Michael Lello

New York

Founder and Editor at Highway 81 Revisited

Digital Production Editor at Financial Times

Editor and music journalist @financialtimes /@Highway81Rvstd

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Articles

SUNFLOWER BEAN BRINGS ROCK SWAGGER TO THE WARSAW

1 week ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

Photos by Bobby Nicholas IIISunflower Bean made last Thursday night’s show at The Warsaw in Brooklyn, announced as its only New York City performance of the year, count. From the tone-setting rocker opener “Champagne Taste” to a lengthy encore in which the band and support act Gift played a cathartic version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” together, the set was a proper celebration of a band with more than a decade of NYC history under its belt and a new album out that might be its best yet.
SUNFLOWER BEAN BRINGS ROCK SWAGGER TO THE WARSAW

1 week ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

Photos by Bobby Nicholas IIISunflower Bean made last Thursday night’s show at The Warsaw in Brooklyn, announced as its only New York City performance of the year, count. From the tone-setting rocker opener “Champagne Taste” to a lengthy encore in which the band and support act Gift played a cathartic version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” together, the set was a proper celebration of a band with more than a decade of NYC history under its belt and a new album out that might be its best yet.
'ILEANA'S SMILE,' A FILM THAT FINDS LIGHT IN A LANDFILL, RAISES FUNDS FOR SCHOOL IN NICARAGUA

1 week ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

“Ileana’s Smile,” the true story of a community living in a garbage dump in Nicaragua, is certainly not light summer fare. But the documentary, framed around the life of a little girl named Ileana, does offer a sliver of hope for what can be done to help such people who have literally been tossed in the thrash.
SUNFLOWER BEAN FACES MORTALITY: 'THIS COULD END'

2 weeks ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

Since the release of their third album “Headful of Sugar,” the three members of Sunflower Bean went through changes in their lives that could have brought the band to an end. Frontwoman and bassist Julia Cumming and her longtime partner split up. Drummer Olive Faber came out as transgender and started a new band. And guitarist/vocalist Nick Kivlen moved to Los Angeles, meaning one-third of the New York City band was no longer at home.
LITTLE FEAT, NEARLY 60 YEARS ON, STILL 'STRIKES' A CHORD

3 weeks ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

That Little Feat has made a 17th album is more than a minor miracle. That the release from the nearly 60-year operation is brimming with vitality and gaining notice from the persnickety critics at the New York Times and Rolling Stone might defy explanation. The “legacy act” tag often confines artists to focus on their back catalog, but Little Feat guitarist and vocalist Fred Tackett explains there are artistic and practical reasons to put out new material.
DAISY THE GREAT: 'THE BAND IS LIKE ITS OWN PERSON'

1 month ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

Daisy the Great, the Brooklyn vocal duo comprising Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker who emerged from NYU with 2017’s “The Record Player Song” and its subsequent AJR remix, is, as expected, influenced by musical twosomes. But when the two members are really clicking, one and one make one, to borrow a lyric from The Who. “I think one thing we strive to do is be a duo that is like as iconic as a single person, like the band is like its own person,” says Walker.
MXMTOON FORGES PERSONAL CONNECTION WITH AUDIENCE IN RETURN TO NYC

2 months ago | highway81revisited.com | Michael Lello

Photos and words by Bobby Nicholas IIISinger-songwriter mxmtoon delighted Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday with her first show since she moved out of New York last year. Supporting the November release of her latest album, “Liminal Spaces,” she also performed songs from pervious releases and peppered the evening with personal stories, connecting with a crowd that included many fans that had been to her shows before.
FOR LaMP, IT'S A GROOVE THING

2 months ago | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

As members of the Trey Anastasio Band and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Russ Lawton, Ray Paczkowski and Scott Metzger are used to the creature comforts of the road, like tour buses and crew members to set up their gear. But with LaMP, their instrumental trio? “We have no crew people,” says Metzger, the band’s guitarist. “It’s funny. They have a van up in Vermont, but we have so much gear and merch that there’s no room for me. So I drive myself around either in my car or in a rental.
LAUREN MAYBERRY FINDS THE PROOF OF CONCEPT IN HER FIRST SOLO ALBUM

Feb 12, 2025 | highway81revisited.com | Kat Von D |Trey Anastasio |Michael Lello

Having fronted the Scottish synth-pop band CHVRCHES for nearly 15 years, Lauren Mayberry has performed for millions of fans from Glastonbury to Coachella, at stadium shows supporting Coldplay and headlining big rooms on their own. A show this Thursday at Webster Hall (1,500 capacity) is part of a project that is markedly smaller in scale but not in ambition. In December, Mayberry released her first solo album, “Vicious Creature,” and is touring behind it.
MICHAEL LELLO’S FAVORITE CONCERTS OF THE YEAR

Dec 31, 2024 | highway81revisited.com | Michael Lello

1. Soulshine, Madison Square Garden, New York, Nov. 242. Iron Maiden, Barclays Center, Brooklyn, Nov. 23. Kacey Musgraves, Barclays Center, Brooklyn, Nov. 164. Guster, Brooklyn Paramount, March 295. Glenn Hansard, City Winery, New York, March 186. Phish, MVP Arena, Albany, NY, Oct. 25-277. Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, UPAC, Kingston, NY, June 298. Ryan Adams, Carnegie Hall, New York, Nov. 279. The National, The War on Drugs and Lucius, Mann Center, Philadelphia, Sept. 1710.