Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor wasn’t kidding as he chanted “Nothing can stop me now” near the start of the band’s concert Friday night, Aug. 22 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.

But the next part of that chorus phrase — “’cause I don’t care anymore” — was belied by a 95-minute show that was, indeed, a non-stop (and passionate) onslaught of meticulously crafted sensory assault, from the sonics to the ingenious visuals. It was a near-perfect kind of expression, one that played right to the expectations of fans who knew the group to be a consistently provocative live act but also accessible to any of the 15,000 at Little Caesars who may not have been as well-acquainted.

Those virtues were certainly to be expected, of course; when you have a group led by two EGO (Emmy, Grammy and Oscar) Award winners in Reznor and Atticus Ross, you’ll inevitably get something more clever than a basic rock band playing on a stage.

Nine Inch Nails’ first appearance in the metro area since a two-night stand in 2018 at Detroit’s Fox Theatre was decidedly that, blending the immersive qualities of vintage Pink Floyd with the artsy, almost avant garde physicality of David Byrne, with or without Talking Heads. The high concept even began with an opening 55 minutes from German EDM stalwart Boys Noize (celebrating his 42nd birthday on Friday), who performed from the rear of the arena floor and to the backs of those sitting in front of him — and well away from the general admission area beyond them. It seemed odd but was effective when he finished and a second later a black-clad Reznor appeared at a keyboard on a small square stage at the center of the arena, playing a hushed solo rendition of 2005’s “Right Where It Belongs” — back in the set for the first time in 16 years — and then joined by Ross, guitarist Robin Finck and and Alessandro Cortini during “Ruiner.”

After “Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now),” the three walked to the main stage while drummer Josh Freese, returning after 17 years away from the band, played a drum solo with his larger-than-life image projected onto a sheer scrim in front. The next segment — which featured industrial-strength deliveries of “Wish,” “March of the Pigs” and “Gave Up” was a visual treat as well, with images of the quintet, including close-ups from a camera-toting crew member who roamed the stage throughout — soaring across the scrim and rear screens.

Best of that bunch was a percolating “Copy of A,” during which multiple Reznors, full and in silhouette, jetted above the band.

Reznor and Ross then returned to the satellite stage, joined by Boys Noize for a remix-style renditions of “Vessel,” “Closer,” “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” from his year’s “Tron: Ares” film soundtrack and “Come Back Haunted.” Boys Noize finished the latter as Reznor and Ross then journeyed back to the rest of the band for a closing barrage — sans scrim but still dramatically lit as the troupe pounded through “Mr. Self Destruct,” “Less Than” and “The Perfect Drug.” The group paid tribute to late friends collaborators David Lynch (“The Perfect Drug” from his 1997 film “Lost Highway”) and David Bowie (“I’m Afraid of Americans,” also from 1997), with Finck shredding at the end of the latter, with nods to Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

Hit singles “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole” were simply massive and mosh-worthy, setting up the gentle bleakness of “Hurt,” which Reznor and Finck began as a duo before the rest of the band built it into an elegant paean to angst.

In one of his very few comments to the crowd, Reznor thanked fans “for sticking with us…we really appreciate it.” The feeling was clearly mutual, and he can rest assured that they’ll continue to be there, still relishing what they saw on Friday and anticipating even more extravagant concert adventures to come.

Black Keys fans got their fix of the band on Thursday night, Aug. 21, at the Pine Knob Music Theatre — more than nine months after they initially expected.

The Akron-formed, now Nashville-based duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney planned to end its 2024 tour last November at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. The trek was canceled over logistical issues that led to an acrimonious split with the group’s management, leaving the Keys to retreat, make a new album (“No Rain, No Flowers”) and, basically, get back on the horse.

And on Thursday Auerbach and Carney — one of rock’s most consistently exciting live acts during the past 25 or so years — seemed no worse for the wear.

Following a 55-minute opening set by Austin, Texas guitar hero Gary Clark Jr. — whose ferocious playing cut through a 55-minute set mired by a muddy sound mix — the Keys came out nodding to the band’s Midwestern roots. While video screens bore the logo for the fictional WTBK public access station out of Akron, the warm-up tape paid homage to another famous Rubber Capitol export (Devo) and then to its northern neighbor’s rock heritage with a bit of Bob Seger’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” Guitarist Auerbach and drummer Carney — with a tiger rug sitting in front of his kit — then played as a duo in front of a red curtain, reaching back to the raw, bluesy garage glory of its earliest albums with a medley of “Thickfreakness,” “The Breaks” and “I’ll Be Your Man.”

As they tore into “Your Touch,” the curtain parted to reveal another five musicians, mixed mostly for sonic texture over much of the hour-and-45-minute show. The 23-song set shot both wide and deep into the group’s career, sampling from 10 of its 13 albums over the course of the show. Four came from “No Rain…” — including the live debut of the track “Down to Nothing” — but, disappointingly, none from last year’s fine “Ohio Players.”

The 8,000 or so fans were nevertheless pleased with what they got, and by the Keys’ return in general. The group’s own excitement could be heard in the adrenalized tempos of many of the songs, while Auerbach was his usual six-string madman self, ripping through hot solos on every song and stretching out in particular on “I Got Mine,” “Everlasting Light,” “A Little Too High” and “Man on a Mission.” Auerbach also made room for special guest “Little” Barrie Cadogan from England, who stepped out on “Lo/Hi,” “Weight of Love,” “Too Afraid to Love You” and “Next Girl” and dueled with Auerbach towards the end of “Heavy Soul.”

Keyboardist Ray Jacildo took the occasional spotlight spot as well, including a synthesizer solos on “Psychotic Girl” and a cover of Canned Heat’s “On the Road Again.”

The night included the Keys’ key hits — “Gold on the Ceiling,” “Wild Child,” “Howlin’ For You,” “Fever” — while Auerbach noted that 2010’s “Tighten Up” “couldn’t have happened without Motown.” “Thank you for that.” For the encore, meanwhile, a characteristically epic “Little Black Submarines,” which Auerbach started solo, preceded a hip-wiggling “Lonely Boy.” “Thanks for hanging out with us,” Auerbach told the crowd, promising to “see you next time.”

And most at Pine Knob on Thursday would say that can’t come too soon.

At the start of its new album, “No Rain, No Flowers,” the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach sings that “Baby, the damage is done/It won’t be long ’til we’re back in the sun.”

That’s starting to become the case for the Nashville-based duo.

Last year the Keys — Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, friends since childhood growing up in Akron, Ohio — had to cancel a planned tour in support of its critically lauded previous album, “Ohio Players,” due to mismanagement and business conflicts of interest. The group scorched the earth, firing those involved and creating a new team, and openly expressing their dissatisfaction.

Auerbach and Carney also made new music — their 13th studio album, “No Rain, No Flowers,” which came out earlier this month, just 16 months after “Ohio Players.” After that’s sets collaborations with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Beck and others, the new 11-song set finds the Keys again playing nice with others, this time working with notable songwriters such Rick Nowels, Daniel Tashian, Scott Storch, Desmond Child and others.

It’s also returned the Keys to the road — in Europe earlier this summer and now back in North America, where the pair is making up for frustratingly lost time…

• Carney, 45 — nephew of the late saxophonist Ralph Carney — says he and Auerbach remain angry about the situation they found themselves in last year but are regaining their equilibrium. “I think it’s slightly reassuring to know that basically every peer of ours has been having to navigate the same bull****, and hopefully things will change for the better, for the artists and for the fans, soon. Basically it’s an exclusive problem to the United States, and I think every musician who tours has been encountering it throughout the years, and it’s just gotten to the point where it’s (expletive).”

• Carney adds that it was important, and natural, for the Keys to get back to work on another album as soon as possible. “‘Ohio Players’ is one of the favorite albums we’ve ever made. We worked our asses off on it, and in light of what happened last year the record became dead in the water, essentially, ’cause touring as a way to of promotion was gone. So we just did what we do — went in and made another album. Music is our passion; the whole point of starting that band is ’cause wanted to make albums. So we just went in and made another album.”

• The Keys have been co-writing with others since working with Danger Mouse on 2008’s “Attack & Release” and have become more interested in and adept at it on most of the albums since. “We figured out a way to incorporate a third person into our democracy,” Carney says. “Basically it’s like a three-way democracy, or however many people are in the room. If everyone’s on board, great, if everybody’s not on board you’ve got to move on to the next thing. It’s us wanting to give it an idea and being able to somehow convince these people to get in a room with us and then try to make something. That’s become our recent fascination.”

