Oh man, it’s almost Labor Day weekend! Which means barbecues, earlier sunsets, and the close of summer in the American mind-set. (Not to mention the ever-closer encroachment of the Video Music Awards! Ack!) So what better time to look back? Feel free to share your favorite musical experiences of the Memorial-To-Labor-Day period in this space, while you are (I hope!) waiting to go outside and enjoy the last crackles of summer. My list—which ranges from shows to finding out bits of news—after the jump.
• Kelly Clarkson at the Great Allentown Fair, duh.
• Paul McCartney at Citi Field, which was made extra-special by me bringing my mom. Because it was her first concert! Ever! (I know!)
• The Roots Picnic, especially when the crowd was spazzing out over Public Enemy’s in-reverse performance of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.
• Mew at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
• Finding out that Annie’s Don’t Stop would be re-released with an awesome new cover and new tracks that I’d never heard.
• Watching my pal Christopher R. Weingarten claim his online-pundit status.
• It wasn’t technically summer, and they were putting on a slightly stale show, but I’m glad I finally got to see GWAR.
There were probably a few more, too. This summer wasn’t that bad!
The biggest summer bummer, after the strange aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death, was definitely finding out how many people would believe that “gullible” wasn’t in the dictionary if some Internet site told them that was the case. C’mon, people. Let’s all try to learn critical thinking skills for back-to-school season, ‘k?
Getting to see Japandroids from backstage at Pitchfork, HANDS DOWN. Fucked Up and McCartney (not playing together, sadly) at Coachella were pretty great as well.
-Pet Shop Boys at Hammerstein Ballroom
-Dean & Britta with Warhol screen tests in Prospect Park on the first dry summer night in a while.
-Raveonettes at Siren Music Festival
-Flamin’ Groovies in Brooklyn — when Wreckless Eric came out for a song and all the record geeks in the audience went nuts.
-Not a favorite moment, of course, but fascinating: Reading posts and watching MTV the day Michael Jackson died.
Very good question — always good to see Depeche as I did a few weeks back but the Sky Saxon tribute show was an enjoyable mess of a concert that among other things proves Billy Corgan can be calm and relaxed so long as he’s not the actual center of attention. Who knew? Meanwhile I’m going to count the On Land Festival as another highlight even though it’s still two weeks off.
Album surprise of the summer was the really grand XX disc, a late entry but easily the winner.
3 I’d never seen before:
Paul McCartney at Citifield. I’ve never been to a stadium show. And he is: Paul.
Nellie McKay at 92 St. Y Tribeca. A fairly adoring crowd, but it seemed like all those who were new to her (it was a triple bill) were really eating out of the palm of her hand after her brilliant set.
Bill Kirchen, on a bill with Los Straitjackets playing to a tiny crowd in the Catskills. Charming, *blazing*, a must-see.
Jarvis at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Had everyone there eating out of the palm of his hand, literally (he tossed grapes from his pockets).
And the moment that Jay-Z opened at APW with “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” was, it must be said, totally fucking stellar.
Being up pretty close at Lollapalooza for the Depeche Mode set
Seeing The Jesus Lizard play again at Pitchfork
Seeing NIN on the Farewell tour play the Aragon, including a cover of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” with Peter Murphy
the gun outfit at a house party.
david byrne and his fabulous dancers at the charlottesville pavilion.
a super-sweaty bonnie prince billy show on the eve of memorial day (with perhaps his finest touring band ever).
seeing several amazing local bands mature over the course of the past months.
interviewing and seeing sonic youth (mark ibold offered me $100 for my copy of the “hits are for squares” cd) in richmond.
she & him, mark eitzel, and wye oak killing it at the last night of merge xx.
I saw PE doing “It Takes A Nation” as well and loved it. The caveat is that it was at the 80/35 festival in Des Moines.
As an Iowan and PE fan, it was a delight to see Chuck D take the stage not 40 miles from where I grew up and bought my “Nation” CD (my third hip-hop album, after “Speakerboxx/The Love Below” and ATCQ’s “Anthology”). Flavor Flav was absent–he’d been hospitalized in Las Vegas. What put it over the top, however, (other than the music, still peerless) was Chuck’s attempt to connect with the (almost entirely white) audience. He shouted out every major city and town in Iowa, and a lot of universities and colleges as well. It meant a lot to the crowd, and I later found out that he’d spent his day with kids in inner-city DSM.
There are things I don’t love about Chuck (“Meet The G That Killed Me”, for one) but the whole experience was pretty special.
