The Year In Review | 2010 [Part 1: Live Music]

Thesis

Let's start small, work our way up to the big lists. Well, small in size (limited to Top 5), but not in content. Half of these performances were actually larger than Life itself. Anyway, I just watched Slacker and La jetee. Great cinema, but cinema that makes me question the value of my own creation here. A simple list. And yet, here's what's going through my head:

> I've been pretty finals-mentality lately, and I feel like I've earned the small pleasure of list-making.

So, here's the first part of a five (ten-? fifteen-? seven-?)- part series on my favorite things from this year, 2010. [ed. note - pix link to vids; pix and vids are of shows i attended when available]

Top Five Concerts Of 2010

05| Joanna Newsom - 09/24, The Buskirk-Chumley Theatre

So you thought that "Baby Birch" hit hard on headphones? It hits even harder live on stage. Note - I was front row for this gig. Homegirl had really impressive stage presence, and was hella funny! Who expected that of the female that penned, "I will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay/Just to lift your long face"? Anyway, the show was stellar from beginning to end - showcasing all of the great epics from Have One On Me and a few classics from her back-catalog. Technically it was really impressive (the percussionist in particular blowing my mind), every note packing a mega-emotional punch. Also, dat ass.

04| Future Islands - 06/03, The Bishop

Even though they totally blew it by opening the show with their best song ("Inch Of Dust"), the continued over-the-top stage of Sam Herring guaranteed non-stop attention and adoration. This guy is a physical performer, like making you Feel The Music, man. Seriously, he at one point punched me in the shoulder (inadvertently? [note, front row again]). Show was downright memorable, the way he fisted the air and stomped the stage. He several times showered the audience with sweat and spit, and just drilled himself into my memory. His stoic (read: motionless) band mates seemed not only bored by the music, but enraged by their flamboyant leader. Nevertheless, this show was fire - thumping bass and swimming synths, my heart races.

03| Panda Bear at Pitchfork Music Festival - 07/17, Union Park

NON-ANC0BR0: Panda, you suck. I remain totally unsure how anyone could enjoy the show you put on. You know it was a festival, right? Like, where the crowd is sweaty and stoned and dancing. The Audience does not want boring, loop-based droning (opening with a song called "Drone" was a nice touch, you dick). The Audience wants tunes they can dance to! The Audience wants interaction with their Idols! You addressed them twice - once to say hey, and once to apologize for not playing an encore. Also - you did not move. Statue Bear. Homeboy, you gotta perform! Move down, AnCo.

ANC0BR0: Noah, I love you. I remain totally unsure how everyone wasn't in tears like me. You touched me (your tunes an extension of your perfect soul), and moved my feet with That Voice. Every simple bass-clap-bass beat ran through my body and reaffirmed my existence. I am alive, and I have to thank you. It takes a bold artist - what heart - to play a set of unknown jams to a festival audience. Sure, I knew you were going to blow me away. But I didn't know that you were going to challenge me to become a better listener. Thank you.

SUMMARY: Set was cash - specifically, "You Can Count On Me."

02| Nurses - 04/12, The Bishop

These bros released 2009's most-slept-on record, Apple's Acre, which was just straight killa, no filla. In my eagerness to talk about the Frog Eyes show, I'm cutting this recap short. Let's just say:

> The old songs sounded great

> The new songs sounded great

> Nurses have more potential for Godhood than most bands

> The sound at the show was really well-balanced

> Their beards rock and they look hot

> I'm super excited for the next record

> "Man At Arms"

> Sweet visuals

The show was energetic and charging - amazing how much they felt like a Big Important Band. Nurses just has It. And I love It.

01| Frog Eyes - 06/25, The Bishop

Carey Mercer in front of my eyes. He's not as tall as I imagined, but he's at least four times more Canadian than I could ever fathom. Sometimes I forget that all of the Music Gods hail from the North. Cutting the bullhockey for a second (not really):

The man (God) got drunk. His eyes and voice took on a sort of scary unreality like halfway through the set, and he seemed to be projecting his own reality by the night's end.

His wife (drums, she hit them hard and good) maintained a funnily neutral face no matter what was going on, which was mostly rambling stories about bad gigs and the greatest music this side of Women. The rest of the band, keys and guitar, was all rotating about the Sun of Carey's Creation. Or, a perfect set.

The set was all about Paul's Tomb: A Triumph, which worked for me, because I'm also all about that.

Each jam just sounded Important. Like, "Flower In A Glove." That song is huge. It's everything. The nod to The Golden River, the re-imagining of some Blackout Beach material, the new cuts - they were all beautiful. When we eventually got to the encore, it didn't matter that everyone (there were totally like 20 of us) knew the band was going to play "Bushels," the froggiest of Frog Eyes songs. It didn't matter, because all of the pain and reality that had found its way into the preceding songs - lots - resurrected itself and burned down the building. Frenzy overtook me for that nine-minute epic.

Everything sounded perfect, and Carey's spit even felt perfect on my cheek.

This show doesn't sound real. But it was. REAL TALK: It was guitar rock. But Frog Eyes is the ideal of guitar rock in Plato's theory of forms.

What has to be noted (in addition to the fact that I was in the front row), is that the band is just tight. Like, as a Unit. They've got it down to an exact science - and even when it sounds inexact and dangerously uncontrolled, it's still precise enough to cut through your disbelief at its greatness (FROG EYES). It was glorious song after glorious song.

And did "Cloud Of Evil" actually happen?!

I have found no video evidence on YouTube to suggest that it did. Carey must have simply transported me to another reality, in which my skin was his evil and my ears were his tongues. It was a better world, the one where the ocean is defined by the lines of our own imperfection. The violent psalms of his guitar reduced me to ash and raised me up again. Carey, My God.

Bonus Round

Or, The Other Notable Shows I Attended This Year; Or, Honorable Mentions:

> Raekwon, Wolf Parade at Pitchfork Music Festival - 07/17, Union Park

> Twin Sister - 11/01, The Bishop

> Beach House - 09/06, Indiana University Auditorium

> Janelle Monae - 09/24, The Riviera

> Flaming Lips - 04/22, Indiana University Auditorium

> No Age - 09/15, Rhino's

> Woods - 03/23, The Bishop

> Lightning Bolt - 07/20, Rhino's

Conclusions

While I didn't make it to as many shows as usual this year (blame the economy), the quality of each show was nevertheless phenomenal. Nothing can match getting Carey Mercer's spit on your cheek, or having your chest rattled by Panda's bass, or holding hands during "Good Intentions Paving Company." A year of great concert memories, with plenty to look forward to in 2011 (did you know Akron/Family is coming?!). Party On.