• Writing with Desmond Child — who’s written hits for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Cher, Kiss Ricky Martin and many more — on the “No Rain…” track “Make You Mine” was a standout experience, according to Carney. “He’s another guy that’s just incredibly talented and has put the time in and the hours learning his craft and is a master of it — and also just a pleasure to be around. He’s got the greatest stories, too. Getting to sit in a room with a guy like that and watch him work is super inspiring. He approaches his while craft so seriously; I’ll get texts from him at midnight, still, about revisions to songs we haven’t released yet, that he wants to change. He’s (expletive) serious.”

• Carney says that since completing “No Rain…” he and Auerbach have continued to work on new material which he anticipates will likely come out sooner than later. “We’ve been kind of working at a pretty quick clip lately, kind of like we were in the first 10 years of the band when we were basically making a record every year, year and a half. We’ve been on that same path lately. It’s just what we do. We have so much stuff right at this point now, extra songs from every record. This record could’ve been 18 songs long; we just have a surplus of music, and when we feel like, ‘OK, this makes a good collection for an album,’ or maybe we should put out a series of singles, we’ll create a project. Just making the music and then figuring out what you have is a fun way to work.”

The Black Keys and Gary Clark Jr. perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21 at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. (313)471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

Maroon 5 will be wrapping its upcoming Love Is Like fall tour on Nov. 25 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. But guitarist James Valentine promises that fans will see anything but a road-weary band at that date.

“Oh, no, the last show … those are always special,” Valentine says via Zoom from his home in Toluca Lake, California. “There’s a real excitement, plus all the kinks have been worked out, so I would encourage everybody to come out ’cause they’re usually pretty great.”

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Maroon 5's 23-date tour, which begins Oct. 6 in Phoenix, comes in support of "Love Is Like," the group's eighth studio album — the latest entry in a career of more than 135 million records sold worldwide, three Grammy Awards and 20 Top 20 hits, including "This Love," "She Will Be Loved," "Moves Like Jagger," "Payphone" and "One More Night." Frontman Adam Levine, meanwhile, has achieved solo fame acting ("Begin Again," "American Horror Story: Asylum") and also appeared as a coach in "The Voice," which he co-produces.

The group's last album, "Jordi," came out in 2021. Valentine said the band "knew in the future a new album was going to be worked on at some point." The process began in January 2024 when Levine sent his bandmates the idea for a song that became "Priceless," the first single from "Love Is Like," which features a guest vocal by Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink.

"(Levine) was like: 'Hey, guys, I'm fired up. I want to write. Let's go!'" recalls Valentine. "And with that song, it was off to the races. We knew it was time because Adam felt inspired."

"Love Is Like" features nine more tracks, with Lil Wayne guesting on the title track and Sexxy Red on "I Feel Like." And in Valentine's estimation, the new album, for the most part, hearkens back to Maroon 5's early days, such as the multi-platinum 2002 debut "Songs About Jane."

"Each record we've done has sort of gone in such different directions," Valentine notes. "I think there's been a constant evolution. But ('Priceless') felt like it was going back to some of the sounds that we were making early in our career. I think it was time to go back to some of those early influences, like '70s soul and funk.

"So this album, at least more than the most recent albums, has more of those elements. About half the record has that sort of feeling."

Valentine predicts the tour shows will be "really special," especially since the production is being helmed by the company that worked with Maroon 5 on its Las Vegas residency at the Park MGM. "We might bring some elements of that, yeah," he says. "We haven't toured in the U.S. much for the last couple of years because of the Vegas residence — which we really loved, but I also missed being out there and seeing the country. So we're excited to be doing that again."

Maroon 5, Claire and Claire Rosinkranz perform at 8 p.m. Nov. 25 at Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit.  313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com. 

Last year’s return of Linkin Park was not really on many bingo cards.

The heavy rock group — which formed in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California, and once dubbed the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang! magazine in 2014 — had been silenced by the July 2017 suicide of vocalist Chester Bennington. Its surviving members pursued other creative endeavors, but queries about continuing were met with noncommittal answers.

So it seemed fans would have to be comfortable with a legacy that included more than 100 million records sold worldwide, eight platinum or better albums and 21 Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, including angsty No. 1’s such as “Somewhere I Belong,” “Numb,” “Breaking the Habit,” “Burn It Down” and “Until It’s Gone.” The group also collaborated with rapper Jay-Z on the double-platinum “Collision Course” in 2004.

But last April came word that Linkin Park’s booking agent was soliciting concert dates for the band, and during the late summer, the group announced its reformation, adding Emily Armstrong from the band Dead Sara on vocals and Colin Brittain on drums after co-founder Rob Bourdon opted not to join bandmates Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and Joe Hahn.

Additionally, Alex Feder became Linkin Park’s touring guitarist after Delson decided to leave the road and focus on writing and recording — but is nonetheless stoked by a return with a new album, “From Zero,” which was No. 1 around the world and No. 2 in the U.S.

“The band got successful when we were very young, and we kind of went on this rocket ship for 20 years,” Delson, 47, says via Zoom. “In the time that we’ve had (off), while we haven’t been putting out new stuff, I think everyone’s had the space and fresh eyes to think about what’s energizing. And I think for all of us, the decisions to do what we’re doing came from a place of opting in as opposed to having it just be habitual. That’s also why everything sounds so fresh and inspired.”

Delson says that during the interim after Bennington’s death, he and the others “were just messing around, doing stuff in the studio” on their own and collectively, without much in the way of a plan. Shinoda had worked with Armstrong on his own projects and invited her to sit in with the others, initially in a casual and exploratory fashion.

Then, the guitarist recalls: “Emily said at one point: ‘Hey, I’m happy to just come here every day, whether you need me or not. I want to be around what’s happening.’ The amazing thing about this album was everything just kind of fell into place, naturally, just based on: ‘Hey, this is fun. We like doing this. Let’s do more of it.’ It was the desire to just hang out together, be creative, and then the music led the way.”

The group brought some other helps into the fold to help make “From Zero” — including Teddy Swims, Nick Long of Dark Waves and Mike Elizondo — and Delson says the group quickly regained its trial-and-error approach marked by frank discussions and a variety of opinions.

“Our process is to support what’s working,” Delson explains. “So if the guitar isn’t, like, super compelling, just mute it and then write new guitar parts. There was a lot of experimenting going on, just like we always did.”

Linkin Park debuted the fresh material during a livestreamed performance Sept. 5 and then set off on a short tour of dates to showcase it and the new members, with a more comprehensive global trek that began Jan. 31 in Mexico — including its first Detroit area appearance since 2014 — and is booked into June 2026. Delson’s decision not to tour, meanwhile, is for a combination of preserving his mental health, as well as simply because “I really love being in the studio, and I feel like that’s where I’m most energized, and I really thrive and I contribute the most.

“For me, it’s about making authentic, clear decisions and wanting to bring great energy to whatever I’m working on.”

Delson still remains involved in matters such as the live show’s set list, and while his bandmates are on the road, he’s building a cache of new ideas for a next album in Los Angeles. “I would just say I’m having a lot of fun right now working on all the creative with my bandmates,” Delson explains. “It’s been a lot of fun and really rewarding.”

And the silver lining is having a new kind of experience with Linkin Park than he’s been able to have before.

“It’s pretty cool in a way,” Delson says, “’cause I never got to see the show ever, in real time. If you’re on the stage, you don’t really get to see what’s going on. And now I do.

“I’m excited people are finally getting to hear this record, and the streaming and everything is just crazy. There’s a lot of activity now. (The band is) definitely up and running.”

Linkin Park and Pvris perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 at Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit.  313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com. 

Fitz and the Tantrums has been making hands clap for a little while now.

The soul-pop quintet formed during 2008 in Los Angeles and 15 years ago released its debut album, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces.” There have been five more since then, with “HandClap” from 2016’s self-titled album hitting the Top 10 on several Billboard charts and going on to become a sports anthem.

Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick and company are currently back on the road promoting the group’s latest album, “Man on the Moon,” which came out July 25, preceded by the first single, “Ruin the Night…

• Taking stock of the Tantrums’ career to date, Fitzpatrick 55, says, “What a blessing. This is our sixth studio album, plus I’ve been lucky enough to make two solo records, so (“Man on the Moon”) is my eighth album, which just blows my mind.”

• The group has worked hard to expand and broaden its sound, according to Fitzpatrick, which has not always been easy. “Our first record was really Motown influenced, and when we went to make our second record everybody wanted us to make the same record again. I didn’t want to do it, so (2013’s) ‘More Than Just a Dream’ was different and we got a lot of flak for that, and we lost a lot of fans from that. So every time we’ve evolved there’s always a little bit of trepidation — ‘Are fans gonna follow us? Are we going too far? Is this too radical?’ One of the gifts of having done this for so long, and on this record, is there’s supreme confidence we cand o what we want. We’ve established a track record of taking on these different journeys, but they all kind of finally bring you back home. We had the confidence on this record to say we don’t have to question these choices we’re making.”

