Considering Sparks have been a band for nearly 60 years, and during those decades have built their legend largely on the strength of their stage shows, it’s surprising that until 2026, they had released only one live album: 2013’s Two Hands, One Mouth, which featured just the LA band’s principals, brothers Ron and Russell Mael. Live on the Moon arrives on the heels of one of Sparks’ biggest gigs—sharing a bill with their occasional collaborators Gorillaz at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June 2026—and its conceit is that it was recorded in 2025...in outer space, specifically on “Taruntius Crater, near Mare Fecunditatis.” The bit is further underscored by an MC cameo from Cate Blanchett, a longtime Sparks fan who also starred in the video for the duo’s “The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte.” Appropriately, the set kicks off with “So May We Start,” from 2013’s rock opera Annette, before moving into tracks that highlight not only the Maels’ lengthy discography, but also their refusal to be pigeonholed by genre, from the Eastern European-flavored “Goofing Off” to the music-hall-style “Reinforcements” to the electrified disco of “Academy Award Performance” to “Do Things My Own Way,” from Mad!, the LP this tour supported. It all builds in Sparks’ signature theatrical way to a stretch of their biggest songs, the band performing “The Number One Song in Heaven” not too far from the place itself before returning to their earthly, early-’70s roots with the glam-rock epics “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both Of Us” and “Whippings and Apologies.”