Events

15 must-see concerts at Boston’s top venues for spring 2026

From Van Morrison to Lily Allen, here's some of what’s in store for a music-drenched springtime in Boston.

This spring will see concert stops from (clockwise from top left) GWAR, Florence + The Machine, Van Morrison, Khalid, Lily Allen, and Snarky Puppy, among many others.

By Ed Symkus

12 minutes to read

The cold winter season is almost a thing of the past, but the happenings at local music venues are just starting to heat up. Upcoming as well as established artists are headed to town to share new sounds and, in some cases, dust off a few old hits. Here’s some of what’s in store for a music-drenched springtime in Boston.

(Sites include Berklee Performance Center, Club Passim, House of Blues, Leader Bank Pavilion, MGM Music Hall, Orpheum, Regattabar, Roadrunner, Scullers, TD Garden, Wang Theatre, and The Wilbur. Check out listings for suburban venues here; our small venues guide is coming soon. Note: Some tickets may only be available on secondary markets.)

Best rock concerts

Van Morrison at the Wang Theatre

It looks like all it took for Irish rocker Van Morrison to have yet another renaissance was to hit his 80s, which happened last summer, shortly after the release of his 47th album “Remembering Now,” and just a few months shy of the release of his new bluesy album, “Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge.” Morrison first hit the charts in the ’60s, as frontman for the band Them, made his name with solo albums including “Astral Weeks” (recorded while he was living in Cambridge), “Moondance,” “Into the Music,” and “Irish Heartbeat” (made with The Chieftains). Lilting ballads, catchy jazz, straight-ahead rock, Morrison has done it all. Tuesday & Wednesday, March 3 & 4, 7 p.m., Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston. $197-$840.

The Hives at House of Blues

Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist performs with his band The Hives while opening for the Foo Fighters at Fenway Park in 2024. – Matthew J Lee/Globe Staff

There’ve been some lineup changes in the three decades since The Hives formed in Sweden, but they’ve maintained everything that made them, well, The Hives. They still live in full-out rock mode, feature strong and hard playing, along with catchy and tuneful and often funny songs, and some terrific vocal harmonies. The video for the title track of their new album, “The Hives Forever Forever the Hives” has the band appearing as old (and then younger) men, decapitations, the eating of magic mushrooms, and pure, raucous aural joy. Friday, March 20, 8 p.m., House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. $59-$90.

GWAR at House of Blues

If you’re a fan of GWAR, you probably already have tickets. For the rest of you, here are some handy factoids: They’re best described as a thrash metal band, are said to be “interplanetary warriors who came to Earth to enslave and slaughter the human race,” put on shows that feature — aside from the music — bizarre costumes, faux pagan rituals, lots of stage blood and, on certain occasions, a big mechanical maggot. The band hails from Richmond, Virginia, where they started in 1984 (though there are currently no original members). Their newest record release is the 2025 EP “The Return of Gor Gor.” My favorite album title from them is 2009’s “Lust in Space.” And here are some tips from fans: They are very loud, so bring ear plugs. Wear a white shirt that you won’t mind having “dyed” by that fake blood. If you’re close to the stage, pack a towel in case you get soaked. Friday, March 27, 6:30 p.m., House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. $49-$118.

Florence + the Machine at TD Garden

Florence is the British singer and writer Florence Welch. The Machine is the band that’s been backing her since its founding in London in 2007. No one would challenge you if you called them an alternative rock group, but a few of the reasons they stand out from the pack is that their DNA also has some folk and pop and a tinge of classical baroque. There’s also Welch’s voice, with which she’s known for really belting out those songs. The band’s debut album “Lungs” came out in 2009. The newest — their sixth — was released last year. Among Welch and company’s career highlights are: a 2012 “MTV Unplugged” episode, earning their first Billboard number one — “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” — in 2015, following that up later in the year with a headlining spot at the Glastonbury Festival, and landing the song “Jenny Oldstones” in the final season of “Game of Thrones.” Sunday, April 19, 7:30 p.m., TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston. $260-$1131.

The SatchVai Band (Joe Satriani and Steve Vai) at Leader Bank Pavilion

They are guitar maestros, wizards, shredders, gods, gunslingers. You could fill a thesaurus with apt words. Bottom line is that Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are Long Islanders who have known each other since they were teenagers (they’re now in their 60s). Satriani, the elder by a few years, was initially Vai’s guitar teacher. On their roads to virtuosodom, they continued to sharpen their chops, fronted their own bands, and played together (most notably in Satriani’s G3 shows). They made it official as a duel-guitar team in 2024, cemented it with their full-band “Surfing with the Hydra” tour of Europe in 2025, and are now bringing it to the States. In these shows, brimming with speedy, melodic guitar work, they sometimes trade licks back and forth in songs, other times take solo spotlights, and often come up with sounds that you didn’t know guitars could make. A new album is done, and awaiting a release date. Wednesday, May 20, 7:30 p.m., Leader Bank Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., Boston. $35-$180.

