F Shed sounds a promising note as concerts return to CNY Regional Market (9/6/25)

After an 8-year hiatus, concerts have slowly returned to Central New York Regional Market’s F Shed. On Friday, September 5, it hosted the 10th anniversary of SmackFest, headlined by Josey Scott, billed as the “Original Voice of Saliva.”

As a music venue, the F Shed has a brief, but storied history. Opening in 2013, it played host to jam bands like moe., O.A.R., indie rock bands like Young the Giant and later to EDM artists like Skrillex before shutting down in 2017, in large part due to noise complaints from the surrounding neighborhoods.

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Little Big Town ‘feels like home’ at Syracuse’s Empower Amp (8/2/25)

Closing their set with their first top 10 Billboard Hot Country hit, Boondocks, Little Big Town sang:

“Give me a tin roof, a front porch and a gravel road

And that’s home to me, feels like home to me.”

On a “crisp and delicious” evening, as Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild later described it, Friday night at the Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview was a celebration of traditional country music, featuring mandolins, Fender Teles, and tight vocal harmonies.

It sure felt like home to me.

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Underwhelming KRockathon needs more than a reboot, requires complete overhaul (July 27, 2025)

Music criticism can be a tricky thing.

I always try to reach beyond my own personal tastes: different artists have different aims, and to simply state “I liked it!” or “I did not like it!” would be shallow, disingenuous, and an insult to the artistry on stage.

Instead, I ask myself a series of questions: What is the artist trying to achieve? How well are they achieving it? Who is the audience for this?

It’s this final question I repeatedly returned to throughout the 2025 Sweet Grass KRockathon Reboot.

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Creed takes sold-out Syracuse crowd ‘Higher’ at Empower Amp (July 12, 2025)

Creed falls squarely into the pantheon of bands that music nerds like myself love to hate.

Too mainstream to be Christian rock, too vaguely Christian to be cool, they exist, in my mind, alongside groups like The Fray, Imagine Dragons, and U2. Bands that, although sonically quite different from each other, have all committed the mortal rock and roll sin I call “bombastic earnestness.”

But, as Creed’s lyrics repeatedly insist, and Scott Stapp’s life is a testament to, redemption is possible.

On Friday night at the Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview, a full capacity crowd came to hear Mammoth, Daughtry and Creed.

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Todd Rundgren closes Syracuse Jazz Fest with ‘endlessly stimulating’ set (June 29 2025)

In the three course meal of headliners at the 2025 Syracuse Jazz Fest, Todd Rundgren is the tart dessert: a surprising, pleasantly acidic, and endlessly stimulating musical mind.

Rundgren’s bio describes him as “a pop savant who [has] fastidiously avoided easy categorization throughout the course of his career” and I was excited to see what version of Rundgren would show up: the 70’s soft rock pop star behind hits like I Saw the Light and Hello It’s Me, the music technologist who explored synthesizers with his band, Utopia, or the experimental mad scientist who used the E-Mu Emulator to create a rock album, 1985’s A Cappella, using only manipulated samples of his voice.

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The Spinners prove why they’re ‘One of a Kind’ at Syracuse Jazz Fest (June 27, 2025)

Jazz is a genre rooted in tradition. It’s a shared musical language built on standards like Autumn Leaves, Take the ‘A’ Train, and Fly Me to the Moon, works that are interpreted, and reinterpreted, by countless musicians, from aspiring high school students to Grammy award winners.

But what about the legacy of the groups within the genre?

The Spinners, the headliners on Thursday night at the 39th Syracuse International Jazz Festival, highlighted how reconfigured line-ups can sustain, and enliven, the tradition of America’s great R&B vocal groups.

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Steven Page reimagines Barenaked Ladies hits at ‘flawless’ Taste of Syracuse concert (June 8, 2025)

Steven Page is one of my musical heroes. I grew up on the Barenaked Ladies. Their 2003 album, Everything to Everyone, was one of the first CDs I bought with my own money. I think his solo career contains some of his best songwriting. His music, his lyrics, and that voice, have left an indelible mark on my life. 

