fountains-of-wayne-adam-schlesinger
Fountains of Wayne

amazing live videos of Fountains of Wayne, Iron Maiden, Deerhunter & more to watch while every show is cancelled

Basically no shows are happening due to the coronavirus outbreak (though some artists are doing livestreams instead), but if you’re already jonesing to see a show, or just need a brief distraction from the insanity of the world right now, thankfully there’s YouTube which has an amazing array of live footage from throughout the history of pop music, from clips from concert films, TV performances and other pro-shot footage, to tons of fan-shot video from shows. If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve been picking some of our favorites. Here are five more:

Fountains of Wayne in Chicago, 2005

We lost Adam Schlesinger to COVID-19 yesterday, and his career was deep and wide. He played in rock bands but was also an extremely in-demand songwriter, working in pop, stage and screen. He’s maybe best known as one half of Fountains of Wayne, the ’90s/’00s power-pop band that married big hooks with wry tales of suburban ennui and awkward romance. “Stacy’s Mom” was their Top 40 hit, but most of FoW’s songs coulda been singles, as this 2005 live show from Chicago shows. Of course they play that one, but also “Red Dragon Tattoo,” “Radiation Vibe,” “Denise,” “Sink to the Bottom,” “Valley Winter Song,” “Sick Day,” ‘I’ve Got a Flair,” and more. The band, which includes singer/co-writer Chris Collingwood, The Posies’ Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, are a tight unit and they sound great here. If you’ve never dug through Fountains of Wayne’s catalog, this is not a bad place to start. [Bill Pearis]

Iron Maiden @ The Beat Club, Bremen, DE, 1981

Ever since BV started doing these live show video posts, I knew I wanted to share an Iron Maiden one. But with a career as massive as theirs and with no shortage of live footage to be enjoyed, I’ve agonized privately about which one I’d commit to. So today I present to you one of my all-time favorites; Iron Maiden live at Beat Club Germany, 1981, during their “Killers” tour. This is Maiden at a pivotal moment in their career. Career-wise, they have just started tearing full speed down the runway before launching themselves into the stratosphere of all-time greatest metal bands. This video features one of my favorite iterations of the band, with Paul Di’Anno absolutely killing it as front man, while behind the kit Clive Burr (RIP) serves as the rock-solid backbone of the band. With Dave Murray and Adrian Smith on guitars, and founder Steve Harris on bass, you can’t go wrong. It’s such a raw, honest, no frills performance devoid of any the elaborate stage distractions they’re known for today. It’s as punk rock as it is metal and an essential document in the bands varied history. [Jeff Bergstrom]

Deerhunter @ Mezzanine in San Francisco – 2/24/09

Deerhunter have always been a great live band, but my favorite lineup of the band was when the late Josh Fauver was on bass, and the live shows they were playing with him in the late 2000s and early 2010s were some of their most mesmerizing sets. As they frequently did around then, they opened this 2009 show with Cryptograms‘ title track, with a huge cloud of fog and pastel-colored lights obscuring the band almost entirely. It turned the trippiness up to 11 right off the bat and sucked you right in to this killer set full of favorites from the era like “Cover Me (Slowly),” “Agoraphobia,” “Nothing Ever Happened,” “Famous Last Words,” and more. [Andrew Sacher]

Grateful Dead @ The Closing of Winterland – New Year’s Eve, 1978

What can really be said about the now-legendary New Year’s Eve concert that the Grateful Dead played as the final show at Bill Graham’s San Francisco venue Winterland Arena that hasn’t been said already? They played three sets and two encores over the course of about five hours, and they were in a relaxed but celebratory form and sounded great all night. Not to mention this show included the re-introduction of “Dark Star,” which hadn’t been played in over four years. This playlist doesn’t have the complete five hours (which you can buy on DVD), but it should occupy a very good chunk of your time. [Andrew Sacher]

Robyn in Stockholm, Sweden, 2011

This Body Talk-era show catches Robyn at the peak of her prowess in delivering ecstatic dancefloor catharsis. Especially in our current socially-isolated times, you couldn’t do much better than cranking it up and dancing on your own. [Amanda Hatfield]

For more of our favorite live videos, head here.