01 Sep A Guideline On How To Write A Concert Review

Writing a concert review can be daunting if you’re not used to writing, and with it being a thing these days that you can’t just photograph a concert without writing a review, I’ve prepared a little guideline along with some journalism know-how that you can follow along with when you get stuck.

This outline was pulled from a Media Certification Course I took this past year, along with my own commentary to tailor it to what is needed for Concert Reviews. Please note: I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but I shared this with my team for their use.

HEADLINE

The Headline lets you know what the article is about / gives people enough info to entice them to read it. Depending on your outlet, you could get creative, for example: ‘Blink-182 Played a Show in Ohio That Would Please Your Mom,’ or if you have an outlet that takes itself more seriously, go with the standard vibe, ‘NOFX Closes Out Legendary Career with Last Club Gig In Detroit.‘ Keep in mind that for SEO reasons, you want to include the name of the artist, and you don’t want the title to be too long (many of my titles tend to be as long as Fall Out Boy songs, but I’m in charge so I do what I want).

LEDE

This is the first sentence or two of the story that will hook the interest of the reader. This section should include DAY AND DATE (THURSDAY, MAY 28), LOCATION (ST. ANDREW’S HALL), and should always include at the very least the headliner of the show you’re covering.

Example: Bush, with special guests Jerry Cantrell, Candlebox, and Bones UK played to an excited crop of fans on Friday, August 16 at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre.

NUT GRAF

This is the main point of the story, which would be your review. Graf is short for Paragraph, but you’ll basically give all the important information of your story here. This is where you get that school talk of “Who / What / When / Where / Why” stuff.

Some suggestions include talking about the history of the artist, the members in the band, the songs the artists played, any information on crowd participation, the energy of the artist, things that were said by the artist between songs, if there was any weather changes, costume changes, etc.

KICKER

This is the last line of the story. In different forms of journalism it can be a snappy, funny, moving, forward-moving sort of thing, but in our case, it’s almost a call to action in saying “See (artist name here) in a city near you by (include link to their tour page).”

Even if you’re there for a non-headliner, this is only needed for the tour’s headliner. “Catch ADTR in a town near you by visiting ADTR.com.” They call it the kicker because it “kicks you out of the story.”

I don’t make the rules… Or the names.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Make sure your file names include the name of the artist and your byline. This will help with SEO for both the article and you.
• Link to the artist’s website at the very least. That will also help your SEO, but also can help you complete your kicker.
• Linking to the setlist on Setlist.fm can be a great way to lead people back to the music by letting the reader know what songs were played.

This article was published to assist the Concert Photographers (Non-Toxic Edition) on Facebook.