Summer music heats up 2025

Summer is the time to kick back at concerts. Scroll through our gallery of some of 2025’s leading live acts, featuring images by CBS News photojournalist Jake Barlow and photographers Ed Spinelli and Kirstine Walton.  

Pictured: The Louisville rock band My Morning Jacket played at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, Wis., April 18, 2025. 

My Morning Jacket

Pictured are the members of My Morning Jacket (clockwise from top left): Vocalist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Koster.

After launching their 2025 tour on April 1 in Chattanooga, the group added summer and fall dates across the U.S. through November 1. 

Bishop Briggs

The English singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs (touring for her new album, “Tell My Therapist I’m Fine”) stopped by Metro in Chicago on March 22, 2025. She performed “River,” “Wild Horses,” “Champion,” “White Flag,” and “My Seratonin.”

Deftones

Chino Moreno, the lead singer of Deftones, an alternative metal band hailing from Sacramento, Calif., performed at the United Center in Chicago, March 31, 2025. Their set list included “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away),” “Diamond Eyes,” “Hole in the Earth,” and “Swerve City.”

Kylie Minogue

Australian singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue arrived at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill, on April 2, 2025. 

Kylie Minogue

Minogue’s set, stretched across five acts, included “last night I dreamt I fell in love,” “Lights, Camera, Action,” “Edge of Saturday Night,” “Tension,” “Padam Padam,” “Timebomb” and “Get Outta My Way.” She also sang covers of music by Carole King, Pandora, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. 

Michael Monroe

Finnish singer Michael Monroe, who was a founding member of the ’80s rock band Hanoi Rocks, performed at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Ill., on April 6, 2025.  The leadoff song of his set list was “Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

He also sang several Hanoi Rocks songs, including “Motorvatin’,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Malibu Beach Nightmare,” and “Don’t You Ever Leave Me.”

Geoff Tate

Geoff Tate, a founding singer from Seattle’s heavy metal band Queensrÿche, performed at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Ill., April 11, 2025.

OK Go

Originally formed in Chicago, the rock band OK Go returned to the Windy City for a performance at the Riviera Theater on April 25, 2025. Their latest album is “And the Adjacent Possible.” 

Trivium

The heavy metal band Trivium performed at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on April 26, 2025. It was one stop on their “Poisoned Ascendancy Tour,” which they are co-headlining with Bullet For My Valentine.

Trivium

Matt Heafy of Trivium. The heavy metal band is marking the 20th anniversary of their album “Ascendancy” by performing its songs live – for the last time. Their set list included “The End of Everything,” “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr,” “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation,” and “Like Light to the Flies.”  

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds performed the first of two shows at the Salt Shed in Chicago on April 28, 2025 – stops on the group’s “The Wild God Tour.”

An actor and writer as well as a musician, Cave has recorded 18 studio albums with The Bad Seeds; their latest is “Wild God,” whose tracks include “Frogs,” “Joy,” “Song of the Lake” and “Long Dark Night.”  

Rival Sons

The rock band Rival Sons (featuring lead singer Jay Buchanan and guitarist Scott Holiday) played at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet, Ill., on May 1, 2025, before heading off to Canada, and a European tour.

Their set list included “Nobody Wants to Die,” “Too Bad,” “Do Your Worst,” and “Shooting Stars.”

Paul Simon

Paul Simon played the first of three shows at Chicago’s Symphony Center on May 23, 2025. Opening with songs from his most recent album, “Seven Psalms,” he performed selections with his wife, Edie Brickell. He also played songs from the Simon back catalog, from “Graceland” and “Homeward Bound,” to “Slip Slidin’ Away” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.”

Deftones

A scintillating Deftones concert in Chicago.

      
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Photographer Jake Barlow (Instagram)

Photographer Ed Spinelli (Instagram)

Photographer Kirstine Walton (Instagram)

      
Edited by senior producer David Morgan.