Live music, in the form of concerts, has been a huge part of my 2025. I’ve been to 11 shows this year, across six months, nine venues, and two states. These shows have ranged from tiny to sold-out arenas. So let’s do this Spotify-wrapped style. I’ll be going over nine categories to summarize: best performance, best experience, best crowd, best merch, best opener, best venue, best ticket pricing, biggest misses, and artists I’d see again. I’ll be giving my top three for each category, as well as the ‘worst’ when I feel like there is one.
Here is how I would rank the shows, from best to worst:
- Dua Lipa: The Radical Optimism Tour
- Daniel Seavey: The Second Wind Tour
- Only the Poets
- The Band Camino: The NeverAlways Tour
- Fly By Midnight: Fastest Time of Our Lives Tour
- Nightly: Live on Tour
- Sombr: Late Nights and Young Romance Tour
- Aidan Bissett: Shut Up and Love Me Tour
- AJR: Somewhere in the Sky Tour
- Neon Trees: Sink Your Teeth Tour
- Jake Scott
The first thing I want to say about my ranking is that there was no ‘bad’ performance. I did rank them, but there was no show that I felt like I wasted my money or time attending. I enjoyed them all, just to varying degrees! The second thing I want to say is regarding AJR. If you are a fan of AJR and you have not seen them live, I cannot encourage you enough to go! They are incredible performers. I’ve seen them two other times. This summer tour was not on a new album, leaving me generally underwhelmed, but they are great! Just not chart-topping for me (this time). Now let’s get into the categories.
Undeniable Star Power
Deciding which artists I felt gave the best performance was the hardest part of all my rankings. There were so many standout performances, so many shows that I left feeling like I was on Cloud 9 and becoming a bigger overall fan in the process. One of the things that stood out to me across all these concerts was the artists who did a cover song during their set. Something about that added an extra layer of fun to the experience that I found myself noticing time and time again. The ability of an artist to not take everything too seriously is part of what makes the performance incredible to me.
My favorite performance of the year was by Daniel Seavey. It has held up and really gotten better in my memory over the remainder of the year. This was only the second show I attended out of the year, so there was a lot of steep competition, but it has remained my favorite. If you’re a Daniel Seavey fan, his concert is a delight. If you’re not, I think seeing him live could very well change that. His vocals were great, his energy was contagious, the crowd interactions were amazing, and I loved the part of the set where he made a song based on audience request. This entails the crowd choosing a song (“Stacy’s Mom” at my show), for which Seavey will then build the sound of the track using a looper pedal and several instruments. Once complete, he’ll sing a few verses of the song, bringing the creation to a full circle. Truly a 10/10 performance.
Dua Lipa also had an amazing performance, with the visuals and her various outfits complementing her powerful vocals throughout the set. Her dancing is also really great, and was by far the most movement of anyone I saw this year. I felt like her heart was in it, even after doing dozens of dates on the tour already.
Finally, Fly by Midnight was also a standout. Excellent vocals, crowd interaction, visual elements/lights, and a palpable charisma. I’m a new fan of theirs, and I was so blown away by how amazing they were live. The ending of the show was spectacular, when they brought out the openers and the trophy to the tune of “We Are The Champions” by Queen to conclude the racing theme of the show. I can’t recommend seeing them enough!
It’s Always A Good Time
I have to give my top experience to Only the Poets. I detailed my experience in a previous article, which you can read here. They played a very small show, so it was an incredibly personal experience. I got to meet the band as well! All four members were so kind, and I’ve only become a bigger fan after that show. It’s simply impossible to top! I follow that up with Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour. This was my most anticipated show of the year, and it did not disappoint. The setlist, production, performance, crowd, and merch. Everything was flawless for me, I only wish I could’ve been closer to the stage. Daniel Seavey is my third-best overall experience. Similar to Dua Lipa, Seavey’s concert was near flawless, from the performance to the merch to the setlist. These three shows make up the top three of my overall list, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that they also dominate for the best experience. I had such an amazing time at all three shows. I still go back and replay the handful of short videos I took of my favorite songs.
Vibe Check
Dua Lipa wins the best crowd for me. It is very hard to top a sold-out arena of die-hard fans who had been waiting years for her to tour. But The Band Camino and Fly by Midnight crowds are not far behind. Both these crowds knew every word, danced the whole night, and were generally full of very kind people. For reference, I’m just under five feet tall. These were the only two shows where people repeatedly made sure I could see and offered to let me move in front of them. I don’t expect that treatment at concerts, and I try to arrive early to secure a good spot, but it’s also nice when people make the offer. I had several nice conversations with strangers at both of these shows as well. Great vibes all around!
