Favorite Shows You Were At: 2022 Edition

Looking back on the first year I was actually in the audience again and I don't think I'm going out before the end of December so here's the 69 highlights list

* 2/12 - Lesley Flanagan, Christopher Tignor, Tristan Perich at National Sawdust
* 2/17 - Magos Herrera at National Sawdust
* 2/24 - Nicole Mitchell and Angel Bat David at Carnegie Hall
* 2/25 - Shomyo: Buddhist Experience at Japan Society
* 3/4 - Chimurenga Renaissance and Fatoumata Diawara at Carnegie Hall
* 3/19 - Alabaster dePlume with Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer at Public Records
* 3/23 - Dawn Richard at BAM
* 3/2 - Germán López at National Sawdust
* 4/15 - Immanuel Wilkins at Roulette
* 4/18 - Theo Bleckmann and The Westerlies at Joe’s Pub
* 4/23 - Samora Pinderhughes at Nublu
* 4/28 - Altin Gun at Music Hall of Williamsburg
* 4/29 - Matmos (Robert Ashley) at Roulette
* 4/29 - In C with Bang on a Can and Sasha Waltz at BAM
* 4/30 - Trinity Choir perform Arvo Part at Roulette
* 5/6 - MATA Festival with ICE and Travis LaPlante at National Sawdust
* 5/14 - Guy Klucevsek Celebration at Roulette
* 5/1 - Dreaming Zenzile: Mama Africa with Somi at New York Theatre Workshop
* 5/19 - Kaoru Watanabe at The Atrium
* 5/19 - Rizo at Joe’s Pub
* 5/28 - Bill Frisell with Immanuel Wilkens at Roulette
* 6/1 - Attaca Quartet with Becca Stevens at Joe’s Pub
* 6/8 - Kamasi Washington and Raven Lenae at Celebrate Brooklyn
* 6/9 - Sven Ratzke at Lincoln Center Atrium
* 6/10 - EMERGE125 and Ayodele Casele at Bryant Park
* 6/10 - Orchestral Tribute to Biggie Smalls at Lincoln Center
* 6/11 - Herbie Hancock at SummerStage
* 6/12 - Chamberqueer Festival at National Sawdust
* 6/15 - George Clinton and Parliament at SummerStage
* 6/15 - Ak Dan Gwang Chil at Lincoln Center
* 6/17 - Julian Lage and Jorge Roeder at The Stone
* 6/20 - Taylor Mac and Matt Ray at Joe’s Pub
* 7/10 - Rewedding at Lincoln Center with Leah
* 7/13 - Justin Hicks at Joe’s Pub
* 7/13 - Adrienne Truscott at Joe’s Pub
* 7/14 - Roomful of Teeth and Kronos Quartet at Celebrate Brooklyn
* 7/16 - Fat Ham at The Public
* 7/26 - Twelfth Night at Classical Theater of Harlem
* 7/28 - A Night at Niblo’s Garden at GreenWood Cemetery
* 8/3 - Jonathan Hayward and Joshua Bell at Lincoln Center
* 8/5 - Erykah Badu and Phony PPL at Celebrate BK
* 8/6 - Yemi Alade and Amindi at Celebrate
* 8/10 - Dakhabrakha at Joe’s Pub
* 9/7 - Brooklyn Rider with Kinan Azmeh at The Stone
* 9/8 - Aaron Diehl and Orrin Evans at Bryant Park
* 9/9 - Summer Camargo at Bryant Park
* 9/10 - Brandee Younger and Joel Ross and Gift of Gnawa at SummerStage
* 9/16 - Accordion Festival at Bryant Park
* 9/20 - Willie Nelson with Charley Crockett at SummerStage
* 9/23 - JOJO ABOT and Esperanza Spalding at National Sawdust
* 9/23 - Little Amal at Greenwood Cemetery
* 9/24 - Cecile McLorin Savant at Blue Note
* 9/30 - 300 el x 50 el x 300 el at BAM
* 10/1 + 2 - Joe Pera season 2 + 3 screening at Bell House
* 10/7 - Vicky Chow’s Philip Glass Etudes at Roulette
* 10/14 - Crowd at BAM
* 10/15 - Everything Rises with Jennifer Koh and Davone Tines at BAM
* 10/20 + 21 + 22 - BRIC Jazzfest: Kalia Vandever Quartet, Keyanna, Joel Ross and Parables, Michele Marino Lerman, Freelance, Lizz Wright, Angel Bat David and Viktor Le Givens, Julius Rodriguez, Sen Morimoto, Avram Fefer Quartet, Mo Brown, Theon Cross, Domi and JD Beck
* 10/28 - 9000 Paper Balloons at Japan Society
* 11/2 - Chamberqueer at Trinity Church
* 11/7 - Myra Melford’s Fire and Water at Roulette
* 11/10 - Transverse Orientation at BAM
* 11/11 - PubliQuartet at National Sawdust
* 11/12 - Tracy Morgan at Town Hall
* 11/19 - Represent: Christian McBride, Speech, Last Poets, Black Thought, Nikki Giovanni, Ravi Coltrane, Javon Jackson at NJPAC
* 11/27 - John Zorn, Jorge Roeder, Julian Lage, Kenny Wollenen at Roulette
* 12/7 - Brooklyn Rider at Carnegie Hall
* 12/10 - Samora Pinderhughes at The Kitchen
* 12/13 - Ned Rothenberg Crossings with Mary Halvorson at Roulette