• “Man on the Moon,” Fitzpatrick says, “was almost like a full-circle moment for us — can we kind of look through our history and all of our influences and go back to the beginning in many ways and really sort of dig back through our early influences of Motown and soul and form yet another twisted sort of perspective on it. You can really hear us doing that, I think. I really worked my butt off on this record.”

• Fitzpatrick says a Motown influence was definitely mined for “Man on the Moon’s” title track. “It’s just sort of the general vibe, that classic string section sound. It’s been a crazy couple of years in the news cycle and stuff; we were writing that song and there was one crazy headline after another. There’d be, like, four of them in one day, and everybody in the studio’s brains were just exploding. That was the motivation for the message and the lyric of the song — ‘I want to stay out of touch/I want to stay away’ and this idea of being the man on the moon, getting away from it all. But that string section, to me, is classic Motown.”

• The “Man on the Moon” album is also distinguished by the relative brevity of its songs, with only two of 14 tracks coming in at more than three minutes long. “I don’t think people have an appetite for the long song anymore — at least I don’t,” Fitzpatrick says. “I get bored. It’s funny; I’ll listen to some older songs, some of them are four and a half or five minutes, but it was a different time. I like the feeling of when a song ends and you feel like it ends too soon and have this uncontrollable urge to press repeat. And then on a not-fun sort of perspective is that we, as musicians, survive on Spotify, and a song that’s longer than two minutes tends to not get played as much on (random shuffle). That’s just a sad truth. It’s crazy, but that makes it a challenge. We have one song on the album that’s 1.44; is that too short? If it is then I guess just listen to it again and give us the extra play on the algorithm.”

Fitz and the Tantrums and Ax and the Hatchmen perform Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave. Doors at 6:30 p.m. (313)833-9700 or majesticdetroit.com.

There are Barenaked Ladies concerts, and then there are Barenaked Ladies concerts in the Detroit area.

And then there are tour-ending concerts in the Detroit area.

The Toronto quartet has a long love affair with these parts as an acknowledged second home, a relationship that dates back to a 1994 showcase performance at the State Theatre (now the Fillmore Detroit) and includes 24 headline dates at the Pine Knob Music Theatre — where it recorded 2007 concert album and video “Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan.” Thanks to that and routing logistics, Pine Knob has also been the site for the final concerts of BNL’s last few Last Summer on Earth tours, the latest coming Saturday, Aug. 2 with Sugar Ray and Fastball.

It was another combination of kindred and complementary spirits, but even moreso than other versions of the package. Members of all three bands — whose biggest hits came during the 90s — repeatedly spoke about it on stage as a favorite tour, ever. Just glancing at side stage made that evident throughout the night as the musicians all watched each other’s set, with Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath dancing and playing cheerleader in full view. They even dubbed themselves, collectively, Naked Sugar Balls, and that spirit was certainly contagious for the 9,500 fans at Pine Knob, another crowd of characteristically spirited BNL fans.

Closing nights are known for their shenanigans, of course, and those started early on Saturday. Astute fans noticed female undergarments placed on Fastball’s amplifiers and drum kit, and BNL’s Ed Robertson came on stage at one point to mop around singer-guitarist Miles Zuniga’ feet (an inside joke referencing a karaoke party a couple nights prior in Cleveland). The Austin group was also the beneficiary of the Last Summer esprit de corps as well; when drummer Joey Shuffield had to leave the tour early on, Sugar Ray’s Dean Butterworth — who was celebrating his birthday on Saturday night — threw in for the rest of the trek, while BNL’s Kevin Hearn played keyboards.

And on Saturday Robertson returned to join Fastball for its last two songs, “Fire Escape” and “The Way,” as he has throughout the tour.

Sugar Ray also found underwear on its amplifiers at the start of its set, and all four Barenaked Ladies’ crashed the stage early on, dressed as characters from “Scooby Doo” and, in Robertson’s case, Ken from “Barbie.” And during BNL’s show crew members dressed as aliens and monsters danced around the band as it played “Lookin’ Up.”

The hijinks complemented rather than distracted from the music, however, and only made Saturday’s show a touch more special for all concerned.

Fastball, for instance, may be known primarily for “The Way” but showed it had more than that during its half-hour set, including blazing versions of “Sooner or Later” and “Hummingbird,” which it dedicated to McGrath.

The white-suited Sugar Ray, with McGrath in exuberant, tattooed carnival barker mode, came out swinging with two of its biggest hits — “Someday” and “Every Morning” — and covered Ginuwine’s “Pony” and Ugly Kid Joe’s “Everything About You” in an “unnecessary 90s medley” before leading the Pine Knob crowd through the communal exuberance of “Fly.”

Barenaked Ladies closed things out with its usual action-packed array of musical dexterity and good humor (Robertson, also per usual, slipped a reference to the Big Beaver Road exit into “Pinch Me”) during its hour and 45 minutes on stage. The hits — “The Old Apartment,” “Brian Wilson,” the “Big Bang Theory” theme song, “One Week” and the bulletproof singalong “If I Had $1000000” — were spread throughout the set, but the group kept new material from 2023’s “In Flight” front and center, too, including acoustic performances of “One Night” and “What Do We Need?”

Among other highlights BNL wound its regular adlibbed rap into a swinging Hearn-sung rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” while “Hello City” finished with a bit of the standard “I Love You.”

Multi-instrumentalist Hearn, celebrating his 30th year in the band, stepped forward as guitar hero on songs such as his moving “Big Backyard” as well as “Pinch Me” and “Clearly Lost” and traded licks with Zuniga on a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” sung by drummer Tyler Stewart. Bassist Jim Creeggan, meanwhile, sang lead on the do-woppy “Just Wait” and led the crowd through “Sesame Street’s” “Mahna Mahna” during his bass solo.

BNL paid tribute to the late Brian Wilson with a bit of his “Love and Mercy” before launching into a tongue-in-cheek medley that included of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” Beyonce’s “Texas Hold `em,” Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and Alphaville’s “Forever Young,” while Robertson wrapped Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch” by kissing a fan in the front row.

The night, and tour, finished with all 10 Naked Sugar Balls members on stage for a rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69,” visibly enjoying their final song together and giving the Pine Knob faithful what will surely be an enduring memory of the summer of ’25.

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During its 20 years of performing and 12 years of releasing music, the AJR has taken pride in not repeating itself often. So it was fitting that the 13,000 or so fans at the Pine Knob Music Theatre saw the sibling trio in a new way on Tuesday night, July 29.

The basic difference; it was not a trio. Eldest brother Adam Met (nee Metzger) busy promoting a new book, leaving Jack and Ryan — along with accompanists Arnetta Johnson on trumpet and keyboards and Chris Berry on drums — to carry the AJR mantle for the summer’s Somewhere in the Sky Tour. The pair did not mention reference Adam’s absence — which was announced prior to the tour — but did deliver the kind of exuberant, joyful performance that’s become the band’s stock in trade, belying the angst of some of its lyrics and elevating the group from street busking to arenas and amphitheaters over the course of its five studio albums.

And that ascent has been made without radio play and other conventional measures of success. Rather, AJR is emblematic of music, and especially pop’s, new world order of building audience through social media, streaming and direct methods of contact. Shared by the other four acts on Tuesday’s bill — all of whom paid degrees of deference to the headliner — it’s created a deeply personal, boy band/alt.rock connection between AJR and its fans that was on full display throughout the 85-minute show that touched on 19 songs from the group’s catalog, including the new single “Betty” from the upcoming “What No One’s Thinking” EP (out Aug. 29).

Youngest brother Jack, sporting his trademark fur trapper’s cap, and Ryan were as energetic and wired as ever, perhaps moreso to fill any perceived gaps without Adam. The music drove the night, but aided by some clever visuals — such as Jack interacting with three images of himself on the floor-to-ceiling video screening, using high fives to create the beat into “Yes I’m a Mess.” And a step-by-step explanation of how the group wrote “100 Bad Days” was genuinely illuminating, and entertaining.

At the end of the show, meanwhile, the quartet yielded the stage to a video percussion duel on the screen, which in turn ushered the Walled Lake marching band down the pavilion aisles to join AJR for an encore rendition of “Weak.”

Sometimes the schtick was done to a fault, however. Orchestrating a pre-crowd singalong to a-ha’s “Take on Me” or John Denver’s “Country Roads” or Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go” or Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” would have been fine; all four, in their entireties, was overkill. Similarly, a mid-set comic pause would have been fine if it was only Ryan taking a squid-shaped hat from a fan OR Jack having a Pi-reciting contest with another, named Skylar; both, back-to-back, felt labored and not nearly as intriguing as another song would have been.

