Rolling Stone: 50 Greatest Live Acts Rght Now

[HolidayGuy]

As usual, it's a man's world- the highest-ranked solo female is at No. 28.

www.rollingstone.com/music/news/50-greatest-live-acts-right-now-20130731#ixzz2ah5F5Yfq

50 Greatest Live Acts Right Now
The crowd-pleasing, club-wrecking, festival-killing road rulers
July 31, 2013

Who rules the road in 2013? To find out, Rolling Stone asked a panel of writers, industry figures and artists – from Lars Ulrich of Metallica to Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes – to vote on their favorite live performers right now. To be eligible for the list, a performer must have toured within the last five years and not announced their retirement. So, from the Stones to Skrillex, from Gaga to Green Day, here they are – the 50 most crowd-pleasing, club-wrecking, festival-killing live acts right now.

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Prince
3. The Rolling Stones
4. Arcade Fire
5. Neil Young
6. Jay Z
7. Radiohead
8. Jack White
9. Rage Against the Machine
10. My Morning Jacket
11. U2
12. Wilco
13. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
14. The Black Keys
15. Paul McCartney
16. Alabama Shakes
17. Nine Inch Nails
18. Metallica
19. The Roots
20. Kanye West
21. Red Hot Chili Peppers
22. Tom Waits
23. Pearl Jam
24. Dave Matthews Band
25. Phish
26. Leonard Cohen
27. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
28. Patti Smith
29. Muse
30. Madonna
31. David Byrne
32. Sleigh Bells
33. Beyoncé
34. Foo Fighters
35. Bruno Mars
36. Florence and the Machine
37. The National
38. Queens of the Stone Age
39. Rush
40. Eric Church
41. Tame Impala
42. Skrillex
43. Mumford & Sons
44. Janelle Monáe
45. Lady Gaga
46. Tool
47. Sigur Rós
48. Green Day
49. Taylor Swift
50. Fiona Apple


The Voters:
Trey Anastasio, Phish; Irving Azoff, Azoff Music Mgmt.; Carrie Brownstein, Wild Flag; Cliff Burnstein, Q Prime Mgmt.; Coran Capshaw, Red Light Mgmt.; Jonathan Cohen, Music booker, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon; Alex Ebert, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros; Perry Farrell, Jane’s Addiction, Lollapalooza founder; Marc Geiger, William Morris Endeavor; Jim Glancy, The Bowery Presents; Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone; Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes; Rick Krim, VH1; Jon Landau, Jon Landau Mgmt.; Alan Light, Author and journalist; Peter Mensch, Q Prime Mgmt.; John Moore, The Bowery Presents; Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine; Sara Quin, Tegan and Sara; Tegan Quin, Tegan and Sara; Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone; Patrick Stump, Fall Out Boy; Lars Ulrich, Metallica; Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy

By Jon Dolan, Patrick Doyle, Caryn Ganz, Andy Greene, Will Hermes and Julian Ring

[Verisimilitude]

Mess. Was the panel mostly men? There are amazing female performers too.

[Rocky]

Mess. Gaga being #45 on a list where Swift is #50...

[Deleted]

As with most of these "Greatest" lists, they are based opinions not statistics. The fact that one artist is ranked over another here means that is what THESE voters think. A different set of voters would produce a different list.


Also with Rolling Stone, they tend to favor rock, female dance-pop doesn't get the same treatment

[HolidayGuy]

^That's how it is most of the time; male acts dominate greatest lists, by far.

What's wrong with Taylor Swift at 49, Rocky? It's about performance, which encompasses a variety of factors.

[Caviar]

Poor Pink. :'(

[Enigma.]

She's probably the best performer at the moment but can't really say that one can go wrong with Springsteen or Prince either.

With edgier material Pink would rule these kind of lists.

I love her style now but can understand why Rolling Stone people don't

[HolidayGuy]

^Only a couple of the voters were RS; the others were various music people.

[Enigma.]

Yes but they were pretty much the same (like Alabama Shakes and Phish voting for themselves )

[rosemoor]

John Mayer should be up there. Just went to his concert, absolutely fantastic, even exceeded my high expectation after watching his Live in LA concert DVD gazillion times. But I'm not surprised that he's always under-appreciated by those manly-man snob type.

[when the pawn...]

I've seen 15 on the list and plan on seeing 5 more this year.

The magazine's hard-on for veterans is annoying.

[HolidayGuy]

A lot of those veterans are very revered acts, so no surprise there.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I wonder if any on these lists have seen every one of these acts?

It's tough to come up with a list like this. I've only seen a few of them and would love to see some of the other ones. There are a lot whose music I don't care for and wouldn't go see on my own but who probably put on amazing performances but then would I still rank them above someone whose music I already love?
Then begs the question, what makes a good concert performance?

[Rumors]

Aug 1, 2013 11:54:19 GMT -5 rosemoor said:

John Mayer should be up there. Just went to his concert, absolutely fantastic, even exceeded my high expectation after watching his Live in LA concert DVD gazillion times. But I'm not surprised that he's always under-appreciated by those manly-man snob type.

Come on - John's been a favorite of the critics from day one. But otherwise, those 15 people voting haven't seen most of the acts out there (particulary mainstream) so this is just your typical list with the same people being mentioned over and over. The Rolling Stones are way past their prime. I love them but let's be real. Go watch some youtube clips. The backup singers are doing most of the singing for Mick these days and there's just no way I give any list much cred that has Taylor Swift on it.

[HolidayGuy]

Mayer hasn't fared very well on best-of/year-end lists, so critics can't be too crazy for him (at least compared to a lot of others).

[theonlyone]

Poor list, I would agree that most of the right people are on the list, but several females are way too low.

[Deleted]

Bey the highest of the new generation divas and not too far off from Madge *sips tea*. Although she should have been higher......but at least their recognized her.