Which is to say, it’s impossible for me to experience Saturday evening’s performance at the Taste of Syracuse as a casual fan. 

Thankfully, Steven Page, with his bandmates Kevin Fox on cello and Craig Northey on guitar, offered a setlist that included enough 90’s pop rock favorites for the casual fans, the occasional deep cuts for the die-hards like myself, and an impeccable musicality that attracted the passers-by, enjoying the plethora of food trucks available.

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Luke Bryan brings huge summer party to sold-out Syracuse Amp (June 6, 2025)

Rain is a good thing, but warm, hazy sunsets over Onondaga Lake are better.

Although they had to dodge raindrops on their way in, the sold-out crowd was ready to get high on summertime as they filtered into the Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview for Thursday night’s concert featuring country superstar, Luke Bryan. The spirit, and the spirits, were overflowing in a night that featured warm temperatures, cold drinks, and great country songs.

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Give me fire: Coheed and Cambria delivers cathartic night of music (May 31, 2025)

Full disclosure: Coheed and Cambria, co-headlining last night’s show with Mastodon at the Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview, is a band that completely slipped past me.

It’s rare to approach a band, touring their acclaimed 11th studio album, as a brand new listener. But on this drizzly, but otherwise beautiful late spring night, I was excited to hear new-to-me music for the first time.

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Still got the fire: The Doobie Brothers keep the flame burning in Syracuse (Sept 28, 2024)

Towards the beginning of their set on Friday, September 27 at the Upstate Medical Arena at the Oncenter War Memorial, singer/guitarist, Patrick Simmons, founder, and the only consistent member of The Doobie Brothers, sang “There’s a wind that’s blowin’, such a lonely prayer/ Gotta keep goin’, now I’m halfway there,” from their 2021 song, “Cannonball.”

Continuing a tour that sees the group celebrating over 50 years together, The Doobie Brothers are surely more than halfway there, but as Simmons continued to sing, “I’ll follow this road where my heart’s still yearnin’, still got the fire, and the flame keeps burnin’.”

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Technical issues aside, Ying Yang Twins and Chevelle highlight ideal evening of music (Aug 25, 2024)

Saturday at the New York State Fair was one of those beautiful late summer nights where you start your day in a T-shirt and shorts, and end your night in an oversized hoodie.

Fair attendance spiked on Saturday, buoyed by two national touring acts playing at the fairgrounds: the Ying Yang Twins at Chevy Court and Chevelle and Suburban Park. Though sound issues plagued both performances, thousands of fans didn’t seem to mind one bit.

The Ying Yang Twins set opened with DJ Scientist performing a 15-minute mixtape of classic hip hop and R&B from the 1980s, 90s, and 00s. DJ Scientist alternated between his laptop, and the vinyl turntables, blending different eras of hip hop together. The mix ranged from DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s Turn Down for What to Nelly’s Hot in Herre to Ginuwine’s Pony and more contemporary songs like Bruno Mars’s 24K.

While the crowd was enjoying the mix, singing along to their favorite hooks, the DJ set went on for a noticeably long time and it felt like we went from getting hyped up for the Ying Yang Twins to simply waiting for them to come out on stage.

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Dierks Bentley shows are what summer nights are made for (Aug 17, 2024)

For as long as there has been country music, there has been controversy over the legacy, and future of country music. One need look no further than the writings of Amanda Marie Martinez or Grady Smith’s YouTube channel to engage with the conversation about what country music is, and what it isn’t.

You can almost trace the last 20 years of country radio in the sounds of Dierks Bentley’s radio singles, from What Was I Thinkin’, his first number one from 2003, a bluegrass-infused country song to his 2021 collaboration with Breland and Hardy, Beers on Me.

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