The 20 Best Concert Films of All Time & How to Stream Them Online

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This spring, Pink Floyd released a remastered version of the concert film it shot in the Amphitheatre of Pompeii – Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII. The film captures Pink Floyd in 1972, in all of its psychedelic grandeur, before it entered its concept-album era. As a concert film – one that captures a live performance rather than tries to tell a larger story – it includes some studio footage, as well as scenes of Roman mosaics, to frame the performance. But the movie focuses on four people playing music, live, in a weird and wonderful setting.

There’s a fine line between music documentaries and concert films: The first tell stories, while the latter show performances, or sometimes several of them. To mark the release of Pink Floyd at Pompeii, here’s a list of the best concert films that capture artists playing music, often in fascinating ways. Some, like The Last Waltz, use live footage to tell a larger story. But this list excludes films like Don’t Look Back (about Bob Dylan in 1965) and Peter Jackson’s Beatles project, Get Back, which focus more on storytelling than performances. (The dividing line is focus, not timing — Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé is brilliant because it shows such an innovative performance alongside behind-the-scenes footage).

1. The Band, The Last Waltz

Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of a concert film uses intercut documentary scenes to tell the story of the Band, from its barroom-gig origins to its retirement from the road. But it’s also an inventively shot star-packed Thanksgiving Day show, by the Band and an incredible roster of guest stars, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters and more. Even without them, the Band just oozes charisma. One of the best films ever, of one of the best shows ever.

2. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense 

This is director Jonathan Demme’s film, but the Talking Heads performance makes it visually stunning. The movie opens with Byrne onstage alone, playing “Psycho Killer,” then joined by other musicians – first bandmates Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison, then an expanded lineup that includes singer Lynn Mabry and keyboardist Bernie Worrell. Yes, there’s the Big Suit. There are no cutaway scenes, and no shots of the audience until the end: It’s just about the music and it’s just about perfect. Honorable mention: Spike Lee’s 2020 American Utopia film of David Byrne’s show of the same name. 

3. Monterey Pop 

Made by documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, who directed the Bob Dylan movie Don’t Look Back, the film of the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival is less weighted with history than the film of Woodstock, so it’s more focused on music. Many sixties icons are at their best here – Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Mamas and the Papas – but they are blown away by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Otis Redding (backed here by Booker T and the MGs). Those sets were so good that they became separate mini-movies – Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterey.  

4. T.A.M.I. Show 

This movie – billed as “Teenage Awards Music International” and shot over two dates at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium – shows rock in all its 1964 vitality. Like many concerts of the time, it’s packed with acts that play a few songs each. But what acts: Chuck Berry, the Miracles, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and James Brown and the Famous Flames. The Stones headline the show, but Keith Richards has said that he regrets following Brown, who performs like a human dynamo. A sequel of sorts, in the form of a second variety concert film, The Big T.N.T. Show, is also pretty great. 

5. Rolling Stones, Shine a Light 

The Rolling Stones have some memorable concert films, from Gimme Shelter (more of a documentary in some ways) to Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones. This isn’t the best film (that’s Gimme Shelter) or the band’s best performance (that’s Ladies and Gentlemen) but it’s the best real concert movie, thanks to Martin Scorsese – focused on the show, but intercut with documentary footage and guest-starring Jack White, Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera. It shows the Stones in their Late Imperial Period, hardly young but still in great form – and the show has the energy and showmanship the band is known for.

6. Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé

This is the story of “Beychella,” as told – both written and directed – by Beyoncé, for a Netflix film. As a documentary of Beyoncé putting together the performance of a lifetime, it’s solid storytelling. As a concert film, it’s glorious – viscerally dynamic entertainment that provides an introductory education in the culture of HBCUs and Black fraternities and sororities. It incorporates most aspects of Beyoncé’s career – with appearances by her bandmates in Destiny’s Child, her sister Solange, and her husband Jay-Z – plus musical references from hip-hop to “The Wiz.”

7. Springsteen on Broadway 

A few concert films have been made of Springsteen and the E Street Band – the best are Live in New York City (recorded in 2000, early in his reunion with the E Street Band) and Live in Barcelona (recorded in 2002), and fans who want earlier shows should check out the box sets for Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River. This movie, made for Netflix, is something else entirely – a well-shot, just-as-it-happened film of Springsteen’s Broadway show, which mixed memoir-style storytelling and acoustic performances. 

8. Prince, Sign o’ the Times 

This movie, which bombed during its 1987 release in theaters, shows Prince at his best – partly live in Europe but mostly, due to technical issues, on a Paisley Park studio soundstage. The movie isn’t nearly as well-known as Purple Rain, a fictional movie based on some details of Prince’s life, but it captures one of pop’s most dynamic performers at the peak of his powers. 

