Wednesday, April 11

My Top 10 Shows from 2006

1 ... Jeff Tweedy solo at the Fillmore, SF, 2/8/06 & 2/9/06

Two amazing shows, I've seen Wilco several times but I have to say seeing just Tweedy with his guitar and harmonica was a better show for me. I'm a lyrics lover and they are right out there when he's doing his solo thing. He did have Nels and Glenn join him on a couple of tracks which was a nice change to the set. This man's music just does it for me. I never get tired of listening to it, never ... plus, he's funny! I'm one of those fools still holding out for an UT reunion someday. Concert moment of the year was definitely Acuff Rose un-miced at the edge of the stage, fan-fucking-tastic!

2 ... Arab Strap at Café Du Nord, SF. 3/24/06

Great great show, very intimate and beautiful. I am so glad we went to this even though we got stuck in Auburn for the night due to snow, they are friggin' broken up now, so yeah it was WELL worth it to pay for that stupid jacuzzi room in Auburn. Great night, parked right in front of the door, stayed 5 doors down at the Twin Peaks motel, met the whole band, fucking great all the way around. Also, I think La could have gotten freaky with Aidan if she had wanted to. Glad she didn't but happy she's still got the skills to pay the bills if I get hit by a bus or something.

3 ... Cursive at the Fillmore, SF. 10/23/06

I'd been waiting almost 2 years to see Cursive again, love the new album and just enjoyed the hell out of myself at this show. They sounded great with all the extra instruments and played a great set. I prefer seeing them in a smaller space than the Fillmore but it is after all a legendary venue and I'm sure they were stoked to play there.

4 ... The Raconteurs at the Warfield, SF. 7/24/06

I am a huge Brendan Benson fan so seeing him and Jack White sharing the stage and tearing the roof offa the place was a perfect show for me. The drummer was a mad man, the sound was fantastic. They were better live than I expected and that is always a nice surprise.

5 ... TV on the Radio at the Independent, SF. 5/2/06

I saw them twice this year and the other show may have been better because Tunde was amazing at the other show, but I picked this show because of the great time we all had and getting to meet the band. At the Sacramento show they were way to loud for the space, that was the first show that my ears ever actually hurt after the show - yikes! Either way, either show these guys are an amazing live band!

6 ... Bloc Party & Broken Social Scene at The Greek, Berkeley, CA. 8/4/06

Words cannot describe how great this show was. I remember Bloc Party being super stoked because it was the largest audience they'd ever played to. The show goes so much better when the band is just as excited as the crowd. As far as Broken Social Scene, they were good, but I missed Leslie's voice - big time.

7 ... Peaches & Herms at the Empire Events Center, Sacramento 12/15/06

Last time I saw Peaches I was so awestruck I barely even danced. This time I had an idea of what I was in for. I danced and jumped around so much I am still sore. The sound was better at the Fillmore, but I think this show was better largely due to the HERMS!! JD is awesome, I should have bought her lesbian utopia calendar, and Samantha Maloney ... she took Tommy Lee's place on a Crue tour for fucks sake ~ come on, girl kicks some major ass! There's only one peach with the hole in the middle.

8 ... Lucero & Rocky Votolato at Club Underground, Reno. 10/11/06

Lucero are fucking great! I wanted to catch them in Reno once before but ended up going to a different out of town show, big mistake. This was a great show for Reno. I will travel to see Lucero play in the future. I haven't stopped listening to the new cd since the show 2 months ago. Rocky was good as well, his new cd is fantastic and it translates better than I would have guessed live.

9 ... Mike Doughty at the Nugget Showroom, Reno. 9/9/06

I never got to see Soul Coughing, got in to them pretty late in their career so seeing Mike Doughty solo was nice. He played a couple SC songs and rocked it with his solo material. His keyboard player (John Kirby) was astoundingly good. I'd see Mike again, with a full band would be nice.

10 ... Live 105 BFD at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Bay Area. 6/10/06

I am usually against festival shows just because of the sheer size, but I've been to BFD twice now and have enjoyed it immensely both times. They book great bands and I am usually in the best of friend company! This year was no exception, we saw She Wants Revenge (pure sex dance party), Wolfmother (incendiary), Thursday (okay), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (mind blowing), Echo and the Bunnymen (never thought I'd see them live!), HIM (pure metal goodness), Franz Ferdinand (a little full of themselves for my taste), the Strokes (excellent!) and AFI (not really my ball of wax, but they do put on an entertaining show). I put this show at number 10 because of the number of great bands I saw, but add it at the bottom of the list because of its festival nature. I get spoiled by small intimate venues. I will be going to small intimate venues to see several of these bands again though!

10.5 ... Twilight Singers & Afterhours at the GAMH 6/19/06

I feel like this should be higher on the list because it was definitely the best Dulli show I have ever seen, but can't cut any of the shows above either. So I cheat .... Top 11 list. Maybe I should make it 12 and add Sonic Youth .... Arg!

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