But there was no shortage of musical highlights, which included favorites such as the opening “Way Less Sad,” “Karma,” “The Good Part,” a “Burn the House Down” that lived up to its name and “Bang!” Ryan’s solo rendition of “Inertia” gave his bandmates time to slip into the back of the pavilion for “World’s Smallest Violin” and “Wow, I’m Not Crazy,” and a six-minute medley featured five seldom-played songs, including “I’m Ready” for the first time in eight years, according to Jack.

AJR has, in many ways, reached the “best years” the group pines for in “The Good Part,” but with a sense that things may get even better. On Tuesday, however, they were just fine in the present.

It’s been 20 years since the Metzger brothers of AJR began busking on the streets of their home town, New York City, and 10 since they the trio released its debut album, “Living Room.”

Since then they’ve released four more studio albums and a series of EPs, including the upcoming “What No One’s Thinking.” AJR has also hit the charts with singles such as “I’m Ready,” “World’s Smallest Violin,” “Way Less Sad” and the Top 10 “Bang!,” and the siblings — who record and perform under the surname Met — have also collaborated with Weezer, Ingrid Michaelson, Mike Love of the Beach Boys and Grosse Pointe-raised Quinn XCII.

This year finds them hot off AJR’s first full-scale arena tour last year, and in the midst of working on a Broadway musical. The summer tour also finds Jack (nee Evan) and Ryan (nee Joshua) out mostly as a duo, while oldest brother Adam, who’s an adjunct professor at Columbia University and works on climate issues, has a Ph.D. and is executive director of the promotes his new book “Amplify: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World.” But his brothers are carrying the torch around the country, with a new single, “Betty,” advancing the EP…

* Jack Met says via Zoom that AJR’s career trajectory isn’t exactly what he expected but adds that “if it was going to happen, it’s exactly the way that I guess I thought it would or I expect it to go. We’ve never been the coolest thing…It’s been a very slow trajectory; we’ve been doing this for 20 years all told, and it took about 10 years to kinda start getting popular. And it really has been, like, one fan at a time, and I think that’s actually made us able to stay for such a long time.”

* He adds that he and his two older brothers have largely gotten along, without any Oasis or Kinks kind of drama between them. “We grew up in a pretty small apartment, and we all shared a bedroom growing up, like three of us, for 15 years until Adam went to college. It kind of forced us to be close. There was nowhere else to go. There was no other bedroom, couldn’t sleep in the bathroom. So it kind of forced us to make up games together and put on fake shows together in the living room, `cause you had no option. And once we started getting on (tour) buses and sharing dressing rooms, it just felt like we were back in the bedroom.”

* The “What Everyone’s Thinking” EP is due out Aug. 29 and came as a bit of a surprise for AJR. “We didn’t really have a plan to write this year at all. We were planning to work on this Broadway show that we’re writing, and essentially what happened was I said to Ryan, ‘I’m just curious in the moment, if we sit down, what will happen.'” After experiencing some writer’s block, he says, “we realized and we remembered that we’d been through some kind of crazy stuff during the last few years; we’ve dealt with the loss of family members (including their father during 2023), career stuff, friendships and everything. When we realized that, OK, we’re suppressing some stuff, it was like, ‘OK, there it is. Let’s just inject it into the music.’ So we did, and the songs kind of came pouring out — five songs that are very personal and very emotional. It’s definitely our most emotional body of work.”

* The song “Betty,” Jack says, “is about the fear of commitment and the fear of the idea of forever. It’s not so much about relationship issues as just issues within yourself, of that fear. We thought that was a brutally honest and scary thing to write about, but we kind of had to.”

* The Broadway musical, meanwhile, is an adaptation of Crockett Johnson’s 1955 children’s novel “Harold and the Purple Crayon; AJR is writing songs, while Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys,” “The Addams Family,” “The Cher Show”) is collaborating on the book. “We loved that book forever and reimagined it, basically. We took Harold’s character and reimagined him into an adult, facing adult issues and realizing that he kinda can’t draw his problems away anymore. He’s dealing with loss. It’s very much based on our own experiences. We’re in the middle of working on it now. This was conceptualized back in 2020. We’re a good amount down the road now, and we’ve written a bunch of songs and a story and everything like that. We just love it, ’cause Broadway is the first thing we ever wanted to do. It’s impacted every single song I think we’ve ever made, to some degree.”

AJR, Goth Babe, Cavetown and Madelyn Mei perform at 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, July 29 at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

Shinedown is a band that’s comfortable being uncomfortable — creatively, at least.

“You don’t want to get complacent,” acknowledges drummer Barry Kerch, who co-founded the rock quartet with frontman Brent Smith in 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida. “We don’t want to repeat ourselves. A lot of bands find their formula and stick to it, and that’s fine. That’s what works for them. It doesn’t work for us.

“We want to make ourselves uncomfortable and try new things and try different things, and you don’t question it. You just let the process happen. I think that’s what keeps it interesting and … keeps us hungry.”

It’s certainly worked out well for Kerch, Smith, guitarist Zach Myers and bassist-keyboardist Eric Bass, who’s also produced Shinedown’s last three studio albums. With the recent single “Dance, Kid, Dance” — also the title of the band’s summer tour — Shinedown has logged its 20th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, with a new single, “Killing Fields,” currently on the ascent. That and the recent “Three Six Five” are slated for a new album Shinedown is still recording and targeting for an early 2026 release.

And while “Dance, Kid, Dance” is the tour’s apt opening song, Smith says Shinedown is using the shows to dig into its 22-year, seven-album catalog so far.

“We’re switching it up every night — introducing new songs, old songs, deep cuts, reimagined songs,” he says. “That’s not something we typically do. … We’re intentionally making ourselves uncomfortable and (messing) up in front of an audience. We’re lucky enough to have so many No. 1s and all those things — pat myself on the back — it becomes more and more difficult to pick a setlist.

“So every night we just change it up to keep it interesting. It’s been fun, and kind of cathartic in a way.”

Shinedown, Bush and Morgan Wade perform at 7 p.m. Friday, July 25 at Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit.  313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

Fifty years ago, Vince Gill left his home town of Norman, Okla., guitar in hand and moved — first to Kentucky to play bluegrass, then to Los Angeles, where he joined the Pure Prairie League, and then to Nashville to be part of Rodney Crowell’s Cherry Bombs and, in 1984, start a solo career with the EP “Turn Me Loose.”

A triple-threat as a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, Gill has released 16 solo albums — “Sweet Memories” with Detroit-born pedal steel virtuoso Paul Franklin came out in 2023 — and scored more than 30 Top 20 hits on Billboard’s Country chart. He’s won 22 Grammy Awards, 18 Country Music Association Awards and six Academy of Country Music trophies and has collaborated on hits by Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Maren Morris, Kelly Clarkson and others.

He also logged membership in the Western swing band the Time Jumpers and, since 2017, has been part of this little band known as Eagles.

This summer, between Eagles residencies at Sphere in Las Vegas, the 68-year-old Gill is on the road with his own band, playing wide variety of material that includes new songs he plans to start releasing later in the summer…

• Gill, 68, says by phone that he’s touring now because “I just miss playing my songs. Building the career catalog of all that stuff for the last 40 years, however long, it’s just fun to get to remember these songs and play ’em. And I’ve got an unbelievable band, some really, really, really great people I record with, top-notch session players. I’m just hanging on for dear life just keeping up with them. (laughs) We’re having a blast.”

• Gill, who’s been married to fellow singer and songwriter Amy Grant since 2000, promises that fans coming to shows can expect to hear a lot of music. “We’re playing three, three-and-a-half-hour shows — I guess I think I’m (Bruce) Springsteen or something. I just love playing so much; I wish people knew how much I get out of that. I play for a long time ’cause for years I was everybody’s opening act, and I’d only get to play 30 or 40 minutes. That was so fleeting…I just made a promise that if I get to have my way and play my own shows, I’m gonna play for as long as they let me. I tell people, ‘We’re gonna play for a long time, and you won’t hurt my feelings if you have to leave. We’re gonna play ’em anyway!'”

• Gill is including a fair number of new songs in the mix this summer, which can be risky. But he notes that, “My audience has always been willing to go with me any way I choose, and…we always finish up with familiar stuff, so we go home happy.” He expects to release some of the new material before the end of summer, but not as a conventional album. “I’m gonna put out a series of EPs with, probably, six songs on each and do one a month for year to celebrate leaving home 50 years ago. We’ll probably call it ’50 Years from Home’ or something like that. It’s all in the planning stages, and I’ve got a good bit of material recorded. I’ve just got to doll it up, dress it up, sing a few, play a few (guitar) solos and make it make sense.”