best show i saw this year was also on a day so hot someone in the crowd fainted as soon as the show started: lucy dacus at summerstage in central park. her band is so good, and i cried substantially more than i expected

Sudan Archives and Pet Shop Boys

^together! (not)

Half of Melbourne was there over consecutive night, but Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at Hanging Rock was special.

i tried to go to as many gigs as possible this year. i really, really missed live music during the pandemic. ones that i can think off of the top of my head that were really great -

Low, Big Joanie, Billie Eilish, Megan The Stallion, Overmono, Dame Area, Pleasure Pool, Amyl & The Sniffers, Dead Can Dance, Idles, Burna Boy, Aba Shanti, O Yuki Conjugate, CS + Kreme, Anika, On-U Sound 40th Birthday Party, Free Love.

there's a lot i missed this year that i regret. low is high up on that list.

My list.

2022 Concert List pic.twitter.com/TiqVvI8y5Z

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) December 18, 2022

Hard to pick a favorite though I have some good memories of nearly all of them.

off the top of my head, my top 5:

1. Sudan Archives
2. OPN (Portola Festival)
3. DJ Shadow (Portola Festival)
4. Surprise Chef
5. Chemical Brothers (Portola Festival)

Ah shit, I forgot about Erika de Casier, she was amazing and the crowd was lit too

Mercyful Fate
W.A.S.P.
Cannibal Corpse (both times)
Crowbar
Iron Maiden
Anthrax
Immolation
Incantation
GZA
Cattle Decapitation
Carcass/Obituary
Tool
Exhumed
Napalm Death

I think I only went to two shows this year, so it’s a pretty easy list comprising Kim Gordon and Dry Cleaning.

oop, no, add The Necks and Gwenno from January. I’d rate them all similarly, Necks most moving and KG most exciting.

top 5 probably something like

grouper @ polaris hall
destroyer @ revolution hall
horsegirl @ polaris hall
porridge radio @ doug fir
helen @ holocene

Didn't see too many shows this year, so my list of everything is: Gang of Four, Wet Leg, Spiritualized, Lady Gaga, Viagra Boys, Teri Gender Bender, The Mars Volta

Saw a few favourite acts again - The Necks, Gwenno, Gareth Liddiard in Springtime mode, absolutely imperious show from Cate Le Bon, and a real special one from HTRK at the Sydney Opera House - was glad to catch The Comet is Coming and Dry Cleaning - but probably my favourite shows this year were lower key pub shows - Exek, RMFC, Research Reactor Corp, Optic Nerve, Gee Tee, Body Type, Honey 2 Honey, 1800-Mikey, Cable Ties, Wanderlust, Gut Health, Eggy, Delivery - just a bunch of super great bands around Syd/Mel at the moment (plenty elsewhere as well but this is just my lived experience of live musick year 2022)

the country singer Joshua Ray Walker in a tiny crowded bar

and Pavement

A couple of years ago, when the pandemic was taking hold and no-one knew how long it'd all last, I consoled myself by saying that when it was all over the first thing I'd do is go and see a performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Fast forward to early 2022 and the first live music I saw in over two years was indeed The Rite of Spring at the QEH in London, played very nicely by the Budapest Festival Orchestra along with Concerto in D for strings, Capriccio for piano & orchestra and an encore of Ave Maria for chorus.

Other than that I didn't see too much, highlights were Modern Nature at Cafe Oto, Tricot at Glasgow Stereo and Circle/Richard Dawson at Edinburgh Dissection Room. Seems I'm relocating to the middle of nowhere in the US next year so not sure I'll get to see anything much at all.

Low
Rosalía

especially Rosalía, still thinking about that show and has ruined several shows since