What were your favorite gigs of 2009?

[Lowerdeck]

Here's a list for me...

Honorable mention:

May 23: "The Dueling Hammond B3s", The Dive Bar, Worcester MA

June 5: Dave Matthews Band, The Meadows, Hartford CT

Oct. 17: The Gaslight Anthem, House of Blues, Boston

Nov. 5: Delta Generators and Jon Short, The Cannery, Southbridge MA

5. Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters w/ Dave Keller

Aug. 29th: Lowell High School Auditorium, Lowell MA

I had been listening to his stuff a ton over the summer, and finally saw him perform live... granted in a high school on a warm, muggy night. But still, two plus hours of solid blues playing.

4. Burning Spear

July 8th: Paradise Rock Club, Boston

Jamaicans sure know how to play music and put on a show. Two and a half hours of some solid music, high intensity in the building got everyone moving. Surprisingly not a lot of weed smoke.

3. Tiesto

Oct. 1st: Tsongas Arena, Lowell MA

Most notable for chugging 10 dollars worth of Grey Goose in the parking lot before going in, then spending something like 25 dollars on beer inside. I don't really remember much of the night, other than texting a girl in Pennsylvania and coming home with a t-shirt. Proper drunk at a techno show easily gets on the list.

2. Bruce Springsteen

Aug. 19th: The Meadows, Hartford CT

Three fucking hours. On one of the hottest, muggiest nights of the summer. Considered one of the best concerts in Connecticut all year according to the Hartford Courant, I pretty much agree.

1.

July 21st

No further explanation needed.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Lowerdeck

[K]

Poejazzi at Udderbelly on the Southbank was probably my number 1

Hosted by Scroobius Pip inside a giant purple cow, sat next to the Thames...

It featured mindblowing sets from the new bands of all of my favourite poets.

[GoGo Yubari]

5. Ben Folds w/ The Seattle Symphony Orchestra (October 20th at the Benaroya Hall)

4. De La Soul (September 5th at the Seattle Center)

3. Harvey Danger (w/ Sleepy Kitty and Ships, August 28th at The Vera Project)

2. Art Brut (w/Miike Snow and Black Nite Crash, June 13th at Neumo's)

1. Shonen Knife (w/ Visqueen and Connecticut Four, October 24th at The Tractor Tavern)

Art Brut is probably the best singular set I saw in 2009 but they lose points because Black Nite Crash were incredibly dull and Miike Snow were alright but a little out of place. Shonen Knife ruled and they had Visqueen as an opener and Visqueen also fucking rule. Harvey Danger actually might have been a better overall show than Art Brut due to superior openers and a great set, but the Art Brut set is still enough to overcome it as that was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had at a concert.

[Cactus Drags]

Frank Turner at the Spiegeltent for New Years Eve was pretty special. Setlist was spot on, the venue was nice and tiny, it sounded great. And there were 150 people there, tops.

[Bigal]

AC/DC at Hampden Park is the best gig I've ever been to. I was right up near the stage, and it was just awesome. Bob Dylan at the O2 in Dublin was a close-second, and in third place - on the other end of the spectrum - is Frank Turner at The Stiff Kitten in Belfast. Great atmosphere, with a top setlist. Just a really fun show.

2009 was my favourite year in gigs.

[Skummy]

I didn't see too many...a few local bands that were huge amounts of fun, but I won't discuss here as it pretty much means nothing to any of you.

Aside from that, British Sea Power accompanying the film "Man Of Aran" was an interesting one....they basically wrote a score to the film, and then performed it live at a screening. So I'm not even sure that counts as a "gig", come to think of it. Was bloody good, though.

The best, though...as ever, very difficult, for different reasons.

Taking British Sea Power out of the equation, I pretty much only have bands I saw at ATP Nightmare Before Christmas and Hadouken! to choose from. I'll tell you now, Hadouken! and The Horrors aren't in with much of a shot.

