(Live Review) TOP 20 LIVE SHOWS 2025 (The Beard - Part 1)
- Mark McQueen
- Dec 23, 2025
- 6 min read
Greetings friends, fans and followers and welcome to our year end wrap up countdown. This was a reduced year for the Beard & Little Johnny. In 2025, we only saw 52 shows and just 152 total bands so there’s much less to choose from than over the last couple years. Still, we did see some great acts, so here is Part One of our best live shows of 2025 covering #20-11.
We will begin with the Beard's selections and then move on to Little Johnny’s list in our next episode. (Ed: Can't wait for that!) As always these are just two opinions and although the lists are vastly different, they reflect what each of us personally thought.
I once again factored in the band, the sound, the lights, the effects, the venue, and (when it was a festival) slotting to incorporate my finishing number. Also affecting the grade was how the show hit me personally. As my readers know, I like it when a band can take me back and trigger a great memory, so a lot of my selections do drip with nostalgia. I don’t apologize though because after all, this is an opinion piece.
So, let’s get started.
#20 TESLA 6/15/25 Summerfest
The Beard was never a Tesla fan, so this was my first time seeing this band. Although I did know a few of their 80’s big hits such as “Little Susie”, “Modern Day Cowboy” “Love Song” & “Signs”. What I was impressed by was how well they functioned as a band. With 3/5 of their classic lineup still intact, Tesla gave me both a few memorable moments, and a better-than-expected opening set on a beautiful night one of Summerfest.
#19 PALLBEARER 5/4/25 Reggies
A regular candidate for the yearly countdown, Pallbearer with their morose doomy music once again gave a good set at metal dive club, Reggie’s in Chicago. Where I might normally dock points for subpar lighting and stage show, with Pallbearer minimalism works. This is a band that just sprays their cold-water type music on a metaphorically wet audience. Pallbearer is more about the “feeling” they create and once again they made their themes of loneliness and depression stick to us like morose tree sap.
#18 KING BUFFALO 1/25/25 Empty Bottle & 12/6/25 Thalia Hall
A rare act I went to twice, (once as an opener and once as a headliner), King Buffalo always grabs me with their stoner style of free form music with purpose. While not exactly a jam band, King Buffalo music is about taking that ride on a riff. While their December show at Thalia Hall was superior with regards to sound and lights, their early January set at the smaller, grungier Empty Bottle club was more in line with creating that “feeling” their music evokes where they ride a riff right to the edge and then veer off on a new one. This band just always seems to grab me with each live set, and they are a worthy entry to this year’s list.
#17 LOVERBOY 11/14/25 BMO Arena & 12/3/25 at the Arcada Theater
Another act I saw twice (again once as an opener and once as a headliner.) This time the December headliner slot was their better set. Loverboy was able to play a few songs they don’t normally perform and had an audience who was there FOR them instead of just tolerating them as a warmup to the real band they paid to see. There is no doubt Loverboy are old and girthy warhorses these days, but (especially on this set) they still seem to enjoy what they do and as you will find out over and over with this list, nostalgia isn’t a bad thing. The Beard was indeed loving every minute of it.
#16 LEILANI KILGORE 5/18/25 Reggie’s
This was the sparsest set to make the list in 2025. Kilgore is a blues/rock singer guitarist who sings like Janis Joplin and plays like Jimi Hendrix. Still more unknown than she ought to be, Kilgore played in the smallest room in Reggie’s complex. Maybe holding a hundred and still less than half full for a Sunday evening show, nevertheless Kilgore played like she was front and center in the L.A. Forum. This is a woman who gives you all she has every time she straps on her guitar. I have fully appreciated her as amazingly hard working. After the show she stayed to greet everyone who came out, (further cementing her work ethic and love for what she does). A great set musically and a genuinely nice person to boot.
#15 AFTER TIME 5/3/25 Legions of Metal Festival Reggie’s
This newer symphonic band from Minnesota opened day two of the Legions of Metal festival. I was doubtful initially as symphonic is a tough metal act, especially right out of the gate, but black gown clad vocalist Narcissa had the chops for it as she and her band performed a Nightwish type set that stood up to most everything that was to follow it that day. It is rare at a fest for the Beard to hit the merch table right away, but this band was worth it. Soaring vocals and great guitar work. One of the best new bands I got to see this year.
#14 DORO 9/6/25 Arcada Theater
Nobody that has ever read the Beard is surprised by this lady’s inclusion to the year end list. Long the Beard's 'Metal babe of my youth', German singer Doro Pesch is still going strong in her 60’s and this set showed why. Normally performing at much larger festivals, Doro relished this 1000-seat theater and the closer intimacy of her fan base. Performing well past her 10pm stopping time, Pesch came back out and did more encores, then stayed on stage bumping fists and talking to fans until eventually her own security team had to almost drag her off the stage. That night Doro Pesch was having real fun, and she didn’t want it to end. That from a woman who has performed for forty years in every conceivable type of venue from 50 to 50,000 was genuine and that will always get a lot of points from this love-struck reviewer.
#13 ALICE COOPER 5/14/25 Miller Theater
The Beard has probably seen Alice Cooper every year for the last ten and every year he makes the list somewhere. The act is generally similar, like rewatching your favorite movie repeatedly, but even when you know how it’s going to go, somehow Cooper makes it feel fresh. His commitment to giving each audience the feeling that THEY are his favorite is uncanny. We all know he does the same thing every night, yet he still makes it feel unique each time. Cooper is a living marvel to the blueprint of running a successful stage act. Add in the best female guitarist in metal music (Nita Strauss) (Ed: That would be Ruyter Suys of Nashville Pussy!) and you cannot go wrong attending an Alice Cooper show.
#12 SEVEN KINGDOMS 5/3/25 Legions of Metal
Although the Beard attended a few major festivals this year, it was the more pedestrian midlevel festival Legions of Metal that rose to the top in 2025. Promoter Bob Byrne puts a lot of thought and effort into his band selections and lineup to create a unique and diverse festival each year in Chicago. Although not the nights headline act, Florida’s Power Thrash Band Seven Kingdoms really brought the heavy. Singer Sabrina Valentine wasn’t as operatic as a few others this year, but when she hit a note, it was with purpose. Guitarist Camden Cruz was as expressive an axe man as any at the festival and this band knew how to play to a crowd. My first time seeing them, but hopefully not my last.
#11 GEOFF TATE 4/19/25 The Arcada Theater
Winding up today’s Part One list is Geoff Tate and his solo band performing Operation Mindcrime in its entirety. The debate between Tate's solo band and the current Queensryche act was the most controversial comment driven review of The Beards year with fans of both bands coming out vehemently in defense of their favorite.
While the Beard had good things to say about both, this year it was Tate and the Mindcrime album taking the top honors. Although his band is weaker, he is still the voice of that album and when he performs it, you know nobody is going to do THAT any better than he does.
That wraps up part one of the 2025 countdown list for the Beard. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Little Johnny’s somewhat heavier take on this year in metal music. (Ed: Yay!) Then check us both out next week for our top ten live shows of 2025.
Until next time, this is the Beard reminding you to Live Life, Stay Heavy & keep those Horns Up.
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