SXSW 2024 kicked off its first full day of music on March 12 with a smattering of must-see shows around town, including Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase — and kept the great tunes coming all through the five days that followed. Check out our best action-packed live shots and behind-the-scenes snaps from down in Austin.
Kevin Lyman
For Kevin Lyman, the return of Warped Tour to Montréal is about much more than revisiting the glory days of pop-punk, skate punk and emo. Instead, the founder of one of music's most important festivals is intent on restoring something he believes has been missing from music culture: a place where young people can discover new artists, meet like-minded fans and feel like they belong.
After years of insisting that Warped Tour was finished, Lyman changed his mind. “At a time like this, and there’s maybe this upheaval in society as a whole, we could bring people together through music,” Lyman says. “Warped was always kind of about the community and bringing people together.”
After officially ending Warped Tour’s touring run in 2018, Lyman seemed convinced the festival had reached its natural conclusion. ''I feel like I've done everything I can with the platform'', he told me at the time. He moved on to teaching at the University of Southern California, where he found himself looking at live music culture from a different perspective.
Then the pandemic changed everything. “As I was teaching, I felt that, meeting young people, there was kind of a void in their lives when they weren’t able to go out to live shows,” he says. “Festival culture was maybe not even on their minds.”
That realization became one of the reasons Lyman reconsidered the future of Warped Tour. When he later received a call from Pasquale Rotella, founder of Insomniac Events, about potentially bringing the festival back, the decision came quickly.
“I’m not a person that likes to overthink things,” he says. “He said, ‘Would you be interested in bringing your tour back?’ And I was like, ‘Sure, let’s figure it out.’ Literally within four days I was starting to put Warped Tour back together.”
The new incarnation of Warped Tour will arrive in Montréal later this month, marking the festival’s first Canadian appearance in more than a decade. For Lyman, returning to Canada feels particularly meaningful. The country has always been deeply connected to Warped Tour’s history, both through its fans and the artists who grew alongside the festival.
“I’ve always loved Montreal,” he says. “Montréal was like a second home to me in so many ways.” The city played a major role in the rise of Canadian pop-punk and alternative music. Lyman remembers early encounters with bands that would eventually become international names, often arriving at Warped Tour with little more than determination and a van. He specifically recalls the late and legendary promoter Donald K. Donald introducing him to young Canadian groups looking for their opportunity.
“He brought me Simple Plan, Sum 41, Billy Talent, and they show up in their little van,” Lyman says. “We just threw them up on stage. We always needed a few of those bands because everyone was always stuck at the border and we were trying to figure out how to get everyone across.”
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Those small opportunities became part of the festival’s identity: a place where established acts and future stars could exist side by side. That philosophy remains central to the festival’s return. While Warped Tour’s biggest names will draw crowds, Lyman believes the real magic has always happened away from the main stages.
“Of course you put some great bands on stages, that’s what all festivals do,” he says. “But everyone was interested in what was going on between the stages. All the nonprofits, the action sports, how the bands sold their own merchandise. It was different.”
That difference is something Lyman hopes a new generation discovers. For him, festivals are not simply about watching performances. They are about participation. “I want them to walk out feeling that they can be part of something, that they could create their own thing,” Lyman explains. “Maybe they’re going to pick up a guiatr, maybe they’re going to form a band. Maybe they’re going to start a nonprofit.”
The challenge, however, is bringing that experience back in an era where both artists and fans are facing rising costs. Lyman says the economics of touring have changed dramatically since Warped Tour last hit the road. “Bands live so hand to mouth now. The economics are so different.” Fans are dealing with similar pressures. Between ticket prices, hotels, flights and everyday expenses, attending a festival has become increasingly difficult for many people. That is why affordability has been a priority for the new Warped Tour.
“We can’t keep raising the ticket price to the fan because the fans are struggling,” Lyman says. “We’re trying not to be greedy. We’re trying to give people a good day during a tough time.” Keeping the festival accessible has required major adjustments. The original Warped Tour was famously operated by a small team travelling across the continent every summer. This time, Lyman is working with a much larger organization while leaning heavily on local partners.
“I have a lot more people to work with and empowering them to make those decisions,” he says. “You always want to have your mind open to learn.”