• Gill says it’s been a joy to be part of Eagles, even though he acknowledges that “the only reason I got to do it was ’cause of the passing of Glenn (Frey), so I keep in the forefront of my mind that the reason it happened is ’cause of something sad and something tragic. So I don’t beat on my chest and go, ‘I’m in the Eagles.’ But I’m grateful for it. I would’ve never thought in a million years Don Henley would call me up and say, ‘You want to come finish this ride out with me and come play with Joe (Walsh) and Timothy (B. Schmit)?’ I was just like, ‘God, you have to make the question harder; of course I’ll come!’ It’s such a validation of a lifetime of work, of what I’ve tried to accomplish, that one of the best bands in history recognized that and asked me to come along for their final ride.”

• Eagles will be back at Sphere for 22 more dates during September, October and November, a gig Gill says is “pretty cool; I joke that it’s the most people I’ve ever been ignored by (laughs) because everybody’s paying attention to all the bells and whistles and all the video stuff. I don’t blame them at all; it’s overwhelming to see it. And it’s a destination for everybody who’s always loved that band to come and see them one last time. I don’t know what will happen after (the fall shows); at one point I was told we’d be done in April and they added three more months. I don’t get a vote, and I’m good with that; I just do what I’m told and show up where they tell me.”

Vince Gill performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 24 at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. (313)471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

After many years of acrimony, Lou Gramm — headliner of the inaugural Yacht Rock Detroit festival taking place this weekend — says it’s smooth sailing between him and the Foreigner camp these days.

Gramm, the band’s original frontman and co-writer, with founder Mick Jones, of its biggest hits, made his final departure from Foreigner in early 2003. And even while making special guest appearances with the group starting in 2017, there was tension over a variety of issues. But Gramm, 75, has a new attitude after Foreigner’s “life-changing” induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October.

“Ever since (the induction,) it felt like, personally, I had to find a way to let go of some of the things I’ve been holding onto for years and kind of, like the song says, ‘let it be,'” says Gramm, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Jones in 2013.

“It’s a hackneyed sentiment, but it’s true — life’s too short. And a lot of the things that are blown up and made big deals about are easy enough to get over and humble yourself and reach out a little bit, ’cause what you’ve been made about for the past 20 years is not a monumental thing.”

Gramm has certainly been a strong presence in Foreigner’s world during the past 10 months or so.

He appears on the unreleased 1996 track “Turning Back the Time” from the recent compilation of the same name, while he helped finish another vaulted song, “Fool If You Love Him,” for a reissue of the 1981 album “4” in September. Gramm was also a featured guest on Foreigner’s tour of South and Central America earlier this year and will do the same for U.S. dates in December.

“I don’t think there’s any contrivance or people questioning the reason why I would be up there with that band,” Gramm says. “They’ve done a great job over the last two decades of keeping the name up there and flying the flag. They deserve a lot of credit and I love getting the chance to work with them whenever we can.”

Yacht Rock Detroit takes place Friday and Saturday, July 11-12, at the Roostertail, 100 Marquette Drive, Detroit. Other performers include Ben Sharkey and the Seven Wonders Fleetwood Mac tribute. 313-822-1234 or yachtrockdetroit.com.

Wu-Tang Clan hardly seems like a group that needs to worry about its legacy. But Robert “RZA” Diggs and company are not taking any chances.

The 11-member collective’s Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber tour — which stopped Tuesday night, July 8, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit — is part of a five-year “exit plan” designed to ensure that the troupe is remembered, preferably as what El-P of opening act Run The Jewels called “the greatest rap group of all-time.”

 

The effort has included a documentary (“Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”), a biopic series n Hulu (“Wu-Tang: An American Saga”), the first-ever rap residency in Las Vegas and the high-profile $2 million of the only copy of the “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” album.

And, under the moniker Wu-Tang, the group released “Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman,” for Record Store Day in April.

Farewell outings are often taken with a grain of salt, of course, and the fluid nature of Wu-Tang’s makeup and membership has kept the crew coming together and breaking apart into satellite components often since it formed during 1992 in Staten Island, N.Y. But if it truly is The Final Chamber, the group is certainly leaving on the highest of notes, when it can still raise a righteous ruckus.

Wu-Tang’s mythology — the Shaolin philosophy, kung-fu movie tropes and gritty street sensibilities — were on full display during the 95-minute show, especially on three massive video screens above and beside the stage. But the real allure of the Wu-Tang live is in its hot performance chops — skilled, often-breakneck rhymes and a smooth but aggressive ensemble sensibility that flows one member’s flow into the others’ with precise, seamless ease. A seven-piece live band and two female singers, meanwhile, brought a more organic and impactful flavor to the proceedings — even if a rendition of Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” wasn’t necessarily on your Wu-Tang bingo card.

More tends to equal more with Wu-Tang Clan, which is why Tuesday’s best moments were when the full complement of MCs — which swelled to 11 during the closing “Triumph” — and longtime DJ Mathematics was karate-chopping it up together. That happened early, when after a politically tinged welcome speech from RZA — who promised “Wu-Tang Clan is something they can never exploit — group members trooped on one at a time for “Bring Da Ruckus,” “Clan in da Front” and an epic “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’,” all from 1993’s landmark “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” debut album. The latter was highlighted by Young Dirty Bastard, sporting a Detroit Pistons jersey and taking the place of his late father, Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Method Man, dressed in preppy tennis whites, completed the picture with the song that bears his name, and Wu-Tang’s unified might was on full display during “Shame On a Nigga” and “Protect Ya Neck” before it began breaking into smaller group renditions of Cappadonna’s ’97 Mentality,” Raekwon’s “Ice Cream,” Method Man’s “All I Need” and the GZA/Genius classic “Liquid Swords.” Gang Starr’s “Above the Clouds” received an airing as a memorial tribute to that group’s Guru, and Wu-Tang also paid tribute during the show to “fallen soldiers” such as the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Nipsy Hustle, A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg and others.

Detroit also received plenty of love from the Wu, too, whether it was the Pistons and Tigers jerseys the MCs sported throughout the night or RZA shouting out Motown and saluting the city’s comeback. “This has always been a special place, ’cause y’all understand like we understand that…Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to f*** with,” he said in introducing the song of that name.

The more than 12,000 at Little Caesars certainly understood, and were audibly thrilled to raise their W-shaped Wu-Tang hand salutes (maybe) one last time. Wu-Tang may be going, but this show, like most of its predecessors, will not be forgotten.

Ethan Daniel Davidson is no stranger to releasing music — he’s put out 13 albums since the end of the ’90s, after all.

But his latest, “Cordelia,” represents a bit of creative sea change for the Birmingham-based singer, songwriter, author and philanthropist.

After recording his last several albums locally — with a crew of Detroit-area musicians that includes his wife, Gretchen Gonzales Davidson, His Name is Alive’s Warren Defever and others — Davidson journeyed to Mississippi to make the seven-track “Cordelia” as well as a follow-up, “Lear,” that will be released later this summer. He recorded at Zebra Ranch Recording Studio in Coldwater, Mississippi, opened by the late Jim Dickinson, whose credits include the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Replacements and many more. It’s now operated by his son Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, who co-produced “Cordelia” and “Lear” with David Katznelson.

The two played on it, as well, joined by musicians who have worked with Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris and others, with Rayfield “Ray Ray” Hollomon added to provide the sacred-style pedal steel sound Davidson wanted for the album.

“Every once in a while, you want to change and get out of your comfort zone,” Davidson, 55, the adopted son of the late Detroit Pistons and Guardian Industries owner Bill Davidson, explains while walking around his home. “It had been a long time, for me, working with the same group of people. I was ready to try something new, and you kinda challenge yourself, too, working with people you haven’t met before.

“It was a little bit of self-awareness for me. I had been letting myself slide a little bit, get too comfortable — not that I think I’ve put out any crap, but I wanted to freshen it up. I thought these songs were really good, and they deserved my attention.”

The Mississippi Delta also exerted a special pull, Davidson adds.

“I think Mississippi has always been one of my musical homes,” he says. “So much of the music I’ve absorbed my whole life come from Mississippi — other places, as well, but Mississippi factors big in my musical psyche. So just being down in that environment it was like, in a way, being back home.”

Davidson and the Mississippi gang recorded 25 songs, many dating from the COVID period or before, over the course of five days in the studio. One, “Your Old Key,” is a new version of a track from his 2012 album “Silvertooth,” which marked his return to record-making after a seven-year break. “The version that’s on ‘Silvertooth’ is, like, the first time that song was ever played. It was made up in the studio, in front of the microphone,” Davidson recalls.

“When I went down to Mississippi, these guys had listened to some of my back catalog, and they wanted to record a few of those (songs), too, to see what would happen. We recorded a number of the old songs, but doing ‘Your Old Key’ again and putting a sped-up version on this album seemed to fit with what we wanted to do. The guys were like: ‘That’s a great song. It’s got great changes in it.’ I was very flattered by that. I always believed in it and thought it was a good song.”

