Best concerts of the year

I’ve been updating my concert going history via Setlist https://www.setlist.fm/user/Zwirnm. Now caught up basically to 2016!

Here are the ten best concerts I saw in 2022:

Sparks, Lincoln Theater
Neko Case, Wolf Trap
(The London) Suede, Fillmore East
Pet Shop Boys, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Quivers, Comet Ping Pong
The Weather Station, Union Stage
Chills, City Winery
They Might Be Giants, 9:30 Club
Midnight Oil, Theater at MGM National Harbor
Anaïs Mitchell with Bonny Light Horseman, Strathmore

Of those ten, I saw only the Pet Shop Boys. Was that on the tour with New Order and Paul Oakenfold? I wouldn't even list that one in my top 100 concerts ever.

I had tickets to Sparks ... and I'm supremely bummed that I ended up having to find a buyer for them! The latest word is, though, that the Mael brothers will be touring the U.S. again in 2023.

That was best of 2022 only.

Another good year for shows. Unfortunately, 2023 is looking rather sparse so far. I think this might be the beginning of a trend -as I get older so do the artists that I tend to see.

Michael, I was at three of your top ten (Sparks, Chills and Midnight Oil). They were great but couldn't crack my top ten:

Spoon - House of Blues (Boston)
Howard Jones/Midge Ure - 930 Club
Cheer-Accident - Rhizome
Roxy Music/St. Vincent - Cap One Arena
Dream Syndicate - City Winery
Porcupine Tree - Anthem*
Heaven 17 - Birchmere
Stereolab - 930 Club
Jonathan Richman - Lincoln Theater
Iron Maiden - Cap One Arena

*special thanks to Michael Toland for introducing these guys to me. What a great show.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2022 09:01AM by Heff.

Tell me about Cheer-Accident. Never heard of it/them! And weirdly have never seen a show at Rhizome although I know exactly where it is and know people who play there regularly.

Cheer-Accident is a Chicago-based collective that has been around in some form since the `80s. Drummer/pianist/trumpeter/vocalist Thymme Jones has been the only constant member. They usually are described as prog music but they are much more than that. With over 20 albums, their songs range from `70s musical theater (Learning to Fly) to pop (Like Something to Resemble) to electronic (Weird Organ) to well, prog (Humanizing the Distance)

This was my third time at the Rhizome, the other two shows (Live Skull and Eugene Chadbourne) were outside the building, this one was inside and it was like watching a show in someone's house. To the right of me was the kitchen and in the next room was the band. I guess I was in the dining room. Interesting setup to say the least.

> That was best of 2022 only.

Yeah, that was clear. My apologies, Zwirn, if my tone seemed too sarcastic or dismissive. We just didn't dig PSB in the same way.

I don't think I even saw ten shows this year. Here's hoping 2023 gives me the chance to get back on track.

My only ones scheduled for the new year so far are Muse in April, and Death Cab + The Postal Service in October. I'm seriously thinking of driving to Vancouver, BC in March to see Sloan. (The band hasn't announced any stateside dates yet.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2022 07:27PM by Delvin.

I saw zero shows this year. Not looking to change any in 2023. No money for that anyway. Few acts come to my hamlet. Shows used to involve travel expen$e$ for us.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I saw two, Steve Hackett and Tears For Fears. I enjoyed both very much!

The two others for which I had tickets were postponed for next year (Mission / Chameleons) or canceled outright (Hoodoo Gurus).

I'm like Monk: no shows at all this year, a combination of pandemic issues and living in a musical backwater.

But thanks Michael for turning me on to Quivers with your review, one of my favorite musical discoveries this year.

Ten best live performances of the year for me?

The Bill Frisell Trio @ Dimitriou's
eXTC @ The Triple Door
Failure @ Neumos
Joe Jackson @ The Moore Theatre
The Linda Lindas @ Mosswood Park, Oakland
The Dirtbombs @ Mosswood Park
Bleached @ Mosswood Park
The Rubinoos @ Mosswood Park
Franz Ferdinand @ The Ogden Theatre, Denver
Richard Thompson @ Edmonds Center for the Arts

I guess I saw more live music in 2022 than I'd realized, thanks to my trip to Oakland. And there were quite a few other bands at the Mosswood Meltdown, but those are the ones I'd gladly pay to see again. Here's wishing all my TP compatriots a terrific 2023!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2022 07:04AM by Delvin.

I think I only went to seven shows this year. Old age and unemployment are keeping me home.

Sparks - excellent, and a longstanding bucket list item ticked off

The English Beat - my college friends insist on seeing them every time they come to town. They're always great, but I really don't care if I ever see them again.

Chris Isaak & Lyle Lovett. Chris was excellent, Lyle pretty dull. Both could've stood to shut up and sing a bit more.

Pat Benatar - a friend of mine had a spare ticket cuz his husband was out of town, so what the hell. Benatar was okay.

"Bow Wow Wow," "When In Rome" and the Motels. Same friend, same husband out of town, same what the hell response to offered spare ticket. Martha Davis is a little old lady now and it seemed like Grandma got up from the Thanksgiving table and strapped on a guitar, but since it was her and one other original member, they were the only band on the bill that had any plausible claim to be the band they were claiming to be. I don't give much of a damn about When In Rome, but their current singer is Tony Fennelle, who was the first side of beef Billy Currie recruited when he relaunched Ultravox free of any members of Ultravox besides himself. In light of that, When In Rome used one of their four allotted songs on a cover of "All Stood Still," but it's not like anyone in the theater knew any other actual When In Rome songs besides "The Promise."

Alice Cooper - first time I got to see him. It was a last minute decision to go, so had nosebleed seats, but it was one of those shows where the ushers stopped nosebleed ticket holders and gave them better seats, so ended up in the sixth row. So that was cool.

Pet Shop Boys and New Order. Put me in the PSB column for this one. Bernie Sumner claimed to have a cold, so his already infamously not-particularly-good vocals were not-particlarly-gooder than usual, so that took a bit of the shine off New Order.

The Church is finally coming back to St. Louis in 2023, this time to a venue with a professional sound system and working climate control, so hopefully I'll get to see a good show by them this time. And I have a ticket for the Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew show. Beyond that, I doubt I'll haul my ass out of the house any more in 2023 than I did in 2022. I no longer have much desire to spend a minimum of $50 to go out and be irritated by all the other idiots in the audience.

The Church is coming to the Pacific Northwest, but they're playing in Tacoma. Never mind that their lone WA date is on a Friday; getting there and back is too much of a pain in the ass for me to consider. (I've explained that situation to my old pals in Colorado Springs thusly: "Imagine driving to Denver, except that before you get to Denver, you have to drive through another city with even worse traffic than Denver.")

However, the band is playing in Denver in March, at one of my all-time favorite venues. I was anticipating seeing my family in March or April, so I may have to build the trip around that date.

Each time I've seen the Church, they keep getting better so I will be there when they hit VA in the spring. No Peter Koppes this time though.

Harrison and Belew are playing in Baltimore and that's a drive for me so doubtful.

The only others so far are Off!, Yo La Tengo and Hoodoo Gurus (fingers crossed on that one). Speaking of the Gurus, if they play the setlist that they've been doing in Australia, that's going to be one helluva show.

I only saw the Church once, in Portland in the early 2000s. They were very frustrated by sound and engineering issues and it was not a very satisfactory experience, but I'm willing to give them another chance. I would be interested in Belew...