Also of Note:

Best pop concerts

Lily Allen at the Orpheum

The mood in the audience at the British popster’s upcoming shows will at least partially depend on what period of her musical catalogue she chooses to pick songs from. If she goes with the upbeat earlier days — say the albums “Alright, Still” or “Sheezus” — there will be smiles in the seats. But if she only sticks with her 2025 release, “West End Girl” — filled with songs about a marriage (her own) gone bad — things might be a bit more somber. Allen is marking 20 years since her debut single “Smile” hit number one on the British charts. Her songs can be a mix of pop, reggae, and a bit of hip-hop, and their lyrics often get into storytelling. Though she’s sold a lot of records and filled rooms with concert fans, Allen has also taken hiatuses from the music scene to exercise her acting muscles in movies and on TV. She’ll be seen next in the film “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day.” Saturday & Sunday, April 11 & 12, 8 p.m., Orpheum, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston. $51-$269.

Also of Note:

Best singer-songwriter-folk concerts

Madison Cunnigham at the Wilbur

California singer-songwriter-guitarist-pianist Madison Cunningham was already playing guitar at age 7. Hitting her teen years, she began writing songs and playing them in front of appreciative audiences. Her fan base wasn’t at all surprised that in 2019 — when she was 22 — she landed a spot at the Newport Folk Festival and made her Verve-Forecast debut with the release of  “Who Are You Now,” which went on to be Grammy-nominated in the Best Americana Album category. More nominations would follow, in Folk Album, American Roots Performance, and Americana Performance categories, and she won the Best Folk Album statue for 2022’s “Revealer.” Cunningham’s current world tour features her 2025 release “Ace,” with songs that, at a recent concert, she referred to as “really dreary and sad.” But reports are that she’s been ending the shows with “Song in My Head,” which urges us to “do the best we can.” Saturday, April 4, 8 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston. $42-$87.

Lewis Capaldi at MGM Music Hall

Lewis Capaldi performs his new single on the roof of an Aldi supermarket in Nottingham, England last fall. – Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images

Something you cannot be sure of at a Lewis Capaldi concert is how much of it will have him accompanying himself on guitar, how much on piano, and how often he’ll just go to the middle of the stage and sing at a microphone. What you can be sure of is that the Scottish vocalist will bring out a deep, soothing rumble in the lower registers, and a sometimes gritty, sometimes sweet tone in the upper ones. All of his singing — and this is made abundantly clear on his anthemic ballads — is soulful and passionate. Among his hit songs are “Someone You Loved” from his debut album “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent,” and “Forget Me” from his follow-up album “Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent.” Obviously a fan of long titles, he later released the EP “To Tell the Truth I Can’t Believe We Got This Far.” Saturday & Sunday, April 18 & 19, 7:30 p.m., MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston. $90-$330.

Shelby Means at Club Passim

Well before Shelby Means released her self-titled first album as a solo artist last summer, she had set out on a long musical road that led to that milestone. Growing up in a bluegrass-influenced musical family — her dad plays banjo and guitar, her brother plays mandolin — she started on fiddle when she was 5, later moved on to guitar, then went even bigger when, at 14, she began playing upright bass. In the midst of all this string playing, she also sang in children’s choirs. These days, she’s winnowed things down to singing, playing bass, playing guitar, and writing songs. Along the way, she focused on bluegrass, first as a member of the Boston-based band Della Mae, and later in Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway, as well as getting into some folk-rock with her husband Joel Timmons in the duet Sally and George. But the new album sticks with what she knows best, a fact that’s proven when listening to her bluegrass cover of Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons.” Friday, May 1, 7 p.m., Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. $35.

Also of Note: 

Best country concerts

Ty Myers at Leader Bank Pavilion

Too many profiles of young country star Ty Myers have got it wrong. He is not from Austin, Texas. He is from Dripping Springs, Texas. OK, the air is cleared. The part about him being young is correct. He’s been playing guitar since he was 7, writing songs since 8, performing with his singer-songwriter dad since 11, and now, at 18, has opened for Willie Nelson, released a batch of hit singles — the one that put him on the map was “Tie That Binds” — and the 2025 album “The Select,” and recently completed recording a second album. In his rare downtime, he’s also an avid golfer. Although the music he’s put out so far is mostly country, it has nods toward rock and blues. In interviews, Myers has said that country has always been his main influence, but that his listening habits have also included Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. One has to wonder what we’ll hear on his upcoming second album, the tantalizingly titled “Heavy on the Soul.” Thursday, May 28, 7:30 p.m., Leader Bank Pavilion, 200 Northern Ave., Boston. $108-$557.