The “Cordelia” crew also encouraged Davidson to open up and extend some of the song arrangements more — notably “Gasoline,” “a love song about a middle-aged arsonist who gets released from jail and reconnects with his old flame” — that stretches beyond the nine-minute mark.

“Just letting these guys play was something I hadn’t done in a really long time — not since the first album, I think,” notes Davidson, a Lahser High School and University of Michigan graduate who began writing music while living in Alaska during the 1990s. “I’m not a soloist. I don’t jam. But I do like to hear guys that can really do it, and do it well. I like being part of that. I’m just plugging along with my rhythm guitar behind the drummer and listening to everybody else.

“It’s something people haven’t heard from me in a long time. There’s a couple more like that on the (‘Lear’) record, too.”

The music remains a part of a broad creative universe for Davidson, who also executive produced the 2019 documentary “Call Me Bill: The William Davidson Story.” In addition to working with the William Davidson Foundation that his father founded, he’s also the board chairman for Detroit Opera and serves on the boards of the Detroit Institute of Arts and Motown Museum. And he maintains what he calls a “rabbinic side hustle” whose studies have led to a couple of books with another, inspired by the Leviticus passage about the Blasphemer, in progress.

“It’s all part of the same piece, in a way,” Davidson explains. “I regard my whole musical practice, or whatever it is, really being more about my own psychotherapy practice. It’s a way of figuring out what’s going on inside of me and healing myself. It’s about trying to understand what’s inside of me, unpack what’s inside of me.

“My attitude is if people like it, that’s great — and if people don’t like it, that’s great. (laughs) Whatever. I never cared about being some big star. It’s all just a way of expressing what’s inside me, and maybe somebody else will connect with it.”

Ethan Daniel Davidson celebrates the release of his new album, “Cordelia,” with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26 at the Detroit Public Theatre, 3960 Third Ave., Detroit. 313-974-7918 or ethandanieldavidson.com.

Few of music’s icons are, or have, demonstrated the art of aging with grace — and defiance — than Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.

The two Mount Rushmore-caliber singers, songwriters and song interpreters have logged more than 60 years of performing and recording each. On Friday night, June 20, at the Pine Knob Music Theatre they reprised their 2024 pairing at the top of Nelson’s annual Outlaw Music Festival bill, each of 65-minute their sets acknowledging the ravages of time (Nelson’s 92, Dylan 84) but still tapping into the creative drive that has kept each consistently on the road (again) throughout those decades.

Their methods are similar; both Nelson and Dylan (still basking in the triumph of last year’s biopic “A Complete Unknown”) have stripped their presentations down to stark core that frames the songs and their vocal performances within rudimentary arrangements. They still deploy sophisticated nuances and occasional bursts of virtuosity, but their approaches allow them to treat even their best-known tunes as living, breathing material open to re-interpretations both dramatic and subtle.

It’s not always crowd-pleasing; it wouldn’t be a Dylan show, after all, if some of the 13,000-plus fans at Pine Knob weren’t grumbling about the changes he made to favorites such as “Simple Twist of Fate” or “All Along the Watchtower.” But the ovations were strong throughout the night, in recognition of legendary stature as much as artistic adventure.

Earlier sets from Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and Trampled By Turtles showed that Nelson and Dylan have passed those lessons down to those following in their wake, while Kalamazoo’s Myron Elkins opened the nearly seven-hour show with a half-hour set that highlighted his just-released new album “Nostalgia For Sale” and brought Michigan-bred blues guitarist Larry McCray on for a number.

The sun came out for the first time just before Dylan, in a dark suit and open-neck white shirt, led his quintet on the stage for a mostly low-key 15-song exposition that found him in confident voice and showcased his acumen on piano (and occasionally harmonica) as the other musicians meandered around the melodies and loose structures that were delicate but never tentative. Dylan would often start a song on his own and let the band members work their way in — which worked particularly well on renditions of “Forgetful Heart,” “Under the Red Sky,” “Desolation Row,” “Love Sick” and a sinewy “Gotta Serve Somebody.”

As is his wont, Dylan sampled beyond his own songbook as well, covering George “Wild Child” Butler’s “Axe and the Wind” and Charlie Rich’s “I’ll Make It All Up to You” and slotting Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Share Your Love With Me” in front of Dylan’s own blues-celebrating “Blind Willie McTell.” The concluding “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” meanwhile, sent its own message — not to overthink what was being played, or how it was being performed, but to enjoy the music on its own merits, as well as another opportunity to experience a legend and his legendary work.

Nelson, meanwhile, hewed to the familiar as he and his acoustic quintet rolled through a spirited 21-song performance that also embraced his colleagues’ music and was loaded with hits; in fact, favorites such as “Whiskey River,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “On the Road Again” and “You Were Always on My Mind” were played within the first 10 songs and 20 minutes, a mark of just how deep a well Nelson was drawing from.

Despite battling an obvious cold (lots of coughing and nose-blowing), Nelson picked his shots throughout and delivered sturdy renditions of “Still is Still Moving to Me,” “I Never Cared For You” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” wringing solos from Trigger, the battered acoustic guitar whose tone at times also showed signs of wear and tear. And even when guitarist Waylon Payne took over lead vocals on songs such as Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues,” Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” Nelson stayed present and engaged, while longtime harmonicist Mickey Raphael provided accents and solos — as well as accordion during Tom Wait’s “Last Leaf.”

Defiance and celebration were themes as Nelson promised during that latter that “if they cut down this tree I’ll come back as a song.” He offered his wish to “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” and admonished music executives to “Write Your Own Songs,” then brought Rateliff, some Night Sweats and members of Trampled By Turtles back for a joyous medley of “Will the Circle Be Unspoken?” and “I’ll Fly Away.” And if there was a finality intended with “The Party’s Over” and Hank Williams “I Saw the Light,” there was no question Nelson will fly away on nothing but his own terms.

Head Pumpkin Billy Corgan delivers a smashing performance at Saint Andrew’s Hall

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It was a chance of scenery for Billy Corgan when the Smashing Pumpkins frontman performed Thursday night, June 19, at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit.

Less than 10 months ago — last Sept. 4 — he was on stage with the band a few blocks away at Comerica Park, playing for nearly 41,000 fans in an opening date for Green Day. On Thursday Corgan performed for about 40,000 fewer — but was even more exciting over the course of the two-hour-and-five-minute set.

This time the show was with a quartet Corgan dubbed Machines of God, which includes recent Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong. It was almost all Smashing Pumpkins, however, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its diamond-certified “Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” album as well as the 25th of the “Machina”/”The Machines of God and Machina II”/”The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music” package and further promoting last year’s “Aghori Mhori Mei.” That made it Smashing Pumpkins by another name, or the most valid Pumpkins tribute band in the world.

Either way it was a bona fide special night, and perhaps the most satisfying Corgan-related performance since perhaps the original “Melon Collie” shows back in 1995.

It was certainly a special night for Corgan, who sported his trademark ankle-length frock and was visibly relaxed in and charged by the intimate setting. “Standing on this stage brings back a lot of memories,” he told the packed Saint Andrew’s crowd, noting that his first time was in 1989 and also recalling the start of 1999’s Arising Tour there, “one of the greatest moments in Smashing Pumpkins history.”

“Detroit was the first city in the world to embrace my band, Smashing Pumpkins, so I will always be grateful for that,” noted Corgan, who shouted out original Saint Andrew’s booker Vince Bannon. “This is an amazing, wonderful city with such an incredible history, so it’s an honor to be here tonight, playing these songs.” (He later recalled a guitar was stolen from another show, in 1992, but subsequently recovered.)

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone at Saint Andrew’s who didn’t feel the same on Thursday, as Corgan and company shredded through a high-octane set that demonstrated his gift for knitting together power and melody, nuance and ferocity. It was also a demonstration of his guitar acumen, particularly with extended solos on epic treatments of “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” and the main set-closing “The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right).”

Following a grungey half-hour from Los Angeles’ Return to Dust, the Corgan crew tore into the night with the pummeling triplet of “Glass’ Theme,” “Heavy Metal Machine” and “Where Boys Fear to Tread,” the former declaring “I betrayed rock and roll” even as the group well-served its punky furor. The tour has included some first-ever performances of “Machina II’s” “Here’s to the Atom Bomb” and “White Spyder” — as well as “Aghori’s…” “Sighommi” and “Edin,” while bassist Jenna “Kid Tigrrr” Fournier sang lead on a rendition of Nancy Sinatra’s “You Only Live Twice” and joined Corgan for an acoustic duet on “Tonight, Tonight.”