Despite the changes, Lyman insists the spirit remains intact. The food drives, nonprofit partnerships, artist interactions and unpredictable moments that defined Warped Tour are all returning. Because ultimately, the festival’s legacy has never only been about the bands that played it. It is about the people who discovered those bands, found their communities and carried those experiences forward.
Lyman admits he still hopes someone eventually comes along and creates something even bigger. “I’m still waiting for someone to kick my ass and do it better,” he jokes. “Maybe I’ll inspire a young person to do that.”
Neil Peart of the band Rush performs at Comiskey Park in Chicago on Aug. 19, 1979.
A new documentary about the late Neil Peart, Rush’s drummer and lyricist, will debut on Canada’s CBC network Sept. 23. Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple will tell Peart’s life story, and it will also feature interviews with Rush co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, as well with a crew of legendary drummers talking about his influence.
Also for the documentary, Lee and Lifeson filmed rehearsal hall performances of classic Rush songs with some well-known guest drummers, including the Police’s Stewart Copeland, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, and Tool’s Danny Carey. The pair previously played with Smith and Carey at a Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in 2022, but had never before performed with Copeland, who was close friends with Peart.
Peart, who is widely considered one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, died of cancer in 2020.
“[Peart] never rated himself as highly as everyone else did,” Copeland told Rolling Stone in 2020. “But he did very much feel the responsibility that he carried to be the God of drums. Kind of a burden, actually.”
“I was thinking about a Buddy Rich quote,” Peart told Rolling Stone in 2015. “He was asked, ‘What do you think about being the greatest drummer in the world? He said, ‘Ya know what, dummy’ — the way Buddy would say it — ‘you don’t achieve greatness. If you work hard at it, you achieve a certain amount of goodness and then you just try to preserve that.’ And he said, ‘I’ve never been happy with anything I’ve done but I keep trying.’ Bingo. You know?”
Lee and Lifeson are currently on the road with touring drummer Anika Nilles, with each concert featuring multiple tributes to Peart.
Slash and Chris Stapleton
A decade after Chris Stapleton first served as Guns N’ Roses’ opening act, the country singer joined the band onstage during their Toronto concert Wednesday to perform “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
Stapleton and Axl Rose shared lead vocals on GNR’s rendition of the Bob Dylan classic, with Stapleton
— in town for his own Toronto show Thursday night at Rogers Stadium, the same venue as GNR’s gig — also providing rhythm guitar as Slash embarked on a lengthier-than-usual solo:
Roughly a decade ago, Stapleton served as Guns N’ Roses one-off opener at the band’s concert at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium concert in July 2016. “When I was a kid, if you’d have told me I’d be up here playing before Guns N’ Roses, I’d have called you a liar,” Stapleton told the crowd that night.
In addition to winning over GNR fans, Stapleton was also “summoned” backstage to meet Rose himself, who he called “a gentleman.” “[Rose] was great. Very polite and gracious and we got to say hi for a few minutes,” Stapleton told Rolling Stone in July 2016. “I’m sure he was tired and had to go get cleaned up before the buses or planes rolled out, but he was a gentleman and we had a brief conversation about music and both went on our way. It was a good night.”
Stapleton also made an impression on Slash, who later invited the country singer to appear on his 2024 solo album Orgy of the Damned, with Stapleton providing vocals on a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.”
Veeps, the livestreaming platform founded by Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden and now majority-owned by Live Nation Entertainment, has reportedly eliminated much of the editorial staff behind Alternative Press, BrooklynVegan, Revolver and Goldmine, marking another major shift in the increasingly fragile music media landscape.
The four publications remain online, but their editorial teams and regular contributors have largely departed, bringing an end to the day-to-day operations that shaped their coverage and communities over the years.
Each publication played a distinct role in documenting different corners of music culture. Founded in 1985, Alternative Press became one of the defining publications for alternative, punk, emo and hardcore scenes, covering the rise of bands including My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and, ironically, Good Charlotte. For generations of fans (and a vast majority of music writers) the magazine served as a guide to emerging artists and underground movements before they reached the mainstream.
BrooklynVegan, launched in 2004, became one of the most influential independent music websites of the indie era, with a focus on new artists, underground scenes and live music coverage. Its concert photography, festival reporting and daily news updates made it a key resource for fans and musicians alike.
