See 25 live shows in 2008

woohoo! saw them October 8th, with an incredible crowd up in Albuquerque. I miss Canadian music so much, and they never fail to put on a great show.

adding a few festivals/performances:

-Old Time Music Festival (two nights) particularly The Freighthoppers

-Thirsty Ear Festival (one night) Santa Fe Allstars, Round Mountain

-The Democratic National Convention (Sheryl Crowe and Stevie Wonder!!!)

Uh, Splendour in the Grass

I’ll count it as one, mostly because I don’t really care about the numbers but also becuase I’m lazy.

It was awesome.

Heck of a concert. Wow. Weeeeird group, amazing stage presence, reminds me of a cross between Moxy Fruvous and the Beastie Boys and the Blues Brothers. Frickin brilliant. Danced like a wild thing the whole time, absolutely enjoyed the calibur of the musicians and the well-crafted stage show. the Lord Buckley segment in the middle kicked serious booty, and fed into the wild night!

Last weekend I saw:

Round Mountain (and they opened for an amazing woman whose name I forgot)

and

Moira Smiley with VOCO. Incredible vocal group with balkan and appalachian songs.

Halfway through the year and I’ve only seen 9 shows. They are:

X 06/07/08
Beirut 6/2/2008
Cowboy Junkies 6/1/2008
Blue Rodeo 5/28/08
Hawksley Workman (!)
Scandimaniacs
Les Old Timey Messangers
Ruby Dee and the Snake Handlers 03/25/08
2/17/2008- Gabriel Alegria

Fortunately, I’m pretty sure summer concert season will help to boost those numbers up so I can actually meet this goal, not to mention stay happily drenched in good live music. I’m going to a world music festival this week, so I should see at least 3 concerts there!

WOW X is amazing. Punk legends rocked our worlds at the outdoor show. I couldn’t believe the energy, and they certainly haven’t lost their edge. The Detroit Cobras opened with a great punk/rockabilly set, and joined back in for the last few songs. Man, what a great night. great people-watching too, though perhaps the great Billy Zoom took that too literally…

oh, it was such a sweet homecoming show. They had a new zealand group called the Brunettes open, who were a little silly but fun. Beirut was just awesome. I love a solid horn section,and when they had double mandolins and double trumpets it just broke my heart. SO good. Made me really nostalgic for Paris, though, and I didn’t have the balls to talk to him about when he was there, etc. But next time! Great great show.

A very calm show. Granted, it was in a sitdown venue, but even the gorgeous blues stylings were pretty lacking in energy, with the lead singer wearing a comfy sweater and disappearing during a long instrumental break to make a cup of tea, etc. still the songs tell beautiful sad stories and I’m glad to have seen these Canadian legends!

Architecture in Helsinki
+ El Guincho (or whatever)

Okay! This show was pretty great, but it has been a while so I will not go to so many details.

El Guincho I could take or leave, but I was pretty sleepy at this point (and in fact did actually fall asleep at the show… wtf.) I think he would be fun to dance to if you were drunk, or maybe if you were just more into it than I was. So, sad face.

Architecture rocked my actual socks off. It is now my number 1 favourite show ever (followed by their last show, and Maximo Park, and Spoon).
It was fun to dance and scream the lyrics, and also be elbowed in the head by the tone deaf loser with the stupid hair.

and then mcflurries!

I totallly got the guy’s guitar pick, too.
I win at grabby-hands.

The moral: if Architecture come to town, SEE THEM. and dance and have a great old time.