Best show of the summer: Micachu and the Shapes tearing it up at The Echo on a hot night in July
Honorable mentions:
Benji Hughes at Spaceland
The Hold Steady at The El Rey
Nicole Atkins acoustic show at Largo where she played almost all new material
All of xx merge, the warm fuzzy feeling of a long festival– making friends, seeing bands at the pool, taking lots of neat photos. But what I remember most was being on the verge of tears the whole time Lambchop played, it was a gorgeous performance.
I gotta agree with Maura, every bit of news I heard about the new Annie record made me insanely giddy. I love the feeling around really looking forward to a racord.
Seeing several local musicians I love play at a bar on my birthday.
Lots of little passing moments that came from listening to the Kinks on a friend’s porch, driving around listening to xm radio in my fiances new car, playing the 123 More More More radio show at my desk at work.
This summer mostly local shows have set me alight, as recounted here. They were the stuff that turns teeth into glass.
Other than that I’ve been staying inside my bunker and writing about music, which has gone from dreaded (self-imposed) deadlines to an actually enjoyable stress-relieving center of sweetness. Fuck yeah, summer 2009.
i will be seeing the pet shop boys tomorrow. besides that, pj harvey and john parish. and stevie b, which was like four days before memorial day but still, it was stevie b and the memories of i wanna be the one and spring love and because i love you (the postman song) lingered well into june.
on a smaller scale, javelin and whitey (not that whitey, the one from massachusetts) are both pretty awesome in a new englandy way.
-Seeing Future of the Left twice in a week, and then getting into McLusky (so late, but whatever.)
-Seeing the Grates residency at Pianos
-Ida Maria at Maxwells was amazing – she may have been a little drunk and all over the place (some of it had to be shtick, i think), but she was amazing. They ended with “I Wanna be Your Dog,” and it was incredible. Church!
- Ponytail, Fucked Up, Mission of Burma at the Williamsburg waterfront followed by a surprise Future of the Left show at Spike Hill
- The Black Lips at the Pitchfork Festival: dude smashed his guitar on the first song
- Singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in a canoe surrounded by fireworks on July 4th
Yeah to Future of the Left – really fun show. Majorly cathartic.
Also: Kurt Vile and Tyvek with some other garage rockers (Coconut Coolouts and Personal and the Pizzas) really made for a eclectic night. Still, Kurt was on point — see this man.
Getting backstage to Faith No More at Sziget Festival in Budapest and seeing Them Crooked Vultures in The Melkweg in Amsterdam 2 days later, last month.
-I saw Kinky (the mexican band) at my hometown, and I just love those guys, but what made extra special my 4th time in one of their concerts was that it started raining during the set (it NEVER rains here) and they had to cut the concert in like, the 6th song or something. But there was a magical moment just before the cancellation: they were playing “Sister Twisted” my definite favorite, and the rain was just perfect, heavy but not unbearable, me and some of my best friends and significant other had like 5 minutes of absolute care-free bliss, dancing and literally soaking in the moment.
-Just coming out of the closet as a total Shakira freak. I used to be like, she has some nice tunes but most of the time she’s just TOO GOOFY. Now I’m just, she’s too goofy and I love her becaus of it. ‘Loba’ = perfection.
- I can’t believe I didn’t know anything about the new release date of Annie’s “Don’t Stop”. Instantly it has become a highlight. Thanks, Maura!
Paul McCartney at Coachella – I’m such a big beatles. Wow, what a great show that i can tell my grandkids about in the future.
I meant to say big beatles fan. lol
radiohead at Reading
Grace Jones at Latitude
Springsteen at HydePark
1. Ida Maria and Franz Nicolay. See also this
2. At my friends’ wedding last night, the song that played after they were wed (y’know, when they were walking from the altar) was the “Final Fantasy” battle victory music. I’m not an “FF” fan, but that was awesomely nerdy and nerdily awesome. Later, the band (a violin, a flute, a cello, and a saxophone) played “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, and lo, it was good.
@kicking222: oh man, that part of the show was crazy; that dude must have been so excited to get that face time and hugs! I was behind and to the left of the dude the whole time. (That’s my exgf’s hand/camera in the shot!) You must have some great photos, what an unpredictable show…
Sugarland’s tour was awesome this summer. http://www.sugarlandmusic.com
Keith Urban in St. Louis was great!
@dan13l858: DITTO. A lifelong dream. It was incredible.
Speaking of Coachella, I was really impressed by Franz Ferdinand. Caught them again last week and they sizzled all over again.
@baconfat: Nice call. I saw Bonnie Prince Billy too and it was a great performance. Never thought I’d see him play live.
!!! I LOVE LIVE MUSIC !!!