[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

1) grateful dead fare thee well finale in San Francisco...
2) sleater-kinney reunion at palladium
3) sister nancy plus warrior king at dub club
4) deftones at observatory small theater
5) groundation at observatory
6) the Itals free in MacArthur Park
7) alborosie at observatory
8) reggae nite hollywood bowl
9) don carlos
10) jesey royal santa monica pier

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I could've added Shannon Wright to that list but alas i was out of town

[Moshe]

Assif Tsahar / William Parker / Hamid Drake - Levontin 7, Tel Aviv
Swans - Reading 3, Tel Aviv
Psychic TV / PTV3 - Barby, Tel Aviv
Bardo Pond - Barby, Tel Aviv
Ben Frost - Levontin 7, Tel Aviv
Peter Brotzmann and Paal Nillsen-Love - Levontin 7, Tel Aviv
Wolf Eyes - Levontin 7, Tel Aviv
Low - Barby, Tel Aviv
Lietterschpich - Levontin 7, Tel Aviv
Wolf Eyes - Syrup,Haifa

[SYRFox]

Probably something like:

Acre - Nouveau Casino, Paris
Die Antwoord - Zénith, Paris
Autechre - Dour Festival, Dour
Deerhoof - Dour Festival, Dour
Hudson Mohawke - Dour Festival, Dour
Kahn & Neek - Petit Bain, Paris
KRS One - Festival Jazz La Défense, Puteaux
Mad Professor - La Bellevilloise, Paris
Joe Nice - Petit Bain, Paris
Princess Chelsea - Batofar, Paris

[stu666]

Babes In Toyland - Bristol
Babes In Toyland - Southampton
The Flaming Lips - Liverpool
Acid Mothers Temple (with Pika) - London
Faust (featuring Thurston Moore) - London
Portishead - Suffolk
Vibracathedral Orchestra - London
Action Beat / Trash Kit - London
Thurston Moore x 20 (Various locations...)

[Toilet & Bowels]

1. Selvhenter
2. White Magic
3. Konono No.1
4. Brotzmann/Parker/Drake
5. Swans
6. Sunn O)))
7. Keiji Haino
8. Karen Gwyer
9. Bardo Pond (the sound guy/venue/promoter fucked them over and made them play with reduced volume because they weren't the headline act, so this won't be in my year end list probably -were I to make one)
10. Joanna Robertson

Can't remember what else I've seen this year that deserves a place in the top 10

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by SYRFox

Probably something like:

Acre - Nouveau Casino, Paris
Die Antwoord - Zénith, Paris
Autechre - Dour Festival, Dour
Deerhoof - Dour Festival, Dour
Hudson Mohawke - Dour Festival, Dour
Kahn & Neek - Petit Bain, Paris
KRS One - Festival Jazz La Défense, Puteaux
Mad Professor - La Bellevilloise, Paris
Joe Nice - Petit Bain, Paris
Princess Chelsea - Batofar, Paris

I saw a Mad Professor set a few years ago it was the only time i actually enjoyed DJ like stage show

[SYRFox]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

I saw a Mad Professor set a few years ago it was the only time i actually enjoyed DJ like stage show

he's great isn't it! kept on giving away dubplates and stuff haha. mad tunes were being played. Me, I love DJs (but I can completely understand how one could not enjoy that ), meaning I've seen plenty of sets this year, but it was cleary amongst the most enjoyable hehe. was a great night as well - Pinch & Adrian Sherwood release party, he was guesting there. wicked party

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Yeah i don't particularly enjoy DJ, i can spin music at home, i came to see a stage show. Howrver im not impartial to a good DJ in between bands or sets.

[Severian]

Hmm, I'm going to have to think on my actual "top 10" proper, but I will say that, aside from seeing some new faces and bands for the first time, I really enjoyed seeing Sleater-Kinney back in Feb. And I had a transcendent little experience with an even older favorite in the spring.

I had no initial plans to even try to get to the SK show, but with friends like mine (over-enthusiastic thirty-somethings who worshipped SK in another life), it wasn't surprising to find myself on the other end of a "duuude- I've got an extra ticket to see SK tomorrow! You coming or what?" kind of conversation. And come I did, mainly because the lady was out of town and I was bored and lonely, but MAN did I enjoy it.

It was like 1998 all over again. with better equipment, certainly, and a much more crowded house. It was my ... ninth? tenth? SK show of the millennium, and I think it was all the more electrifying because of how little I expected walking in.

But, that's just one show that comes to mind. I've been to more concerts this year than in any year in recent memory, and before a I can start ranking I need to think back to the experiences.

Not gonna lie though - I saw Jesus & Mary Chain this year, and it was bloody unforgettable. Different energy than the SK show... At SK, I had the impression that if I started to chat with anyone about my honest feelings on the band and their public personas (ahem, Carrie), I might be lynched. Everyone was singing along, but I was just kinda grooving.

At J&MC, it was clear that I was the wild idiot kid in the room. I read reviews of the show later where writers admitted to having a kind of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward the band. I, on the other hand, may well have been foaming at the mouth. It was so foggy and droney and stoney and beautiful, and I sang my smokey little lungs out.

