Illustration by Tiffany Chin
Bruce Springsteen postponed shows on the E Street Band’s current tour more than once owing to vocal issues and peptic ulcer disease. Last month, Aerosmith not only cancelled its tour but retired from the road altogether after singer Steven Tyler failed to recover from a fractured larynx suffered in 2023. Tours by the Black Keys and Jennifer Lopez were called off because of weak ticket sales. All the more reason to treasure the shows that do happen, including the following highly anticipated concerts that promise to be among the best of the fall season.
Charli XCX with Troye Sivan
Charli XCX arrives for the Mugler H&M Global Launch Event on April 19, 2023, in New York City.ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
Charli XCX is ending brat summer with the world awash in her latest album’s trademark lime green. The most successful album of her career so far, brat is taking her to massive rooms across North America in the coming weeks. Much of brat’s rollout has benefitted from carefully timed collaborative remixes to extend its momentum – so perhaps it’s worth wishing for some surprises for her two Canadian dates. Sept. 16, Laval, Que., Place Bell; Sept. 18, Toronto, Scotiabank Arena. Josh O’Kane
Sting
A North American tour that kicks off at the Fillmore Detroit next week features Sting with drummer Chris Maas and guitarist Dominic Miller. It’s called Sting 3.0, and, if memory serves, the Don’t Stand So Close to Me singer has had some success with the trio format previously. Sept. 20, 21, 22, 24 and 25, Toronto, Massey Hall. Brad Wheeler
Fred again..
Since surging into the public consciousness during the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic music’s most earnest Englishman has found friends in fantastically high places – from Skrillex to Brian Eno – and quickly earned a reputation as a go-to festival closer. The pulsing producer, whose samples of everyday life using voice notes and social videos ground his music in a new kind of vernacular, is finally taking his highly anticipated show to Toronto. Oct. 3 and 4, Toronto, Scotiabank Arena. JOK
André 3000
Seventeen years after the last Outkast album, one of history’s most famous rappers released the ambient-slash-spiritual-jazz album New Blue Sun this year to show the world his flute playing. And … it rips. Just, like, absolutely. Atlanta native André 3000 started his career subverting the public’s expectations of rap’s centre of gravity, became one of the genre’s finest technicians, then scored the biggest single of his career Hey Ya!, by not really rapping at all. Now he’s subverted expectations again with woodwind. His tour so far has included much improvising – so Vancouver fans should rush to get tickets for a once-in-a-lifetime show. Oct. 11, Vancouver, Queen Elizabeth Theatre. JOK
MJ Lenderman & The Wind with various guests
The Asheville, N.C. singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman released one of this year’s most anticipated indie-rock albums, Manning Fireworks, earlier in September, and will be playing what will certainly be way-too-small venues across the country in support of that record in the coming months. The 25-year-old blends some of the jangle of college-rock with the twang of country – you could say he twangles – as his songs spill forth with clear-eyed character studies of pitiful people. She’s Leaving You and Joker Lips will probably be high up on song-of-the-year lists. Oct. 19, Toronto, Lee’s Palace; Oct. 21, Théâtre Fairmount, Montreal; Feb. 21, Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver. JOK
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Springsteen performs on stage with guitarist Steven Van Zandt and drummer Max Weinberg on July 18, 2023.HANS KLAUS TECHT/The Associated Press
“We’re not doing any farewell tour,” Bruce Springsteen told an audience in Philadelphia this summer. The playwright Shakespeare wrote something about doth protesting too much; rock poet Springsteen wrote about riding through mansions of glory at night. Shakespeare’s dead, and Springsteen was born to run. Best believe the Boss when he denies that the current E Street tour will be the last. Fall arena dates beginning Oct. 31, in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. B.W.
John Adams, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
One of classical music’s pre-eminent living composers takes to the podium in Toronto to oversee a program that includes a portion of his famed opera Nixon in China, the Canadian premiere of his new work, Frenzy, and his arrangement of Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire. (Vancouver area fans of Adams’s works will want to know about a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert that features the composer’s Gnarly Buttons, along with Philip Glass’s Symphony No.11 and the Canadian premiere of Steve Reich’s Jacob’s Ladder, on Dec. 6.) Nov. 6 and 9, Toronto, Roy Thomson Hall. B.W.
Taylor Swift
Swift performs on stage as part of her Eras Tour in Lisbon on May 24, 2024.ANDRE DIAS NOBRE/AFP/Getty Images
What, did you think we weren’t going to include Taylor Swift’s multinight residencies in two of Canada’s biggest venues? Someone you love is probably going, or they want to go, or they’re begging you for hundreds of dollars to go. It’s going to be great. Right? We’d be fools not to jump on the hype. Fools. Fools! (Editor’s note to Josh: Is a Swiftie pointing a knife at you right now? If so, give us some kind of sign.) Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23, Toronto, Rogers Centre; Dec. 6, 7 and 8, Vancouver, BC Place. JOK
Barbara Hannigan
The conductor/soprano from Nova Scotia has led some of the world’s greatest orchestras and she has sung opera in the most illustrious houses around. For a coming recital tour, however, the Grammy Award-winning Barbara Hannigan performs works by Scriabin, Messiaen and John Zorn with pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Nov. 26, Montreal, Bourgie Hall; Nov. 28, Toronto, Koerner Hall; Nov. 30, Vancouver, Chan Centre; Dec. 2, Victoria, McPherson Playhouse. B.W.
Cécile McLorin Salvant
An elite vocalist with an eclectic repertoire, unexpected approaches and a delightful touch of Sarah Vaughan, the French-American jazzer Cécile McLorin Salvant has blown people’s minds ever since she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists in 2010 at the age of 21. Her latest album, last year’s Mélusine, earned a pair of Grammy nominations. For this trip across the border, she performs with a trio. Nov. 30, Toronto, George Weston Recital Hall. B.W.