This one goes out to the UTD student body preparing for midterms, finishing up crucial projects, or just gearing up for the midpoint of the fall semester. These are some of the best streaming performances available to watch right now. Whether you’re at the library or at home in your study corner, these performances offer a mouthful of peaceful ambience played on the side, all you’ve got to do is listen.
While seeing one of the greatest guitarists of all time should be spectacular enough, the guest appearance list makes this performance truly special. Out of the time capsule is Navarro Mexico’s Carlos Santana giving Jalisco an unforgivable night. This performance details Santana conducting sonic fusion for the sake of love and peace, not playing for anything other than the former. “Soul Sacrifice” is a crushing symphony of improvisational, yet intricate, mastering of groove. Together with his Latin contemporaries, Fehr Olvera, Romeo Santos, Gloria Estefan, Juanes to name a few, El Corazon live is a staple on the Max platform.
In “Flamboyant Fantasy” Miley uses to both describe and invite the Tennesseans during this alluring Peacock special. This concert series welcomes, and escapes, to the future where love is for all. Though it’s an official Miley Cyrus performance, this special is a social practice directed by her, collaborating, and singing some of music history’s most iconic pride anthems. These masterpieces range from: Cher’s “Believe,” a Madonna Medley, Abba’s “Dancing Queen,” with so much more. The production doesn’t falter to show how critical this series is for Nashville; showcasing cuts of fans singing at each other, rather than in Miley’s direction. One of the sweetest moments is the crowd entering a cappella for “We Can’t Stop,” diluting the organized setlist to halt and allow Miley to come out from wardrobe to lay the bars and sing chords for the spontaneous moment.
Disordered madness in Paris, is what “United in Grief” brought. It wasn’t dancing— it was stepping. KDot and his team revel in a house of mirrors, where every ‘Big Step’ is purposeful and imaginative. This showcase is elaborate, filled with intricacies that could pass up within a glance. The choreography is riddled with mesmerizing body work and morphology that toggles at the brooding unnatural sense of drama— spoiler alert: nothing is as it seems with Kenny at the mic. Lamar’s synthesis is amplified with the vaquero style theme that his wardrobe undertook. Furthermore, director Tim Hinshaw articulates the threat behind ‘big steppin,’ and expresses the causality of it on screen.
“Wow,” Lizzo murmurs, absorbing the sea of fans before her in this Max special. While her presence on stage was fierce, not subtle, it was her voice and charismatic crowd control that is truly magical. The choreography and stage are celestial, providing the viewer a powerhouse of un-seen intimacy from the singer. This live performance was a celebration, a dance to show off her agency and unite Los Angeles together under the same emotions. Only Lizzo and the Big Girls could grant L.A. a symbiotic, electrical performance like this one. “There is no such thing as nosebleed tickets at a Lizzo show.”
To the fans it was farewell yellow brick road, but to Elton it was farewell to memory lane. Elton John, after fifty years of performing around the world, hangs up the Dodger cap one last time after a monumental Dodger Stadium concert. This Disney+ special showed off his multitude of talent and charisma that could only be seen to fall witness. The Eltonites did a good job of not leaving a single square inch unscathed at Dodger Stadium. The sea brought in some of the craftiest of fans, slinging and twirling in official Elton John masquerading suits from his cannon. “I WAS HERE IN ’75,” “61ST FOR ME,” “THANK YOU ELTON JOHN,” read the hand posters the fans brought. Keep an eye open watching this grandiose special, it’s filled with magical moments that latch a smile and quirk (perhaps a proposal *wink* *wink*). Elton John is forever a legend and deserves the lifetime of happiness this final tour provided him.