The Top Tours of 2022

 After the COVID concert shut-down of most of 2020 and 2021, it was a great year to finally get back on the road and reconnect with patient fans including some who had held on to tickets for up to three years in order to see their favorite acts perform. Many tours continued to deal with COVID-related issues, but in most cases, audiences were delighted to take in a show or two at their nearest club, theater, or arena in 2022.

***(TLDR? Scroll down for a short list of the top 5 tours of the year!)****

Classic rock legends, such as The Who, Roger Waters, and the surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (touring separately), entertained audiences in the U.S. and around the world while The Rolling Stones celebrated their 60th year as a band (!!!) with a focus on touring Europe only, having wrapped a long-delayed U.S. tour in the fall of 2021. Elton John completed his final U.S. tour ever with a live-streamed finale on Disney+ but will continue his farewell tour in Europe next year. Both punk rock mainstays NOFX and the current version of Grateful Dead, Dead & Co., announced they will wrap things up after the coming year, and prog-rock innovators, Genesis, called it a day after a final tour this year.

Metallica and Megadeth both returned to the road after overcoming internal health issues, and Guns 'N Roses, still featuring Slash and Duff McKagan, were one of the year's biggest earners in ticket sales. Nu-metal rockers Slipknot, KoRn, and Deftones each successfully toured last year, keeping their styles alive and continuing to attract younger listeners after 20-30 years in the business. Aerosmith eventually launched a planned Las Vegas residency but recently pulled the plug early, rumored to be related to Steven Tyler's ongoing battles with addiction which delayed the launch of the residency earlier in the year as well. Phish and Dave Matthews Band continued their traditional summer touring pleasing their devoted fans.

Alternative rock, both classic and current, saw a number of artists reconnecting with fans across the country and around the world in 2022. Updated versions of Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Bush, and others played to smaller crowds than their peak days in the '90s but delivered many of their classic hits along with newer material. Top shelf '90s groups like Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine generated lots of attention and interest for their tours, but both were besieged by ongoing health and injury issues, including both COVID and non-COVID roadblocks, which saw cancellations, postponements, and shows that were rescheduled multiple times in some cases. Pearl Jam struggled to get through a west coast leg and then ran into more problems during the summer in Europe before a few east coast and mid-west shows when they returned. (Read our review of a recent festival performance here). After sustaining a persistently painful leg injury on the second night of their long-delayed reunion tour, Rage front man Zach De La Rocha performed months of shows while seated (unheard of in the band's history of energetically engaging shows), and eventually, the tour itself was cancelled after it was clear the healing process was not going as quickly or as well as was hoped. Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction had a successful run through U.S. arenas in spite of Jane's guitarist Dave Navarro being unable to participate but ran into snags near the end following an injury that briefly sidelined font man, Perry Farrell which left the Pumpkins in a position to extend their sets on a few dates to fill the time that would have been for Jane's set. After a few weeks of festivals in South America, early in the year, Foo Fighters fans were stunned by the sudden loss of long-time drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Two, massive all-start tribute concerts were staged in his honor in the fall (Read our review of the massive London concert here), and the band only recently released a letter indicating they plan to continue in the near future, though without yet announcing Hawkins' replacement.

Indie rock veterans like Ween, They Might Be Giants, and The Flaming Lips rescheduled shows and rerouted entire tour legs in order to work around and accommodate COVID and other internal issues, such as being side-lined by car accidents or suddenly having a long-time member retire, to get and keep their shows on the road. Pavement enjoyed a successful run of reunion shows, mostly in theaters, and Coldplay successfully expanded their now stadium-sized shows to become one of the biggest money earners of the year, essentially attempting now to fill U2's role in their temporary absence rather than being a lesser Radiohead. Speaking of which, that band's latest side project, The Smile, surprised long time fans and newcomers alike with the songs from and tour for their debut LP. Newcomers Greta Van Fleet saw varying success and interest while they toured for their second album, now leaning more into the style of '70s Queen than early Zeppelin, which saw positive receptions at festivals while simultaneously cancelling some dates due to low sales, including a few in their home state of Michigan.

Having said all that, a select group of artists hit it especially out of the park on stage in 2022 and stand out just a bit from the rest.

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Headlining stadiums for the first time in their 40-year career, RHCP did a lot to build these shows up and to make them as big as they could, featuring the triumphant return of guitarist John Frusciante and a gigantic LED screen that wrapped around the stage, displaying powerfully bright, vivid, abstract and psychedelic images throughout their performance. Continuing a long tradition of sharing the bill with other big name opening acts, alt-rockers The Strokes played for about an hour prior to the Chili Peppers every night, and most dates also included a great opening set from bass-whiz jazz fusionist Thundercat as well. Promoting but not focusing too hard on their two long albums of new songs, one of which was released after the tour wrapped, these energetic summer shows improved even more on the nights with the best audiences. Read our review of the Detroit stop from this tour here.

