Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

February 12, 1924 The "Experiment In Modern Music" concert takes place at Aeolian Hall in New York, where a sold out crowd checks out a relatively new music called Jazz. George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is performed in public for the first time at the show with Gershwin performing on piano with the orchestra.

August 8, 1923 A fourteen-year-old clarinet player named Benny Goodman lands his first professional gig, playing for a cruise ship operating on Lake Michigan near Chicago.

November 9, 1858 Today marks the first performance of the New York Symphony Orchestra.

December 29, 1812 Opus 96: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major by Ludwig van Beethoven is first performed.

April 2, 1800 Opus 21: Symphony No. 1 in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven is first performed in Vienna for Baron Gottfried Van Swieten.

July 24, 2022 Joni Mitchell makes a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, performing a full set for the first time since 2000. Performing from a chair (Mitchell had a brain aneurism in 2015), she's joined by Brandi Carlile for most of the set.

January 22, 2021 In their hometown of Oklahoma City, Flaming Lips pull off the first COVID-protected space bubble concert, with audience members enclosed in plastic bubbles like the kind frontman Wayne Coyne often uses to walk over the crowd.

October 24, 2020 Billie Eilish pulls off Where Do We Go? The Livestream, the first large-scale virtual concert with extended reality (XR) effects, which immerse and interact with the performers (Eilish, her brother Finneas, and drummer Andrew Marshall), and shift scenes from song to song. Tickets cost $30.

June 14, 2020 BTS draw about 750,000 viewers (in 107 countries) to their Bang Bang Con livestream concert, earning an estimated $20 million in ticket sales, far more than what a traditional concert could earn. It proves that livestream shows, which have mostly relied on donations, can be immensely profitable as ticketed events.

May 18, 2020 Country singer Travis McCready holds the first post-pandemic concert at Temple Live in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fans are spaced out in "pods," required to wear masks, and have their temperatures taken before they are admitted.

March 17, 2020 With St. Patrick's Day festivities shut down due to the coronavirus, Dropkick Murphys livestream a free concert from an empty venue in Boston. Over the next few weeks, many other artists follow suit, using livestreaming as a way to perform for fans during lockdown.More

August 25, 2018 During her Reputation tour, Taylor Swift headlines a concert at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, where Tim McGraw and Faith Hill join her onstage for a performance of her seminal country hit "Tim McGraw."

July 26, 2018 Paul McCartney plays a gig at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles did about 300 shows in the early '60s. At one point, he chastises the crowd for using their phones.

July 7, 2018 The Cure stage a 40th anniversary show in London's Hyde Park as part of the annual British Summer Time concert series. Frontman Robert Smith chose the lineup of opening acts, including Slowdive, Editors, Ride, Interpol, Goldfrapp, and The Twilight Sad.

May 30, 2018 At FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, Styx return "Mr. Roboto" to their setlist for the first time since their 1983 Kilroy Was Here tour, which caused enough discord to break up the band for seven years.

April 23, 2018 After a screening of her documentary Horses: Patti Smith And Her Band at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Bruce Springsteen joins Smith to perform "Because The Night." Springsteen wrote the music and chorus lyrics to that song in 1976, and Smith filled in the verses a year later. When it appeared on her Easter album in 1978, it became her biggest hit.

May 12, 2017 To commemorate the 30th anniversary of their acclaimed 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, U2 embarks upon The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, with an opener in Vancouver, Canada. The band plays through the entire album, including rare treats "Exit" and "Trip Through Your Wires," which haven't been performed since the '80s, and a live first for "Red Hill Mining Town."

February 4, 2017 Black Sabbath play the final concert of their farewell tour at the Genting Arena in their English home city of Birmingham. Their final song of the night, "Paranoid," is streamed live on Facebook so fans around the world can witness the historic moment onstage.

March 25, 2016 Two weeks after Major Lazer made history as the first US act to perform in Cuba since democratic relations eased between the two countries, The Rolling Stones play their first-ever Cuba gig, performing a free show for 1.2 million fans at Havana's Cuidad Deportiva. The Stones spend around $7 million to finance the trip, which follows President Obama's historic visit to the island.

November 3, 2015 Months after 1000 singers and musicians in Cesena, Italy perform "Learn to Fly" in an effort to entice Foo Fighters to play there, the group complies, performing a concert in the city.

September 20, 2014 Lauryn Hill turns up an hour-and-a-half late for her show at the Brixton Academy, performs speeded-up remixes of her songs, and is booed by the crowd.

May 9, 2014 Hunter Hayes breaks the record for most concerts performed in different cities in a single day when he plays 10 shows in 24 hours.

March 28, 2014 Nas headlines the One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide festival at the Kennedy Center in New York City with a performance of his album Illmatic with the National Symphony Orchestra.

July 27, 2013 At Gillette Stadium in Boston, Taylor Swift brings out Carly Simon to sing with her on "You're So Vain," which like many of Swift's hits, takes aim at a famous ex. Swift claims that backstage after the show, Simon whispered in her ear the identity of the man she was singing about in "Vain."

April 26, 2013 X marks the spot for the Ohio-born Twenty One Pilots, who pledge their devotion to their hometown fans by getting "X" tattoos midway through a performance at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion in Columbus. Frontman Tyler Joseph tells the crowd: "This X is dedicated to you guys. Columbus, Ohio is where we're from and it will always be where we are from. Whenever someone asks what that X means, I am going to say this is for all of you."

November 8, 2012 Tragedy strikes at a Linkin Park concert in Cape Town, South Africa, when high winds cause scaffolding to collapse. This sends an advertisement tower plummeting into the crowd of fans in the parking lot after the show, killing one and injuring 19 more.

December 16, 2011 The Swedish House Mafia play the first ever electronic dance music show in New York's Madison Square Garden.

December 16, 2011 Yeah Yeah Yeahs host a special benefit concert for New York DJ and good friend Jonathan Toubin, who a week earlier was seriously injured in a car accident in Portland, Oregon.

December 10, 2011 At the last of four 30th anniversary concerts at The Filmore in San Francisco, Metallica are joined on stage by two original members: bass player Ron McGovney and guitarist Dave Mustaine.More

December 7, 2011 30 Seconds to Mars breaks the record for most shows performed during a single album cycle when they play their 300th concert in support of their album This Is War at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.