Also of note:

Best jazz concerts

The John Scofield Trio at the Regattabar

I’ve interviewed veteran jazz guitarist John Scofield numerous times over the years. Here are a few random quotes from those chats:

  • “When I got a guitar at 11, it became my main thing. I’m not even sure what my reasons were. I wasn’t so good at baseball, and this made people like me. And I loved music. By the time I was 15, I wanted to be a musician. I just wanted to be in that world.”
  • “The first guitar was an acoustic, a rental from a music store. After a few months of renting that, I bought a Hagstrom electric with my own paper route money. I was 12.”
  • “When I was at Berklee, I did little gigs around town that paid nothing, in weird places that disappeared. I played a little bit at strip joints in the Combat Zone, and we would also do sort of little jazz gigs at, like, some lounge in Lynn or somebody’s bar mitzvah.”
  • “I’ve been playing the same guitar since 1981. The Ibanez AS2000. You’ve just gotta get a guitar you like and you’re comfortable with, and stay with it. Then you learn what it does and it learns about you, hopefully.”
  • “On a great night in a live concert, the momentum starts, and something happens that doesn’t happen in the studio, because you and the audience get in this groove and you can play an hour and a half and you don’t ever want to stop.”

Thursday & Friday, March 20 & 21, 7:30 & 9:30, The Regattabar, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. $42 (students)-$65. 

Donna Byrne Quartet at Scullers

Jazz singer Donna Byrne. – File Photo

There’s little doubt that Donna Byrne would be happy if someone told her she had an Old School approach to singing jazz. Growing up way down on the South Shore, she had been singing since she was a little girl, got to know and love selections from the Great American Songbook, and has said in interviews that when her family gathered around the TV to watch “The Ed Sullivan Show,” she preferred the jazzy, easy-listening singers over the rock acts. It wasn’t until she turned 26 that she started the singing lessons that led to the development of her warm, velvety voice. Songs that have appeared on her albums include such standards as “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” “Reaching for the Moon,” and “Limehouse Blues.” Her newest, the 2025 release “It’s all About Love,” boasts “Day by Day,” “All the Things You Are,” and a vocal of Bobby Timmons’ classic “Moanin’.” Byrne’s current quartet has Tim Ray on piano, Marshall Wood on bass, and Marty Richards on drums. Saturday, March 21, 7 p.m., Scullers, 400 Soldiers Field Rd., Boston. $42-$54.

Snarky Puppy at Roadrunner

It’s been a little over two decades since the first version of Snarky Puppy emerged from the University of North Texas Jazz Studies program. And no one has yet come up with a precise description of the music they make. There’s certainly a good amount of jazz in there, but their sound also tips into areas of fusion and funk; they’re an instrumental group, but guest vocalists have made appearances; they don’t use sheet music or charts, but they’re not exactly a jam band. On top of that, the five-time Grammy-winning group usually doesn’t look the same from show to show. Depending on venue sizes or band member availability, there can be between eight and 15 musicians onstage. And these players regularly rotate from a pool of about 25 players, so the band’s collective sound can also be different from performance to performance. Wednesday, April 15, 8 p.m., Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Boston. $55-$87.

Chucho Valdés and His Royal Quartet at Berklee Performance Center

The Royal Quartet is made up of renowned Cuban jazzmen Horacio “El Negro” Hernández on drums, José A. Gola on bass, and percussionist Roberto Jr. Vizcaíno. Hot players, all. But the spotlight will shine on the group’s leader, 84-year-old pianist (and composer and arranger) Chucho Valdés, who released his first album “Jazz Nocturno” in 1964, and last year was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. And there haven’t been many quiet moments in his busy musical life. Hailing from Quivicán, Cuba, with pianist parents, he was picking out melodies on the keyboard at the age of 3, and taking private lessons at 5. He turned pro at 16, joining Orquestra Sabor de Cuba, the large dance band founded by his father. A decade and a half later, Valdés would form his own “small big band” Irakere in 1973, which successfully got the world to take notice of Afro-Cuban Jazz. He left that band in 2005, set out on an already active solo career, and in 2024, put together the Royal Quartet. Saturday, May 2, 8 p.m., Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston. $58.50-$108.50.

Also of Note: 

Best R&B/hip-hop concerts

Khalid at MGM Music Hall

Khalid Donnel Robinson — just his first name will do — has carved out a singular career as an R&B singer and songwriter. His music is well known for its pop sensibility, but its breadth ranges from soft love ballads and slow jams to full-blown dance hits. Khalid, who was raised on military bases, and soaked up all sorts of music as his family moved from town to town, hit the ground running while still at America’s High School in Texas. He wrote and recorded some songs, uploaded them, and caught the attention of an executive at RCA, who signed him just after graduation. Scoring a big success with his debut album “American Teen” in 2017, he did a series of collaborations, went back to solo work with a string of hit singles and, to date, has released four more solo albums, the most recent being last year’s “After the Sun Goes Down” — which, to no one’s surprise, runs the gamut from the tender “Angel Boy” to the uptempo “In Plain Sight.” Friday, May 29, 7:30 p.m., MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston. $84-$320.

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