Corgan also surprised the crowd by picking up the bass himself for “Glass and the Ghost Children.”

The real highlight came mid-show, however, with a trio of “Melon Collie” favorites. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “Muzzle” practically melted the walls at Saint Andrew’s, while during “1979” Corgan’s two oldest children — Augustus, nine, and Philomena, six — came onstage for a Sumo-style wrestling match “won” by the devil’s horn-flashing latter in a take-down.

Corgan kept the pedal down throughout the night, finishing with an encore of “Zero” and “Everlasting Grace.” There was nary a negative to be said — save by Corgan, who cracked that “it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say something negative.

“It may sound small, it may sound trite, it may sound petty, but since I’ve been playing this stage for 36 years, it is the same stage,” he explained, pointing out a center-stage spot “that they’ve never fixed in 36 (expletive) years. And I want to say that’s not a Detroit thing; it’s a Midwestern thing, where if it ain’t broke, don’t (expletive) fix it. But it is broke, and I wish they’d fix it so when I come back here in 36 years it’ll finally be proper.”

And you can bet everyone at Saint Andrew’s on Thursday will be happy to be back to see that.

Corgan performs again on Saturday, June 21, at the Intersection, 133 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Grand Rapids. 616-723-8571 or sectionlive.com.

Simple Minds is still very much an active band. In fact, its 20th studio album is in motion, according to frontman Jim Kerr.

But this year, the Scottish group is enjoying the 40th anniversary of an eventful 1985, which included the chart-topping hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the film “The Breakfast Club,” a performance at Live Aid and the release of its best-selling album, “Once Upon a Time.” Kerr’s oldest daughter — Yasmin, with the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde — was also born that year.

“You just can’t believe when you hear that it’s 40 years — there’s that for a start,” Kerr, 65, says via Zoom during Simple Minds’ first North American tour in seven years. “And then the other thing is you just feel so blessed after all this time that you’re allowed to get out and play, and in our case make people jump up and down.

“It’s just all so unexpected, in a sense.”

Kerr acknowledges that Simple Minds — including guitarist Charlie Burchill, the only other remaining founding member — was initially unsure about recording “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” He says the band felt “we had songs up our sleeve” for “Once Upon a Time” and was initially loathe to embrace something written by others. Nevertheless — and with a degree of pushing from its record company — the group took it on and felt able to make the song its own.

“What we brought to it was 10 years of playing live, and we put our heart and soul into it and we put our lifeblood into the record,” Kerr recalls. “It would’ve been a different song if OMD did it, or the Psychedelic Furs — it would’ve been a different record, rather. So it’s not our song, but it is our record.

“And lo and behold, here we are 40 years later, still talking about it.”

Simple Minds, Soft Cell and Modern English perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 21 at Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

Other music events of note this weekend (all subject to change) include …

FRIDAY, JUNE 20

• The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Pops series presents “Let’s Misbehave: The Songs of Cole Porter” with four shows through Sunday, June 22 at Orchestra Hall, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-576-5111 or dso.org.

• Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan headline this year’s Outlaw Music Festival 10th Anniversary Tour at 4 p.m. at Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Trampled By Turtles and Kalamazoo’s Myron Elkins also perform. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

• The New York rock quartet Brand New celebrates its 25th anniversary with two shows — tonight and Saturday, June 21 — at the Masonic Temple Theatre, 500 Temple St., Detroit. Doors at 7 p.m. 313-548-1320 or themasonic.com.

• The country duo Maddie & Tae performs at District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte. Doors at 7 p.m. Audrey Ray opens. district142live.com.

• Acclaimed singer-songwriters Will Sexton and Amy LaVere double-bill at 8 p.m. at the Trinity House Theatre, 38840 W. Six Mile Road, Livonia. 734-436-6302 or trinityhousetheatre.org.

• The New York trio Sunflower Bean plants itself at 8 p.m. at Third Man Records, 441 W. Canfield St., Detroit. 313-209-5205 or thirdmanrecords.com.

• The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival continues throughout the weekend, including a free Friday Night Live! performance at 7 p.m. in the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-833-7900 or dia.org.

• Indiana indie rock troupe Murder By Death brings its farewell tour to Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit. Doors at 6 p.m. 313-961-8961 or saintandrewsdetroit.com.

• Former WDIV news anchor Devin Scillian & the Arizona Sun will be up with the KufflinKs at 7 p.m. at the Cadieux Cafe, 4300 Cadieux Road, Detroit. 313-882-8560 or cadieuxcafe.com.

• The Crofoot complex celebrates its late staffer Justin Roettger with performances by Tyler Common, Greg and the Degends, Racquel Soledad and others, starting at 6 p.m. 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. Doors at 7 p.m. 248-858-9333 or thecrofoot.com.

• The Americana trio Barnaby Bright lights up at 8 p.m. at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion. 248-783-7105 or 20frontstreet.com.

• The Science Fair and Endless Vacation set up in the Garden Bowl Lounge, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Doors at 9 p.m. 313-833-9700 or themajesticdetroit.com.

• Seattle’s Bug Hunter and the Narcissist Cookbook arrive at the Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck. Doors at 6:30 p.m. 313-462-4117 or sanctuarydetroit.com.

• Summer Fest 2025 features Nurvcore, Through Our Eyes, Metal Mustangs and more at the Diesel Concert Lounge, 33151 23 Mile Road, Chesterfield Township. Doors at 6 p.m.  586-933-3503 or dieselconcerts.com.

• Pigeon Pit, Rent Strike, Popolis and Fat Angry Heads roost at Small’s, 10339 Conant, Hamtramck. Doors at 7 p.m. 3130873-1117 or smallsbardetroit.com.

• Jae Skeese and B.A. Badd throw down at El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Highway, Detroit. Doors at 7 p.m. 313-757-7942 or elclubdetroit.com.

• Guitarist Kris Kurzawa is in residence through Saturday, June 21 at the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, 97 Kercheval, Grosse Pointe. 313-882-5399 or dirtydogjazz.com.

• Trumpeter Karim Gideon and his Quartet plays through Saturday, June 21, at Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit. 313-961-2543 or cliffbells.com.

• Soraia & the Idiot Kids and SeaHag open the weekend at the Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit. Doors at 7 p.m. 313-500-1475 or thelagerhouse.com.

• The Roxy hosts The Pretenders Tribute at 8 p.m. 401 Walnut Blvd., Rochester. 248-453-5285 or theroxyrochester.com.

• Baltimore singer-songwriter Cris Jacobs plays at 8 p.m. at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. Lost Mary opens. 734-761-1818 or theark.org.

• The 2025 Detroit Jazz Festival All-Stars Generation Sextet gathers for shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Blue Llama Jazz Club, 314 S. First St., Ann Arbor. 734-372-3200 or bluellamaclub.com.

• Virtual: Billy Strings livestreams at 7:30 p.m. from Lexington, Kentucky, and again on Saturday, June 21, for subscribers to nugs.net.

• Virtual: The jam band Goose livestreams at 7:30 p.m. from Cleveland, and on Saturday. June 21 from Canandaigua, New York, for subscribers to nugs.net.

• Virtual: Umphrey’s McGee premieres its April 20 performance in Marrakech, Morocco, at 8 p.m. for subscribers to nugs.net.

• Virtual: “American Masters — Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” premieres nationwide at 9 p.m. on PBS. Check pbs.org/americanmasters for local stations and showtimes.

• Virtual: The Gibson Sisters host a “Slumber Party” at 9 p.m., streaming via veeps.com.

SATURDAY, JUNE 21

• Royal Oak Live! a two-day music festival, starts at 1:30 p.m. and again on Sunday, June 22 at Centennial Commons, 204 S. Troy St. Performers include Kim Waters, Ben Sharkey, Alexander Zonjic, Paul Taylor, Special EFX and others. 248-547-4000 or royaloakchamber.com.

• A Flock of Seagulls headlines the I Love the 80’s tour, joined by Bow Wow Wow and Animotion at 7 p.m. at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 Atwater St. at Chene, Detroit. 313-393-7128 or TheAretha.com.

• Hit-making songwriter and producer David Foster and trumpeter Chris Botti, along with vocalist (and Foster’s wife) Katharine McPhee, team up at 8 p.m. at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St., Detroit. 313-237-7464 or detroitopera.org.

Diverse musical trio bring their happy music to Detroit

• Alabama-born vocalist Lamont Landers has hit the road and comes to the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. The Vig Arcadia opens. Doors at 7 p.m. 248-544-1991 or themagicbag.com.

• Last Night Saved My Life celebrates the release of a new album, "The First Hello," in the Pike Room at the Crofoot complex, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. Doors at 6 p.m. 248-858-9333 or thecrofoot.com.

