Gig Of The Year?

Without a doubt (then realising he had a doubt) it was almost definately The Pet Shop Boys as the sun went down at Glastonbury on the Saturday. Idiosyncratic, and very, very, very drunk on Perry - we loped around a tree at the back singing, dancing like loons and discussing when they came out and was it before or after The Sun said it was okay to be gay.

Runners up would be Basement Jaxx at the same event, and of course They Came From The Stars upstairs At The Garage.

All Tomorrows Parties. All of it, I can't distinguish individual performances, it was just one big blur or scotch, irn bru and cheap speed and channeling my dead grandmother halfway through Arab Strap and writing songs in the girls' and the Boblings on the beach and Mogwai wishing me happy birthday then levitating onstage and no, not Sonic Youth, but lying on the floor ranting to anyone and everything that would listen that we should get a posse and burn their chalet and AYWKU... flattening us then Clinic getting us up off the floor to dance to the incanted spirits of Faust and Suicide, and oh yes, nothing comes close. And indie kids shagging on the roof, did we mention that?

I enjoyed The Roots at Central Park best, I believe. Good crowd energy, great performance, and even if the performance wasn't good, I always had those nasty little kids getting high off one joint and coughing their faces off to amuse me.

Runner up: Magnetic Fields. Not because I actually saw it, or actually like the Mags, because of the story. Fred ditches me after I ask him if I can go, and then God intervened in my favor for once in my life as Mike - who had Fred's tix - then proceeded to ditch Fred (who was apparently only like a minute late - what the fuck, Mike? I mean, thanks, but dude ;), who then COULDN'T GET IN. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Score one for karma. Particularly since it then started to rain. In fact, that's better than the Roots just for the sheer joy of retelling this story for the rest of my life, and for one night, feeling like fate was on my side. Honest to god, I will never commit suicide because I have this moment to let me know that people get bit in the ass in the end. It was so great, I am seriously laughing right now. My coworker just asked, what are you doing? I tell him the story and he's laughing. It's just that kind of great story. Especially when he came home, all wet and shit. Oh boy. My tummy hurts now, cos now we're talking about the time I threw wine on him. And the time that we all fought about the World Series. Memories.

This really has nothing to do with concerts now, does it?

No, if I recall correctly, what was at fault was Fred's insistence on waiting for me by the side of Castle Clinton. Yes, yes, we did agree that we would meet there, but c'mon, I figured that once he saw THE LINE at the front of Castle Clinton he'd change his game plan and start combing through the line to find me. Which, son of a gun, was the tactic he tried -- without the honeyed balm of success! And I was wearing my aloha shirt and everything! I stood out like a silver thumb.

He missed a pretty good concert, he did. Sure, he heard it all on the loudspeakers, but he could not eyewitness all the hell breaking loose once the rain came. It is a memory I will cherish always.

My favorite gig of the year was Le Tigre at Brighon Pavillion last Thursday. They came over even better than the live band bis always used to be back in '96, but with real style and substance. Even my girlfriend who previously dismissed them is now a convert and we foolishly decided to buy a band tee-shirt for the first time in years, before remembering that band shirts come in roadie size only. Doh.

Apart from that, any of the Sigur Rós sets I've seen has been a blinder, and Plaid where by far the definite highlight of All Tommorows Parties.

The Chameleons. Only my second favorite band of all time and space, and they reunite and play a freaking brilliant set when they swung through LA -- *and* the new songs were fantastic as well. Great sign, great band, haven't felt more alive in years, etc.

Runners-up -- Sparks, the Cure, Radiohead, Peter Murphy on the "Just for Love" tour, Kinski, Charalambides, Moe Tucker, Six Organs of Difference, Mark Burgess solo. Probably some others too. ;-)

i haven't been to nearly enough gigs this year, but the best was definitely an almost-inseparably-lovely triple bill at the maritime hall in san francisco a couple of weeks ago - ugly duckling, deltron 3030, and blackalicious (who included most of quannum). thus you get the goofily brilliant, the virtuously brilliant, and the viscerally brilliant all in one show. yaay.

Volcano the Bear. Music as singularly odd as krautrock must've been in 1969, while sounding completely different.

