985 Long Beach concert. It is now available via digital outlets.
The Theatre of Pain anniversary will also be marked with several other reissues, including a standard CD and LP, an exclusive CD and LP variant at Walmart, exclusive LPs at Amazon, Urban Outfitters and independent retailers, and a limited-edition 40th anniversary cassette on the band’s online museum, Crüeseum. The album will also be released in standard audio and Dolby Atmos.
Released in June 1985, Theatre of Pain was Mötley’s first album to reach the top 10 in the U.S., peaking at #6. It featured future Mötley classics “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” which became their first top-20 hit, and the power ballad “Home Sweet Home,” a song the band recently released as a collaboration with Dolly Parton.
Mötley Crüe is currently in the middle of their Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM, which runs through Oct. 3. Their next show is on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at motley.com.
Bruce Springsteen (L) and Jeremy Allen White attend 2025 Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2025 in Telluride, Colorado. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images)
Bruce Springsteen is set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! when the ABC host brings his late night show to Brooklyn from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3.
The Boss is confirmed as a guest for the special week in New York, as is The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, who plays Springsteen in the upcoming movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, opening Oct. 24.
This is Jimmy Kimmel’s seventh time bringing the show to Brooklyn. Springsteen previously appeared on one of Kimmel’s Brooklyn shows back in 2019.
All Brooklyn episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! will tape in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.
Other guests during Brooklyn week include Emily Blunt, Stephen Colbert, Tom Hanks, Josh Johnson, Spike Lee,Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kumail Nanjiani and Ryan Reynolds, along with musical guests Geese,Living Colour, Public Enemy and Reneé Rapp.
In other Springsteen talk show news … Actor Jeremy Strong, who plays Bruce’s manager Jon Landau in Deliver Me From Nowhere, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday, where he revealed that he was a big Springsteen fan and even had Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind,” from 1992’s Lucky Town, played at his wedding.
As for appearing in the movie, about Springsteen’s making of 1982’s Nebraska, Strong shared, “Nebraska is an album I’ve always loved, so to give back even a modicum of something to give back to someone who has given so much to all of us was a real privilege.”