9. Woodstock 

The craziness makes for a dynamic documentary, and some of the performances are just as compelling. Some of the best acts at the festival aren’t in the film – the Band, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival – but others, like Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin, shine. Highlights include Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and especially Jimi Hendrix.

10. Neil Young, Year of the Horse 

Neil Young has made concert movies with some of the most innovative directors ever to try their hand at the genre, including Jonathan Demme (who made three films of Young concerts, most notably Heart of Gold) and Hal Ashby (Solo Trans). But the best of his performance films is Year of the Horse, directed by Jim Jarmusch. It’s almost entirely concert footage, raw, loud and filled with feedback. At times, the songs almost seem to blend into one – just as they often do during Young’s best shows. 

11. Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII  

Most Pink Floyd fans think of the band’s live performances as orderly stadium spectacles with perfectly calibrated effects. But the group was originally known for more improvisational shows, like the one in this movie, filmed at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii. There’s no audience, but the setting has the appropriate scale and eerie emptiness – and there’s a giant gong, for good measure. Studio footage hints at the band’s future, as it records Dark Side of the Moon.  

12. Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace

Shot by Sydney Pollack in 1972, when Franklin was recording her gospel album of the same name, this movie sat in the vault until 2018 for a variety of reasons. (The story behind the film sounds like it could be a documentary in itself.) It shows Franklin in a setting that’s likely to be unfamiliar to many of her casual fans, but fundamentally crucial to her music.  All hail the Queen. 

13. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) 

Another case of lost footage, found, this Questlove-directed film tells the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a few hours and a world away from Woodstock – but every bit as culturally significant (plus less muddy). The talent is just as extraordinary, including Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Sly and the Family Stone, plus a taste of what was becoming a vital Latin scene, from Ray Barretto and Mongo Santamaria. Note: Sly and the Family Stone played both shows – brilliantly. 

14. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour  

The movie made of Swift’s blockbuster “Eras” tour, now on Disney+, presents the show as it happened, in Los Angeles, without much in the way of context. And at this point, what is there to say? Onstage, and on film, Swift’s show tells its own story – her story, of her career, presented in a series of acts tied to different albums, or eras. It’s the next best thing to being there – and way less expensive, besides. 

15. Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same 

This film has come in for plenty of well-deserved criticism: Neither it nor the album of the same name presents one of rock’s best live acts at its best, and the fantasy sequences are, well, leaden. No matter: It’s still the best way to see Zeppelin in all its live glory, although the self-titled Led Zeppelin DVD is also pretty great. Turn it up and rock out.  

16. Nirvana: MTV Unplugged in New York

A few of the group’s live performances made it to video, and its best typical performances are on Live at the Paramount and Live at Reading. But its most memorable and powerful show is this one, originally recorded for MTV Unplugged and released as a video in 2007. It’s any anything but typical, thanks to the presence of additional musicians (including Meat Puppets Cris and Curt Kirkwood) and cover songs and emotionally wrenching covers, including David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” and the traditional ballad “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”

17. Wattstax 

This 1972 concert, which marked the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots, showcased the talent on the Stax Records roster. And what a roster it was: The Staple Singers, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Albert King, the Bar-Kays, and Isaac Hayes. Also appearing: A young Jesse Jackson and host Richard Pryor. The focus on one label means it holds together better than other festival movies, and Hayes is just a force of nature. 

18. Beastie Boys, Awesome; I F–kin’ Shot That 

It sounds like a stupid gimmick: Give 50 fans at a Beastie Boys show at Madison Square Garden camcorders and edit the footage into a concert movie. But, like much of what the Beasties did, it works, it works, either because of the concept or despite it. Directed by Nathanial Hörnblowér,” aka Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, it captures the group’s manic creativity in a way a traditional film couldn’t. 

19. AC/DC: Let There Be Rock 

This concert movie is like the band itself: Somewhat crude but packed with real power. More than most performance films, it’s shot close and from above, giving viewers a sense that they’re in a room, not just watching a spectacle. It works. This is the best footage of the group with original vocalist Bon Scott, and it captures the band’s energy best. Live at Donnington, shot a decade later with singer Brian Johnson, is also highly recommended. 

20. LCD Soundsystem, Shut Up and Play the Hits 

This film tells the story of what was then billed as the group’s final show, in 2011 at Madison Square Garden. The focus is on the performance itself; although it’s intercut with footage of frontman James Murphy before and after, its scope is two days, not a career or a life. The group was back together within five years, but this film shows all of its energy, as well as that of New York at the time.