Revolver, founded in 2000, built a devoted following around hard rock and heavy metal, while Goldmine, established in 1974, was a trusted and respected source for collectors, vinyl enthusiasts and fans of classic rock history.
The changes come as music media continues to face significant economic challenges. Over the past decade, many publications have reduced staff, moved away from traditional editorial models or shifted toward branded content and other revenue streams as advertising revenue has declined.
For independent and specialist music outlets, this is a heavy blow. While streaming services and social media platforms have transformed how audiences discover artists, traditional music journalism has continued to play a vital role in providing context, criticism and long-form storytelling.
Veeps entered the publishing space after acquiring Alternative Press in 2022, later adding Revolver and other music media brands to its portfolio. The company’s expansion into editorial was thought to be part of a trend of entertainment companies investing in direct relationships with fans through content, live events and digital platforms, something Veeps would have been well positined to do. After Veeps was acquired by Live Nation in 2023, the company became part of one of the largest entertainment organizations in the world, with operations spanning concert promotion, venues, ticketing and artist services.
The restructuring of Veeps’ editorial operations fuels the ongoing uncertainty surrounding music journalism at a time when audiences increasingly consume music news through social platforms, newsletters and creator-driven channels. For publications built around specialized communities, maintaining a dedicated editorial staff has become increasingly difficult.
The Madden brothers built their early career singing about the vacuity of celebrity culture. They now lead a company that created a problem even they couldn’t have imagined all those years ago: what happens when every part of music, from concerts to content, becomes part of a larger corporate machine.
Every generation of music has been preserved by people who cared enough to document it before there was money attached. Even when they didn’t necessarily like or care for it. The writers covering basement shows, regional festivals and strange new scenes are often the ones creating the historical record. Dozens of journalists doing some of the most crucial reporting in the music industry are now left without a job, because a company that profits off that industry doesn't consider independent and up-and-coming artists to be valuable or profitable enough.
The tragedy is not that a corporation decided four important music publications were no longer worth the investment. That has become an all-too-familiar story; ask anyone who works in media. The true tragedy is that the people who spent years documenting the culture were treated as disposable by the very industry they helped build.
In 2002, the Madden brothers asked us to question a world where money could buy influence, credibility and attention. Nearly a quarter-century later, the music business is still wrestling with that issue. The difference is that now, fewer people remain to write about it.
Rush fans will have an entire weekend to celebrate the return of one of Canada’s most influential rock bands as Toronto prepares for Rush Day 2026, a three-day gathering honouring the group’s music, history and enduring legacy.
Taking place from August 7 to 9 at Henderson Brewing Company, the celebration coincides with Rush’s long-awaited return to the stage in their hometown. The band’s 2026 Fifty Something tour marks a new chapter for Rush, with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson performing together again following the end of their touring career in 2015 and the passing of legendary drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in 2020.
With Rush back in town, Toronto will become a meeting place for fans travelling from across Canada and around the world. The weekend will feature a series of events designed to celebrate every corner of the band’s legacy, from its music and artwork to the dedicated community that has kept Rush alive across generations.
The celebrations begin on Friday, August 7, with the opening of the official Rush merchandise pop-up. Running through Sunday, August 9, the shop will offer fans a chance to pick up exclusive items while taking part in a weekend-long gathering in the city where Rush’s story began.
The centrepiece of the weekend, Rush Day, takes place Saturday, August 8, bringing together fans for a full day of programming. The event will feature appearances from people connected to the band’s history, including Dale Heslip, director and stage designer behind the Fifty Something tour, and Bruce “Frenchie” French, Rush’s longtime personal chef and nutritionist.
Throughout the weekend, attendees can take part in Rush trivia, karaoke, a pinball tournament, a tattoo competition, raffles, fan activities and a pop-up shop. Henderson will also host guided tasting sessions featuring its Rush-inspired beers, including a limited-edition Rush Day 2026 release.
This fourth annual Rush Day gives the band’s fanbase a chance to gather in the city where Rush was formed while the group itself returns to the stage. The prog-rock veterans take over the Scotiabank Arena from August 7 to 13. CBC has also announced a forthcoming documentary on late drummer Neil Peart, who is now replaced by Anika Nilles.
