SZA‘s Not Charity has teamed up with the Los Angeles-based restaurant Jon & Vinny’s to provide 1,400 free meals for people who are struggling to put food on the table in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history as their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits dry up.

“Yall know how much I love Jon and Vinny’s !! But it ain’t no fun if the Homies  can’t have none !!” SZA wrote in a joint post on Monday (Nov. 10) with the restaurant announcing the initiative.

“Last week @sza reached out to us with an idea and now, with her help, it’s a reality. Over the next 7 days we are partnering with her NOT Charity to provide 1400 free meals (100 dinners for 2 per day) for Los Angeles community members who receive SNAP,” the restaurant added. Each meal will be available from the restaurant’s 4400 W. Slauson Ave. location from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. between Tuesday and next Monday (Nov. 17).

SNAP recipients are encouraged to email notcharity@jonandvinnys.com to sign up for a meal; up to four per family.

The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday in an effort to keep full payments from the SNAP federal food aid program frozen during the shutdown as the Associated Press reported that some of the 42 million families who depend on the assistance are struggling to put food on the table. While lower courts have ruled that the government has to keep full payments coming, the Trump administration is again asking the Supreme Court to keep them frozen for now, with the high court expected to rule on Tuesday.

In the meantime, some families are skipping meals or relying on local food pantries to stock their shelves as the administration argues that requiring full SNAP funding during the shutdown could have a negative impact on the negotiations in Congress aimed at ending the stoppage, which has now stretched to a record 42 days.

On Monday, the Senate passed legislation aimed at ending the shutdown, which must now go to the House for approval. Meanwhile, the impacts of the impasse continue to spread, from millions at risk of losing their government assistance and going hungry to massive air-traffic interruptions as winter creeps in just two weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Please spread the word to those in need. Thank you SZA for inspiring all of us to be there for our neighbors,” Jon & Vinny’s wrote.

Metallica surprised Melbourne fans on Saturday night (Nov. 8) by covering Aussie punk rock legends The Living End during their M72 World Tour stop at the city’s Belluna Arena — and frontman Chris Cheney has officially responded, with a delightfully cheeky tale from his high school days.

During the band’s signature “doodle” segment — where lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo pay homage to local music acts in each city — the duo launched into a high-energy instrumental cover of The Living End’s 1997 breakout hit “Prisoner of Society.” After teasing INXS’s “Don’t Change,” the pair ripped into the punk anthem to a roaring Melbourne crowd, with Trujillo even taking on vocal duties.

The Living End initially responded with quiet gratitude via Instagram Stories across the weekend, but on Sunday, Cheney delivered with a full-circle flashback.

Posting to social media, the Aussie frontman recalled losing a 1992 Battle of the Bands at Wheelers Hill High School to a Metallica cover band named Texas Rose — who beat his then-band Runaway Boys by performing “Enter Sandman.” At the time, Cheney was crushed. “They simply stole the show and won,” he wrote. “The bass player came up to me afterwards with a big grin and said ‘hehe we beat you!’ Ouch!”

More than three decades later, that memory hit a sweet twist. “Well guess what motherf–ker, Metallica are now covering our song in front of 50,000 people!” Cheney posted. “Stick that in your pipe and smoke it! Funny old life, innit.”

The moment was a standout from Metallica’s Aussie tour, which has included local tributes in every city — from John Butler Trio’s “Zebra” in Perth to The Angels’ “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” in Adelaide. Melbourne marked the halfway point in the band’s long-awaited return to Australia and New Zealand, with upcoming dates in Brisbane (Nov. 12) and Sydney (Nov. 15). This tour is Metallica’s first in the region since Soundwave Festival 2013.

Meanwhile, The Living End just kicked off their I Only Trust Rock ‘n’ Roll Australian tour, playing their self-titled 1998 debut album in full alongside tracks from their new record. The next shows include Adelaide, Melbourne, Fremantle and a Sydney Opera House Forecourt date in December.

A wave of international Bluesfest 2026 artists have confirmed headline dates across Australia for March and April next year, in addition to their festival sets at Byron Bay’s Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm.

Among them are The Black Crowes, Sublime, Buddy Guy, The Pogues, Marcus King Band, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, and Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew, who will perform their Remain In Light show with special guest Robert Randolph.

The announcement arrives days after Bluesfest confirmed its first artist lineup for 2026. While Split Enz and Counting Crows have already rolled out separate tour itineraries, the new additions round out a larger national offering, giving fans beyond Byron Bay a chance to catch exclusive one-night-only shows in capital cities and select regional centres.

