The live music industry is booming if you will. Live Nation recently reported its best quarter ever, while Nielsen said the amount of Americans who attend some sort of live event every year is up to 52 percent. Billboard staffers, too, continue to do their part by heading out to venues after office hours. Of course, we are not complaining: attending concerts is part of our jobs, but it’s also a privilege.
This year, Billboard went to festival sets and album release parties; to shows at amphitheaters and clubs, and to late-night rooftop sets. We filled seats in arenas, went to Broadway musicals, and, in one case, sailed on a cruise with the band. A few of us saw upwards of 100 shows (!) in 2018. We saw Taylor Swift, a lot. We go to all of these shows because it is not enough to write about music from behind a desk. It must be lived.
We each managed to narrow it down to the single best show or performance of the year. From coast to coast, and a few cities in between, here are the best live shows that the Billboard staff saw in 2018 (in chronological order).