The full Shaky Knees Fest 2021 experience

Shaky Knees is Atlanta’s premiere alt and indie rock music festival and Friday would mark its triumphant return to the Peach State after a 2020 absence. Located in the heart of downtown in Central Park, the festival would be a sight for sore eyes for many hungry music fans excited to return to live music. […]

Eclectic Soundtrax Podcast, Ep. 60: The Dodies

Air date: Tuesday, November 2, 2021 Top Shelf Music is proud to present Episode 60 of Eclectic Soundtrax, hosted by Skunk Manhattan and Victor Ramos! On today’s podcast, Manhattan and Ramos chats with The Dodies, a two-piece garage rock duo from the southern desert of Israel. Yoni Avittan fronts the band as lead vocalist and […]

IDLES & Gustaf destroy Atlanta

Friday, October 22nd was one of those days that absolutely drained me. I left Nashville around 8 o’clock in the morning to drive four and a half hours to the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta. It would be an understatement to say that, by the end of the evening, I was completely exhausted. Anyone who […]

A night with Badflower at San Diego’s Observatory North Park

Badflower played a rare San Diego show at the North Park Observatory on October 17th! They don’t play in San Diego that often, so it was a pretty special show, with support from Dead Poet Society and Teenage Wrist. Dead Poet Society has a really unique sound that I really dig! They mostly played songs […]

Jimmy Eat World & Taking Back Sunday rock Paso Robles

Jimmy Eat World and Taking Back Sunday brought their double-headlining tour to Vina Robles Amphitheater in Paso Robles on October 19th, with special guests The Beaches. First up was The Beaches, an all-female Canadian rock band. I haven’t heard of this band, so it was cool to see someone new. I was most excited for […]

Two nights of Volbeat at San Diego’s Observatory North Park

Volbeat played not one, but two nights in San Diego on October 2nd and 3rd! After Volbeat sold out their first show, they decided to add another night (since San Diego clearly loves Volbeat!!). They had support from Twin Temple and Municipal Waste. Due to some house restrictions and confusion, I was not allowed to […]

Blue Ridge Rock Fest 2021: Day One

Day One of Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2021 in Danville, VA… This was quite an event to wrap up! Four days, six stages, 150 bands and mounds of obstacles every step of the way for promoter Jonathon Slye. Was Blue Ridge Rock Festival a shit show disaster or a brilliant success? We traveled from San Diego […]

Willow brings lifE to The Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles

Willow Smith brought her band to her hometown and performed at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theatre on 26th of September. As the part of her lifE Tour, she has been traveling all around the United States, coming to LA to remind us what pop punk means. With a bald head, an edgy outfit and a very […]

Phoebe Bridgers packs Berkeley’s Greek Theater

Who the fuck is Phoebe Bridgers? The skeleton onesie-wearing singer-songwriter female rocker was nominated for four GRAMMYs in 2020, including ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Best Alternative Album’ for sophomore full-length release, Punisher. Needless to say, Phoebe Bridgers is one to keep an eye on! Over the course of the pandemic, Bridgers dominated late night TV, […]

Rebel Rock Festival 2021

Day One of Rebel Rock was a great taste of what the weekend of metal and hard rock was going to bring… until it turned out to be the full enchilada. Unbeknownst to all, the festival was suddenly canceled on Day Two right before gates, citing “bad weather”. At least there was an epic Taco […]

Dropkick Murphys & Rancid take over Paso Robles

The Boston to Berkeley Tour, with Rancid and Dropkick Murphys, took a stop in Paso Robles, California at Vina Robles Amphitheater on October 13th, 2021. First up was a band by the name of The Bronx, which I was pretty excited for. A band formed in Los Angeles back in 2002, they came out onstage […]

An intimate show with Anti-Flag in Santa Cruz

On October 10th, I was fortunate enough to see Anti-Flag in Santa Cruz alongside some other amazing punk rock bands. Oxymorrons started off the night, with a mixture of hip hop and hardcore punk. Oxymorrons are the ‘babies’ of the tour, yet, the way they all connected with the crowd was amazing and spoke for […]

Enjoying Rebel Rock Fest 2021… until it was cancelled

Well…. Rebel Rock Fest didn’t go exactly as planned. 30 minutes before gates were supposed to open on the second day, we found out the whole weekend was cancelled!! We found out via an Instagram post, too, not a mass email or text… Instagram. Interesting. They said the reason for canceling the event was because […]