• A pair of duos — the Rough and Tumble and Flagship Romance — team up at 8 p.m. at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion. 248-783-7105 or 20frontstreet.com.

• Toed hits the stage at the Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, supported by Strictly Fine and Sancho. Doors at 7 p.m. 248-820-5596 or thelovingtouchferndale.com.

• The Virginia thrash group Deceased joins Jail and Mortal Disguise at 7 p.m. at the Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, Hamtramck. 313-462-4117 or sanctuarydetroit.com.

• The Soap Girls, Decyhered and Over Medicated trip-bill at 7:30 p.m. at the Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Road, Westland. 734-513-5030 or tokenlounge.com.

• Millyz brings his Blanco 7 Tour to town at El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Highway, Detroit. Doors at 8 p.m. 313-757-7942 or elclubdetroit.com.

• True Devil, Tangerine Time Machine and eight others perform on two stages for Rock N Core at the Diesel Concert Lounge, 33151 23 Mile Road, Chesterfield Township. Doors at 5:30 p.m. 586-933-3503 or dieselconcerts.com.

• Another set of duos — Miles and Mafaie, and Dave Boutette and Kristi Lynn Davis — pair up at 8 p.m. at the Trinity House Theatre, 38840 W. Six Mile Road, Livonia. 734-436-6302 or trinityhousetheatre.org.

• Ann Arbor is among the cities taking part in the global Make Music Day, with performances in and around the area all day long. Find schedules and other information via makemusicday.org.

• The Out Loud Chorus performs a 1 p.m. matinee at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. The trio Darlingside, along with Clovers Daughter, follows at 8 p.m. 734-761-1818 or theark.org.

• The Sean Dobbins Quintet plays at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at the Blue Llama Jazz Club, 314 S. First St., Ann Arbor. Guitarist Noah Hogan and his Quartet follow with a 10:30 p.m. late-nighter. 734-372-3200 or bluellamaclub.com.

• Virtual: It's a double shot Oasis' Liam Gallagher as his "Live at Knebworth — Concert Film" streams at 3 p.m. and a "Knebworth Documentary" follows at 5 p.m. both via veeps.com.

• Virtual: The 2020 concert film "Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace" returns to stream at 3 p.m. via veeps.com.

SUNDAY, JUNE 22

• Keith Urban brings his High and Alive Tour to town at 7 p.m. at Pine Knob Music Theatre, 33 Bob Seger Drive, Independence Township. He'll be joined by Chase Matthew, Alana Springsteen and Karley Scott Collins. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.

Keith Urban’s rolling with new album, tour and TV show 

• Detroit's own Suicide Machines joins Less Than Jake, Fishbone and Bite Me Bambi on the Summer Circus Tour stop at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St. Doors at 6 p.m. 248-399-2980 or royaloakmusictheatre.com.

• The Detroit Blues Society hosts its International Blues Challenge showcase at 3 p.m. at the Cadieux Cafe, 4300 Cadieux Road, Detroit. 313-882-8560 or cadieuxcafe.com.

• The world music octet In the Tradition performs at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. at Cliff Bell's, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit. 313-961-2543 or cliffbells.com.

• Lauren Sanderson drops in at the Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. Doors at 7 p.m. Emeryld opens. 248-820-5596 or thelovingtouchferndale.com.

• Bega, Captain Tallen and the Benevolent Entitites, Conor Lynch and Jackamo stack up at 7 p.m. at the New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Jos Campau, Hamtramck. 313-638-1508 or thenewdodgelounge.com.

• The all-female tribute band the Iron Maidens rocks at 6:30 p.m. at the Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Road, Westland. 734-513-5030 or tokenlounge.com.

• The Nashville quartet Birdtalker finishes the weekend at 7:30 p.m. at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. Curtis Ford opens. 734-761-1818 or theark.org.

• William Hill III presents solo piano performances at 6 and 7:30 p.m. at the Blue Llama Jazz Club, 314 S. First St., Ann Arbor. 734-372-3200 or bluellamaclub.com.

• Virtual: Sweden's Ghost streams "Rite Here Rite Now — All Access Watch Party" at 8 p.m. via veeps.com.

More than 50 years on, these are fresh times for “The Wiz” — if not entirely a brand new day.

The current touring production of the seven-time Tony Award-winning musical — which staged its first preview performances in Detroit during 1974 — straddles a line between revival and reimagination, with changes both substantial and subtle but still staying true to the spirit of a Big Broadway Musical.

Proof of that is in the extravagant dance production pieces, primarily during Act II, and Dana Simone’s lung-busting performances, as Dorothy, of torchy anthems such as “Soon As I Get Home,” “Wonder, Wonder Why” and “Home.”

But this take on “The Wiz” — directed by Schele Williams, with music supervision by Joseph Joubert and “new material” by Amber Ruffin — streamlines and contemporizes the African-American take on Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

There are crisp new sections of dialogue, particularly smack talk that blends 1970s and 2020s attitudes and modern musical flavors — the latter particularly evident as the “Matrix”-like “The Emerald City” sequence that opens the second act moves from disco to clubby EDM flavors. There’s also a little more steam-punk in the scenery this time, with a floor-to-ceiling video screen that gives the production greater visual depth.

Weighing in at a tidy hour-and-50-minutes, plus intermission, the new “Wiz” loses a few scenes and songs (bad news for fans of the Funky Monkeys) without compromising the narrative. And, of course, you’d still be hard-pressed to find a more joyous moment in all of theater than the Luther Vandross-composed “Everybody Rejoice”/”Brand New Day” couplet after the death (is that really a spoiler alert?) of evil witch Evillene — staged this time as a “Hair”-like exposition of hippie bonhomie.

The good news is that this tale as old as (post-industrial) time still works, from the bullet-proof story itself to the original songs from Charlie Smalls and others. And it has a solid cast, from Simone’s Dorothy to the 14-member dance company, to deliver those goods with theater-filling charisma.

They fill “The Wiz” with a series of show-stopping moments, starting with Simone and Kyla Jade’s (Aunt Em) “The Feeling We Once Had.” Tin Man D. Jerome’s “What Would I Do If I Could Feel” is a soulful highlight, while Kyla Jade, as Evillene, lights things up with the tambourine-shaking New Orleans romp through “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.” And Alan Mingo Jr. is, as he’s supposed to be, a scene-stealer as Wiz, channeling his inner Samuel L. Jackson during performances of “Meet the Wiz” and “Y’all Got It.”

Coming on the heels of the successful movie adaptation of “Wicked,” “The Wiz” is a reclamation of the first iteration of the story — as familiar now as it was audacious during the mid-70s. And it proves that you can go “Home” again, even if the place has been remodeled a bit since the last time we were there.

“The Wiz” runs through June 29 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. 313-872-100 or broadwayindetroit.com.

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David Foster acknowledges he and Chris Botti were “kind of stressed” about their first show together, which took place in February 2024 in Florida and also included Foster’s wife and “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee.

“We loved doing it,” Foster, 75, recalls via Zoom, with trumpeter Botti alongside him, “but we were like, ‘How does this mix together, all our different genres of music — Kat with her Broadway, me with my pop, Chris with his contemporary jazz?` And it just worked out great, and the audience seemed to be with us every step of the way.

“And we thought this is something we can work on a bigger scale, so here we are.”

The three have embarked on a 12-city tour that, as Foster indicates, covers a diverse range of material. He’s won 16 Grammy Awards as a performer, producer, arranger and songwriter for the likes of Chicago,  Boz Scaggs, Dionne Warwick, Paul McCartney, Michael Buble, Rod Stewart and many others. Foster also produced Botti’s latest album, “Vol. 1,” and composed music for the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical “Boop!”

Botti, 62  — a Grammy winner whose myriad credits include Sting, James Taylor, Barbra Streisand, John Mayer and others, in addition to 11 of his own albums — has worked in the studio with Foster since 2001 and says the two are kindred spirits. “I paramountly love melody, and so does (Foster),” Botti explains. “David’s hooked me up with some great people like Josh Groban or Bocelli, of course. And to do that crossover takes a certain sensibility. I consider myself a trumpeter first, not, like, a ‘jazz musician.'”

Foster says he was “determined not to make another record,” but relented in 2023 when Botti asked him to helm “Vol. 1,” asking Foster to “just sit in the chair for six days. That’s all I need you for.” “True to his word,” Foster notes, “It was six days. I didn’t do much — just every once in a while maybe like, ‘Don’t play so much there’ or ‘You should fill that hole.’ Very, very light, breezy stuff.

“So, I don’t know, maybe there’s another six days like that in our life again. We’ll see.”

David Foster and Chris Botti, with Katharine McPhee, perform up 8 p.m. Saturday, June 21 at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St., Detroit. 313-237-7464 or detroitopera.org.