Best Concert Moments of 2019
Jan. 1st, 2020 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42In 2019, I saw roughly 48 musicians perform at 26 different shows. For this list, I’m narrowing the shows down to only the big-name touring artists that I saw, and picking out three moments from each show that stood out to me, as there’s no way I could rank them in order of enjoyment. All were special shows in their own ways.
1. Live from Here with Chris Thile, New York City’s Town Hall, April 13th
Live from Here is a variety show, but most of the acts are musical so it counts, right? Ever since I discovered Live from Here, I’d been meaning to go see one of the shows live, and one weekend in April gave me the perfect opportunity. Three standout moments:
-Sara Bareilles’ performance of “Fire” from her new album Amidst the Chaos. I was at the edge of my seat. I think I cheered/applauded more loudly for this performance than anything else I saw that night. She and Madison Cunningham absolutely NEED to collaborate in the studio sometime. Plus, the harmonies on this version are superior to those of the studio version, by a country mile.
-The Milk Carton Kids perform “Michigan” with Chris Thile. This song got inside my soul, like a hand plunging its fingers into my chest. This single song turned me on to The Milk Carton Kids, and they became my most-played artist of the decade on Spotify, thanks to this performance.
-Chris Thile’s song for his wife, Claire Coffee. While I didn’t actually care for the song itself (it’s one of his weird compositions that goes off into stratospheres unknown instead of staying on firm, expected ground), I just found it touching that he wrote a song for her birthday (which was the day after the show) and then performed it live. Also his introduction to the song cracked me up. “She hates it when I wish her happy birthday on air, so… HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE I LOVE YOU, I WROTE YOU A SONG!” (That’s me paraphrasing)
2. The Milk Carton Kids and Darlingside, Charlottesville’s Jefferson Theater, April 27th
When I first started considering going to see The Milk Carton Kids for the second time in one month, two days into a new job nonetheless, I prefaced my decision with “I know I’m crazy, but…” It did indeed feel crazy to drive an hour to see a concert right after getting off work, but though I missed the beginning of Darlingside’s set, it absolutely paid off. I’m officially obsessed with The Milk Carton Kids and will follow them anywhere.
-Right as the band began their last song of the night, some people applauded in recognition of the opening bars. Joey Ryan then commented “This could be so many of our songs,” leading to so much laughter (from Kenneth too, it was adorable to see Joey crack him up so badly) that the band had to stop playing. Kenneth backed away, shaking his head at Joey and saying “We were so close!” Then they collected themselves and blew us away with “Memphis.”
-During one particularly long-winded introduction, Kenneth mentioned that the first time he met Joey, Joey had been wearing “jorts,” which led to a brief bit about how he should never wear jorts again. When the band returned to the stage for the encore, Kenneth was carrying a very familiar article of clothing… “Darlingside found jorts for us!” Much to my disappointment, Joey did not respond to the encouraging shouts from the crowd to “try them on!!”
-I can’t really remember much else about the show so I’ll just throw this out there: when Kenneth cracked that he didn’t write any harmony or guitar parts for Joey on “All The Things…” because “I realized where our strengths lay,” Joey responded that “my strength is playing the bass” while holding a bass and he smiled and his smile was beautiful. Honestly, it’s beautiful when both of them smile because they usually look so stone-faced when performing (which is part of what makes their deadpan banter work so well).
3. Florence and the Machine and Blood Orange, Columbia’s Merriwether Post Pavilion, June 3rd
This is the only concert that I didn’t do a formal writeup or really post about at all on this blog. Let me just say, I’m not ranking concerts, but if I were, this would have been at the very top. I was absolutely emotionally unprepared, too- I had no idea it would be as emotional as it was. It totally made up for my second time seeing Florence, which was at the same venue but out on the lawn, so I could barely see her and the band.
-I want to say it was right before the last song of the night when someone handed Florence a trans pride flag. She said “this is a very important flag!” while wrapping it around herself, and we all cheered. Later while performing, someone gave her a gay pride flag, and she laid both it and the trans flag out onstage, and it was just a nice moment, especially since it was June and Pride was occurring. (Now that I think about it, I feel like her own song “June” might be about Pride, “when love became an act of defiance.” Which makes me love her more.)