Until I can reflect further, I'll go with Jesus & Mary Chain for the win.

Oh! And Swans. Shit.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

At SK, I had the impression that if I started to chat with anyone about my honest feelings on the band and their public personas (ahem, Carrie), I might be lynched.

come on! help us lynch you! what was it you'd have said?

[Severian]

Something about Portlandia or NPR or that gassy little Rolling Stone spread they did. Something with a touch of "back in my day" and an air of undeserved generational superiority. Something that only I would find funny.

Maybe I'm being too dramatic, but I did kind of wish face-palming was still a thing when I glanced around at the crowd.

[_tunic_]

last.fm's event section is still not working, which is my memory and agenda regarding the shows I've visited and going to visit. So I'll make it a top three for now, as I don't recall what other shows I went to this year.

Nils Frahm @ Paradiso A'dam. I had my eyes closed the entire time, and my head was pointed towards the speaker stack instead of the stage to get a full stereo sound in both of my ears (and mics).

Low @ Tivoli/Vredenburg Utrecht. Their new songs are great, Lullaby at the end was stunning.

Mono @ W2 Den Bosch. Same setlist of their previous tour half a year earlier, but still brilliant to hear live.

edit:
one more:
God's Pee @ Weststadthalle, Essen
how could I forget? Not the best of the almost 20 times I've seen them since their reunion. But looking forward to hearing the new songs live again soon.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Severian

Something about Portlandia or NPR or that gassy little Rolling Stone spread they did. Something with a touch of "back in my day" and an air of undeserved generational superiority. Something that only I would find funny.

Maybe I'm being too dramatic, but I did kind of wish face-palming was still a thing when I glanced around at the crowd.

Oh, i have my qualms with TV Carrie considering what SK was as a band for so long but the show was fun beyond my expectations. I was worried it would be too much a nostalgia show but the new material made it something fresh, something like every SK album tour always felt like.


I will say this, Corin Tucker Band Kill My Blues is better than No Cities To Love, but just barely. I honestly think that Corin got in on this reunion because she needed the boost, i was so disappointed at the turn out at the Corin Tucker Band shows here in LA considering how Sk always always always were sold out shows and Wild Flag was big here too

[Toilet & Bowels]

I was surprised that SK were playing much larger venues here (London) for their reunion than they ever did when they were together the first time around. I didn't know (and would never have guessed) they'd increased their following in the down time.
And the weird thing is, the few scant impressions I get is that their new found fans are not people who would ever have liked them 15 years ago. I guess that makes SK ahead of their time.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I agree completely. The crowd was bigger than any SK shows i had ever been to and it was full of people you would never have previously seen before. However i guess such is music.. black keys used to open for SK in shitty clubs now they headline the Staples Center like they were the Lakers

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

However they were part of a riot grrrl scene that was blatantly counter culture and 15 years later we see more and more pop rock and mainstream bands fronted by female singers so perhaps their audience expanded because people are more into "girl bands" in general

[Severian]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Oh, i have my qualms with TV Carrie considering what SK was as a band for so long but the show was fun beyond my expectations. I was worried it would be too much a nostalgia show but the new material made it something fresh, something like every SK album tour always felt like.


I will say this, Corin Tucker Band Kill My Blues is better than No Cities To Love, but just barely. I honestly think that Corin got in on this reunion because she needed the boost, i was so disappointed at the turn out at the Corin Tucker Band shows here in LA considering how Sk always always always were sold out shows and Wild Flag was big here too

Yeah, I'm a big Corin Tucker Band fan. Kill My Blues was a great album. Same with Wild Flag. But I have had the same thought about Corin and it bums me out a bit. I know the current mythology dictates that Corin and Carrie were the heart of the band, but Carrie has always felt like the most basic (in a Rick Ross kind of way...) member. Janet rarely gets the recognition she deserves for what she actually contributed to the band's inimitable sound. Carrie's great, but she's not my favorite contributor.

I will say this about her: for the longest time SK felt like the female, West Coast equivalent of Fugazi. There was something classic about their non-traditional variation on percussive punk. But Carrie has more or less put an end to that. The parallel, if it ever existed, has been broken, and now for better or worse SK is simultaneously more than and less than an iconic punk music presence. That's what happens when celebrity grows beyond a certain point for someone in a band. It almost happened to Sonic Youth once or twice, but never did.

The show was killer, but the SK I grew up around exists only in hindsight, despite the fact that the band is active with all its players. Does that make a lick of sense?

[EVOLghost]

Blonde Redhead in July. That show was so fantastic. Everytime they're pulling out deep cuts I've never heard live. It seems as if the shows before this one were lacking something. This most recent, they radiated with passion. They're perfect!

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Severian

The show was killer, but the SK I grew up around exists only in hindsight, despite the fact that the band is active with all its players. Does that make a lick of sense?

Its true BUT SK was always a changing and evolving band, always fluid. So now they have taken on Carrie's "tv star" aspects and the increasing maturity of Corin Tucker and still grounded in the fun that always is Janet.

I liked the reunion only because it did feel natural, like a progression
I think Carrie realized the emptiness of celebrity and the one dimensionality of Wild Flag and Corin got a taste for touring again now that her kids are older.