4. Weird Al Yankovic

The all-time master of rock and roll comedy and his amazing backing band of 40 years crisscrossed the country in 2022 on The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, a celebratory victory lap for Weird Al and the band following the filming of his hilarious parody biopic, Weird, and recent major recognitions, such as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame among others. Much like the similarly-named and themed tour in 2018, this was a showing of appreciation for Al's dedicated, long-time fans with a scaled down production that had limited use of video, costumes, and stage effects and set lists that concentrated on Yankovic's original songs, style parodies, and pastiches rather than his direct parodies of popular songs for which he is mainly known. (Deep cuts rather than greatest hits, to put it another way.) All non-parodies (and non-polka medleys) in his official catalog were in the running to be played on any given night of the tour, so each show featured a different set list and jumped from album to album with songs from throughout Yankovic's impressively-lengthy career. Also like the 2018 tour, each show in 2022 began with 30 minutes of stand up comedy from the great Emo Phillips, and it's hard to find a better, stronger, or more consistent tour than that! Sidelined a few times along the way due to COVID issues within the band, every stop on this tour received rave reviews from hardcore fans and newcomers alike. Read our review of a summer show in west Michigan here.

3. Jack White

Touring to promote and celebrate the release of two new solo LPs (one released the day the tour began and one released about half-way through it), Jack White and his excellent, multi-talented backing band packed the most musical variety and unexpected, unplanned moments as it trekked around the globe through most of the year. Beginning with an on-stage proposal AND wedding ceremony during the tour opener in Detroit (read our review here), and eventually hitting European festivals and even rarely-toured pacific islands, White's shows continued to feature a shuffling of solo songs (old and new), many from his days in The White Stripes, a few songs from his other bands, and occasional cover tunes as well, as usual with a different set list and overall length every night which increases the value of seeing more than one show significantly. Blistering guitar solos, mesmerizing synthesizer work, and a tremendous rhythm section allowed White to change seamlessly from one era, band, or sound to another at any given moment, keeping audiences engaged and on their toes throughout and often concluding with rollicking renditions of his most famous song of all, "Seven Nation Army," which has transcended popular culture to become a modern folk tune, sung and played in arenas and stadiums around the world (comically including the one in Columbus, Ohio where they claim to hate anything connected to Michigan).

2. The Mars Volta

Alternative rock's most surprising and unexpected reunion of the year came with the announcement of a new LP and tour from The Mars Volta, inactive for over a decade and without touring the U.S. for twelve years, allowing younger fans who only discovered them during that long hiatus an opportunity to experience the arty, psychedelic-fusion rockers live for the first time. Between an updated backing band and the natural effects of aging, the updated Mars Volta show presented a matured, focused version of the group known for their unhinged, nearly-anarchic performances, sometimes playing 4 to 8 songs in a span of 1 to 3 hours with lengthy, improvised jams that extended each track. The reunited group still performed many of those same songs from a decade or two ago (and hardly none at all from their recent reunion album), but most of them matched up closer to their original recorded arrangements and didn't jam so far out into space that the audience (and sometimes even the band?) forgot which song was being played. Performing the same set list every night, which leaned heavily on songs from the band's debut LP and a few favorites from most of their other albums, The Mars Volta's 2022 tour featured a simple but engaging stage set and well-timed lights that accented each song perfectly. Trading chaos for precision suited the band and this particular collection of songs very well, even if the overall vibe of the concert was also now different. Read our review of the Detroit-area concert from this tour here.

1. Tool

For the price of admission, nothing really compares to the experience of seeing Tool live, and that has been the case for decades. Their most recent tour, in support of Fear Inoculum and hitting many cities that had shows that were cancelled, rescheduled, and put on sale a second time due to COVID, was no exception. An immersive, dazzling visual display, blending projections, curtains, and various stage props and decorations perfectly complemented the band's latest iteration and songs, and the nightly performances of its virtuosic individual members makes it very hard to find flaws or to voice complaints, at least beyond the set list. Opposite to previous album eras, Tool leaned much harder into their newest songs this year compared to concerts that were performed just after the album was released, which featured a few new songs among a greatest hits-and-fan-favorites-style concert. Focusing on songs like "Pneuma," "Descending," and "Invincible" added depth and dimension to a stage show that was already great but locked in much better than the earlier concerts even though the song selection at those previous shows was certainly more crowd-pleasing. Tool live in 2022 was ideal for fans of Fear Inoculum, specifically, and was an invitation (even if barely or sarcastically) to others to take a deep dive into that album, to discover its haunting greatness, and to reconnect with a maturing version of one of the best rock bands of all time. Read our review of the Grand Rapids, Michigan stop on this tour here.

***Coming soon: The Top Albums of 2022!***

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