2011 was an insanely good year for me seeing live music. The quantity was a bit ridiculous, having clocked in at over 100 shows... not bad for an old man with two kids and an average hour trip into the city. But still, don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and the quality of the music I saw was what really made it a "best ever" year for me seeing music. Got to cross a bunch of live music experiences off my bucket list (e.g. Prince, Midnight Ramble with Levon Helm, Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show, Radiohead in a club...), saw a bunch of brand new (or brand new to me) music that really inspired and saw pretty much every band on my "favorite/gotta see" list at least once and in many cases multiple times. It was a very good year, I consider myself blessed.
The stats:
170 bands seen
102 shows
84 nights(or days) out
43 different venues
Here are my favorite shows of the year using some sort of inexplicable ranking system, although I had a blast at pretty much 90% of the shows I saw, literally.
Thanks to all those that helped make my year in live music possible:
12/31/2011 Phish
3/19/2011 Anders Osborne
4/24/2011 Grails
8/19/2011 Burnham, Martin, Wood, Mr Rourke
10/29/2011 Medeski, Martin & Wood/Antibalas
6/24/2011 The Badwagon (The Bad Plus + Jason Moran Bandwagon)
12/6/2011 Scheinman/Frisell/Blade
9/19/2011 Tune-Yards
8/5/2011 Medeski, Martin & Wood et al
11/26/2011 The Musical Box
9/19/2011 The Bad Plus
4/11/2011 Toro Y Moi/Braids
2/7/2011 Prince
10/12/2011 Trey Anastasio
9/13/2011 Fruit Bats/Vetiver
12/30/2011 Phish
8/11/2011 Bustle In Your Hedgerow
9/25/2011 Steve Malkmus & the Jicks
11/8/2011 The Sea and Cake/Brokeback
11/19/2011 Tinariwen
4/9/2011 Bardo Pond
3/6/2011 Middle Brother/Deer Tick/Dawes
5/25/2011 Bright Light Social Hour/Black Taxi
12/11/2011 The War on Drugs
2/9/2011 Nicole Atkins & the Black Sea
4/6/2011 Widespread Panic (1; 114)
10/13/2011 Iron and Wine
8/5/2011 El Ten Eleven
8/16/2011 Mischief & Mayhem
10/1/2011 Black Taxi/Bright Light Social Hour
3/15/2011 Godspeed You! Black Emperor
2/26/2011 Galactic/Trombone Shorty/High & Mighty Brass Band
1/15/2011 The Punch Brothers
7/29/2011 Deer Tick/Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside
3/29/2011 The Dears
5/15/2011 Yellowbirds/Wolf!
7/15/2011 The Slip/Well-Dressed Groomsmen
7/14/2011 The Slip
11/23/2011 A.A. Bondy/Golden Leaves
1/24/2011 The Decemberists/Wye Oak
9/24/2011 Megafaun/Doug Paisley
11/13/2011 Manchester Orchestra/White Denim
10/18/2011 Wild Flag/Eleanor Friedberger
12/1/2011 J Roddy Walston & the Business
12/3/2011 George Porter & the Runnin' Pardners
11/2/2011 Feist/Happiness Project
12/3/2011 Charles Bradley & the Extraordinaires
12/21/2011 Yo La Tengo/Spent
12/13/2011 Wolf!/Jim Campilongo Trio
4/29/2011 Holy Ghost!
5/12/2011 John Vanderslice
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