I have to hand the worst crowd to Sombr. For anyone who’s chronically online like me, you may be familiar with the current discourse surrounding the artist related to this issue. I won’t be detailing that here, and my show was prior to this drama, but I did still notice it. Sombr’s fans were a lot younger than I expected. I’m 20, but I felt like one of the older people who wasn’t a parent at the show. I was within the first 10 or 15 rows from the stage, yet I barely saw anyone else dancing. The crowd noticeably only knew the viral songs or the choruses of others. Sombr does not have an expansive discography, so this was particularly shocking to me. One of the girls beside me recorded the entire concert on her phone, start to finish, no breaks. I definitely felt like I was surrounded by high school sophomores. When the controversy erupted about a month later, my feelings about the age of the fans were confirmed.
The Warm Up Round
One of the best parts of attending so many concerts is being exposed to many new artists who are just getting started. The best opener was ‘almost monday’ for The Band Camino. I’ve seen them open for AJR before, so I’m biased, as I was already a fan going into this year.
Sombr was a big standout for an opener. I saw him open for Daniel Seavey and went on to see him headline his own tour the same year. I also loved Will Linley, who opened for Nightly, and Lulu Simon for Aidan Bissett. They are definitely worth giving a listen if you haven’t heard of them before.
Fit Check
Unfortunately, I must admit, I’m the kind of person who buys the tour shirt at every concert. It’s taking over my wardrobe at this point, but that also puts me in a position to give a very accurate judgment of what I purchased at all of these shows. My Daniel Seavey Second Wind Tour shirt is my runaway favorite. I definitely wear it the most out of all the shirts in my collection (second only to my shirt from Niall Horan’s tour last year). I also have to give Nightly, Fly by Midnight, and AJR a hand for particularly fun, unique designs and a shirt color that was not white or black. The Band Camino, my most recently acquired shirt, is black but has a really fun design, and I think it will go on to be one of my favorites.
These are the two worst shirts. The first is the Aidan Bisset tour shirt. It was so ugly that it is actually the only tour shirt, out of all 11 shows, that I did not purchase. This is an extreme miss to me, as Shut Up and Love Me, the album he toured on, has a great album cover. Slap that on the front and the dates on the back, and it would’ve been a slam dunk. The second-worst shirt I did actually buy. That’s my Sombr tour shirt. He has blown up incredibly fast (even the venue for his show was upgraded twice), and I think the merch reflected that. The graphic looks like the printer began to run out of ink. It’s not a horrible design, I just wish it were more visible. And had there been time for more creativity, it would have been incredibly cool to see a shirt that embodied the set of the talk show theme to the tour.
Location, Location, Location…
There are a lot of concert venues in the Boston area. I went to eight different venues in Boston this year, and I’m sure that there are more. My favorites were Brighton Music Hall and Big Night Live. Big Night Live is particularly nice because it is next to a nice food court, so you can grab food before or after your show is over. TD Garden is also a great venue, with even the nosebleeds offering a nice (though steep) view. Leader Bank Pavilion is also a nice venue, but it isn’t indoors, so the time of year and the weather can make a big impact on that experience.
My most frequented venue was Paradise Rock Club. It’s not a bad venue, but some of the support beams are located in weird spots, and the acoustics aren’t always amazing. Again, not a bad venue, but there are definitely bad spots to stand or end up.
Bang for Your Buck
Only the Poets are the easy winners of the best ticket price. I only spent $20 to get a ticket to that show, which is an unbelievable deal in this economy. The majority of my other shows were somewhere in the range of $30-50, so there isn’t a clear second place. The most expensive tickets of the year go to Dua Lipa. I bought those tickets at resale, so it was way more expensive than it would have been if I’d been able to get tickets initially. It was worth the money, but I wouldn’t pay that much again!
You’ll Catch ‘Em Next Time!
I unfortunately lost the Ticketmaster battle for Sabrina Carpenter. I missed out on Tate McRae as I became a fan a little too late. Maroon 5 and Benson Boone were out of my price range when they went on sale. This year has highlighted for me how much more difficult it is to be a casual fan of large artists. If you’re not ready to go for that artist presale, a little bit lucky, and without a major budget restriction, seeing these shows becomes a lot more difficult. I’m bummed to have missed out on these artists, but I am more than happy with the shows I did attend.
Let’s Run It Back…
Of the artists I saw this year, I would not hesitate to see artists 1-8 again. I’d see AJR a fourth time if they released an album I particularly loved. I hope to see Sombr mature a bit (and his audience too), otherwise my support may waver. I’m already looking forward to seeing Del Water Gap, Louis Tomlinson, and 5SOS in the new year. This was an incredible year for live music. It will be interesting to see if 2026 can keep up.