Sublime will appear at Melbourne’s Festival Hall on April 1, followed by Bluesfest on April 2 and a final stop at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on April 4. The Black Crowes will tour extensively, performing at The Forum in Melbourne, Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, Newcastle Entertainment Centre, and Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, either side of their Byron Bay date.

Buddy Guy, who turns 90 in July 2026, will play the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Palais Theatre. His appearances at Bluesfest mark what could be his final Australian performances. The Pogues, commemorating the 40th anniversary of their 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, will headline shows in Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, with multiple performances also scheduled at the festival.

Additional sideshows include Marcus King Band touring Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide; Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band marking 30 years of Ledbetter Heights; and Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew performing their Remain in Light collaboration in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Presale access opens Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. AEDT via the Bluesfest Touring website, with general public tickets available from Thursday, Nov. 13. Tickets and full information are available via bluesfesttouring.com.au.

The Bluesfest sideshow rollout underscores the event’s growing national footprint as it continues to rebound from the pandemic era. Bluesfest 2025 welcomed more than 109,000 attendees — its biggest turnout since 2019 — and was described by festival director Peter Noble as “the third-biggest event we’ve done in the history of the festival.”

“We’ve worked hard to get here,” Noble said in April. “We’ve had the highest attendance of any Australian festival since pre-COVID… Festivals are back.”

Mark Hoppus is heading to Australia in 2026 — but this time, he’s not coming with Blink-182 or a bass guitar in hand.

Instead, the beloved frontman will take fans behind the scenes of his life and career for An Evening of Storytelling with Mark Hoppus, a spoken-word live tour that promises honesty, humour and vulnerability in equal measure.

Hoppus will perform two exclusive shows: one at Melbourne Recital Centre on Thursday, March 19, and another at the iconic Sydney Opera House on Saturday, March 21. The tour follows the release of his 2024 memoir Fahrenheit‑182, which offered fans an unfiltered look into his childhood, rise to fame with Blink, public cancer battle, and the emotional fallout from band drama and personal loss.

Presale access for the Live Nation–promoted event opens Thursday, Nov. 13 at 12 p.m. local time via livenation.com.au/register, with general on-sale beginning Friday, Nov. 14 at 1 p.m. local time.

Unlike a typical pop-punk concert packed with Blink classics like “What’s My Age Again?” or “All the Small Things,” this event will trade moshing for meaning. Fans can expect a raw account of Hoppus’ journey — from growing up in the California desert as a latchkey kid, to Blink-182’s meteoric rise, to the 2021 cancer diagnosis that almost ended everything. He’ll also share behind-the-scenes moments that never made it to the stage — from label fights to friendship fractures to finding a way back to music and purpose.

Hoppus’ memoir, which debuted on the New York Times Best Sellers list earlier this year, has been praised for its candid tone and dark humour. The book’s title — Fahrenheit‑182 — nods to both Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Blink’s own cheeky mythology, but the content is far more personal than Blink’s tongue-in-cheek origins.

The tour marks Hoppus’ first solo visit to Australia since Blink-182’s reunion tour wrapped earlier this year.

The Eagles have added more 2026 dates to their Sphere residency, extending their run as the artist with the most dates at the Las Vegas immersive venue to 56.  

The new shows will take place March 20-21 and March 27-28. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees had previously announced eight shows for next year: Jan. 23-24, Jan. 30-31, Feb. 20-21 and Feb. 27-28.

Artist presale registration is available now. The  presale begins Wednesday, November 19 at 10:00 AM PT. Tickets start at $175 and include all taxes and fees.

The group includes Don Henley, the only original remaining who co-founded the band with the late Glenn Frey in 1971, as well as guitarists Joe Walsh and Vince Gill, bassist Timothy B. Schmit and Frey’s son Deacon.

The Eagles’ Sphere stint started in September 2024, and the band added dates a handful at a time, setting the record for the most shows with the announcement of the February dates in October at 52. The previous record belonged to Dead & Co. at 48 shows.

Billboard praised the Eagles show, writing after the Sept. 20, 2024, opening: “For more than 50 years, the Eagles have been painting vivid pictures with their music, from the dark desert highway of ‘Hotel California’ to the billion stars all around of ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ to the cold, cold city of ‘Life in the Fast Lane.’ On Friday night, those images came to intense life at Las Vegas’ Sphere, where the technology of 2024 finally caught up to the band’s enduring artistry and created a technicolor display worthy of their classic, illustrative songs from the 1970s and beyond.”