Top Live Acts of 2019

Consequence of Sound: Maybe Grimes is right. Maybe live music will soon be obsolete. That was what she so boldly predicted during a November appearance on the Mindscape podcast, a pronouncement that produced one of the year’s most entertaining Twitter beefs (featuring cameos from both Zola Jesus and Holly Herndon) along with some genuine debate within the music world. Why sweat at a festival or cram into a venue when you’ve got Spotify and an Oculus Rift? A future ruled by algorithmic playlists and AI performers may be inevitable, but it hasn’t quite arrived in 2019. In our actual present, concerts remain alive and well, at every scale and in every venue.