Runners-up: Peter Brotzmann's Die Like A Dog trio, Sleater-Kinney (twice), Dar Williams, Major Stars, High Rise, Mike Cooper, Six Organs of Admittance, Kevin Drumm, Pelt, and a couple different shows with Chris Corsano and Matt Heyner playing together. I scoff at seeing anything other than rock or improv live.

Didn't get to enough gigs this year to comment properly, but it would be hard to beat The Magnetic Fields in November. Most surprising would be Stereo Total in February on the "kiss-off to Britain" Momus tour, because I was quite amazed that a Momus-acolyte band could be that visceral and basic (elegant with it, but still rooted in rockabilly and skiffle); more like a mainland-European C86 than anything FoBo, and far, far better for it, obviously.

I still haven't been tempted to actually buy any of their CDs, though :).

I have been to only 2 gigs(!) this year. It's shocking, especially considering the number of free tickets to things I've been offered lately. So I guess by default it would have to be Morrissey, because he was pretty good.

The Dismemberment Plan, of course. Even if I didn't dance.

Plaid were great at ATP, but Pere Ubu at the Royal Festival Hall completely wiped the floor with anyone else I've seen this year.

Listen, Mike, when you agree to meet someone at a specific spot, you don't just get up and leave said spot and go someplace else, just assuming the other person would psychically divine where you're at, especially when you're dealing with common-senseless Freddie. He can't work his way through a line at Food Emporium half the time, you think he'd find you THERE? ;)

Fault: Mike. Do I mind? No, I applaud you!

It is very easy to not lose your mates at social events by the simple device of a mobile phone. Perhaps you are familiar with this technology?

Pet Shop Boys were indeed the proverbial mutts but slightly marred by the presence of Cerys 'I am Welsh' Matthews. Basement Jaxx - bingo bango, fan-blimming-tastic.

My favourite gig i didn't go to was The Chameleons, because one of my friends went and came back FILLED WITH ZEAL and ranted about how GRATE it was going to gigs, and it reinforced my ZEAL for same.

My favourite gig i played at was the same friend's wedding, as he didn't know his wife had written him a song, and BEAUTY spun around as i hid behind some handy bridesmaids, strumming.

My favourite gig i saw was Frankie Machine at the Physio in Leicester - so emotionally SHAKEN was i after i had to go and have a Quiet Walk outside to calm down, it was BRILLIANT. Or supporting Half Man Half Biscuit and TALKING TO NIGEL, then squealing like a GURL in excitement...

The Clientele gig I just got back from. Maybe I even mean that.

Possibly Low at the Liquid Rooms the other week. If not that, one of the many hundreds of Khaya / Ballboy gigs I've seen.

OutKast at S.O.B.'s in NY. The venue is kind of lame, but the crowd was enthusiastic and after the microphone problems got straightened out, they were brilliant. Closed with "Rosa Parks" and "Bombs Over Baghdad" back to back. In a word, terrific.

'baxendale' at scalarama was a beautiful dose of life-affirming pop, the butterflies of love were generally wonderful wherever they went. fonda500 are a band everyone should see (they were *mad* in nottingham) and i really enjoyed the super furrys and gorky's at atp too.

I adored ATP 2000 like life itself - which it was. But the music was largely atrocious. Gig of 2000 for me was by a million miles Magnetic Fields, QEH 25.7.2000, even if I didn't altogether realize it at the time.

I seem to have completely forgotten most gigs I went to last year, but I'll please fountainhead by saying The Butterflies of Love supported by Airport Girl was a highlight (and not just because they let me sleep in their van). Gig of my year though, I might say of any year, was The Go-Betweens at King Tuts. I literally had some difficulty breathing when Robert Forster walked in the pub...

Easy landslide: Charalambides at the Medicine Hat in Portland. Sparsely attended; dark; broken window meant it was just barely above freezing inside; two soprano voices and three guitars weaving in and out of each other in long drone prayers. I was frozen to my seat in more than one way.

Runners-up were the Rollerball/Hochenkeit show where Hochenkeit opened up with some sour twisty Middle Easternisms and then spent most of their set smearing each other with jam, and also the Cannanes show, pure indie-pop comfort.