Still, you know it's a good festival year when I can say "Sonic Youth? Nah, they didn't make the top five". Maybe it's just me, though, I've seen Sonic Youth, or individual members thereof, every year for five or six years in a row now, and this was probably the worst gig I saw of them. Bloody brilliant, but not by Sonic Youth standards.

So instead....all of the followings bands were at All Tomorrow's Parties, at Butlin's Minehead, the first weekend of December;

5) Television Personalities

One of my favourite bands of all time, and who TWICE now I've missed out on seeing because they cancelled at the last minute. Famously shambolic, so while I refused to miss them, I actually wasn't expecting much...and they were bloody incredible. Every song was spot-on, Dan Treacy was as fantastic and humorous a frontman as has ever lived, and I just loved the lot of it. Superb gig by any measure. They were also the first band since Os Mutantes to bring tears to my eyes, and the first band I can remember seeing in an awfully long time that have had me singing along to every word at the top of my voice.

4) The Sun Ra Arkestra

Was really looking forward to this one. The greatest avant-jazz band of the 20th century, lead by the incredible 85 year old saxophonist Marshall Allen...just mindblowing stuff, and a visual treat. The only thing that kind of lets it down is the current vocalist's style doesn't necessarily lend itself to my "vision" of the Arkestra, and that the whole "outer space/ancient Egypt" ideology surrounding them, which seemed sincere when Sun Ra was still with us, seems a bit silly and gimmicky without the great man.

3) Lightning Bolt

The only band on the list with members under 40! Hurray! I've seen some intense, loud and ludicrously heavy bands over the course of my gig-going - Gorerotted, SunnO))), Boris, Witch, My Bloody Valentine, Motorhead, Monotonix, to name but a few - and nothing came close to this in terms of soul-shattering ROCK. Some bands have been louder (My Bloody Valentine, by far the loudest band I've ever seen), and some have been slightly terrifying (SunnO)))), but none have been as violently...I don't know, I'm not even sure there's an adjective. Just incredible stuff. You've never been in a moshpit until you've been in a Lightning Bolt moshpit. So intense I had to have a shower and a change of clothes after they finished.

2) The Buzzcocks

Another one which I didn't really know what to expect from. I love The Buzzcocks - they were, in my opinion, one of the finest bands of the initial UK punk scene, and wrote one of the best pop songs ever in "Ever Fallen In Love". I prefer Magazine, though. But...all that was a long time ago, and I really knew nothing of what they were up to now, hadn't heard anything, never read a review of their current live show, so I went in half-expecting a doddery old pub rock band clinging to dying past glories, though on the other hand, remembering how incredible The Damned had been last year. It turns out the Buzzcocks far exceeded expectations - it was like I imagine seeing The Rolling Stones is supposed to be like; they were tight, full of energy belying their advanced years, and in spite of myself I knew every single song, even if I couldn't put a name to it, or even remember even having heard it before. Just absolutely phenomenal.

1) The Dirty Three

Wow. I know criminally little of The Dirty Three's music, but I know enough to be aware of something special - not to mention being an avid fan of Warren Ellis' work with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and especially Grinderman, not to mention his beautiful collaborations with Nick Cave on film scores. So I was expecting haunting soundscapes somewhere between Ennio Morriconne and post-rock...yet was greeted by an open-shirted, sweating, inebriated Warren Ellis creating walls and walls of deafening feedback through an electric violin while leaping around the stage in mock Jagger posturing. From there, a man I'd always seen come across as the grumpy old man of rock, uttering the odd snide remark in the background of Nick Cave interviews, proceeded to tell some of the funniest stories I've ever heard about acid trips, cold porridge and handjobs, reducing several members of the audience to giggling wrecks, and punctuating each point with alternately beautiful and pointedly vicious instrumentals, creating music I'd have never thought possible from just violin, guitar and drums. One of the finest bands I have ever seen.