-The second-to-last song before the encore was “Delilah,” which I’d seen Florence perform before, but not like THIS. After the first chorus, she jumped into the audience and I lost sight of her… only to see a security guard run up the aisle beside me, followed by Florence herself in a beautiful blur, followed by another security guard. She sang the entire song from the crowd, only returning to the stage for the next song, “What Kind of Man,” which she started by embracing audience members and then pushing them away. She is truly an actor/performance artist and I love it.
-During “Dog Days Are Over,” Florence told everyone to turn off their phones, turn to the person next to them and tell them that we love them, and then start jumping up and down once she starts singing again. So we did, and it was awesome. She created a holy moment. I guess I should also give a shout-out at this point to the woman beside me, who went HARD with the dance moves and didn’t care what anyone thought. It inspired me to do the same.
4. Lake Street Dive and Madison Cunningham, Richmond’s The National Theater, October 12th
After a whole day at the local folk festival, you’d think that I’d be done with music for a week, but NO. I went to a concert right after.
-Madison Cunningham is the highlight of everything. I have to admit, I don’t think she’s as good live as she is in the studio (though that’s probably due to her song choice more than her actual performance abilities; she didn’t play any of my favorite songs from the new album), but she was the reason I went to the show and she didn’t disappoint. When she dragged out the line “ever heard real MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSIC in your ears” from “Beauty Into Cliches,” I was in open-mouthed awe.
-The band’s entrance was awesome, especially seeing Rachael Price skate in on a little scooter (she had broken her foot), and feeling the crowd get extremely hyped and realizing, wow, this audience is a lot more hardcore than I expected, I’m going to get crushed if I don’t dance. So I danced. I can’t believe I didn’t collapse at the end of it all.
-In the middle of the show, the band went to the front of the stage and did a few unplugged numbers, and this was my favorite part of the night. Especially their cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.”
Next year, I have tickets to see Aoife O’Donovan and another Live from Here show, and I’m planning on getting tickets to see David Archuleta for old time’s sake. Looking forward to all of this.
1. Live from Here with Chris Thile, New York City’s Town Hall, April 13th
Live from Here is a variety show, but most of the acts are musical so it counts, right? Ever since I discovered Live from Here, I’d been meaning to go see one of the shows live, and one weekend in April gave me the perfect opportunity. Three standout moments:
-Sara Bareilles’ performance of “Fire” from her new album Amidst the Chaos. I was at the edge of my seat. I think I cheered/applauded more loudly for this performance than anything else I saw that night. She and Madison Cunningham absolutely NEED to collaborate in the studio sometime. Plus, the harmonies on this version are superior to those of the studio version, by a country mile.
-The Milk Carton Kids perform “Michigan” with Chris Thile. This song got inside my soul, like a hand plunging its fingers into my chest. This single song turned me on to The Milk Carton Kids, and they became my most-played artist of the decade on Spotify, thanks to this performance.
-Chris Thile’s song for his wife, Claire Coffee. While I didn’t actually care for the song itself (it’s one of his weird compositions that goes off into stratospheres unknown instead of staying on firm, expected ground), I just found it touching that he wrote a song for her birthday (which was the day after the show) and then performed it live. Also his introduction to the song cracked me up. “She hates it when I wish her happy birthday on air, so… HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE I LOVE YOU, I WROTE YOU A SONG!” (That’s me paraphrasing)
2. The Milk Carton Kids and Darlingside, Charlottesville’s Jefferson Theater, April 27th
When I first started considering going to see The Milk Carton Kids for the second time in one month, two days into a new job nonetheless, I prefaced my decision with “I know I’m crazy, but…” It did indeed feel crazy to drive an hour to see a concert right after getting off work, but though I missed the beginning of Darlingside’s set, it absolutely paid off. I’m officially obsessed with The Milk Carton Kids and will follow them anywhere.
-Right as the band began their last song of the night, some people applauded in recognition of the opening bars. Joey Ryan then commented “This could be so many of our songs,” leading to so much laughter (from Kenneth too, it was adorable to see Joey crack him up so badly) that the band had to stop playing. Kenneth backed away, shaking his head at Joey and saying “We were so close!” Then they collected themselves and blew us away with “Memphis.”
-During one particularly long-winded introduction, Kenneth mentioned that the first time he met Joey, Joey had been wearing “jorts,” which led to a brief bit about how he should never wear jorts again. When the band returned to the stage for the encore, Kenneth was carrying a very familiar article of clothing… “Darlingside found jorts for us!” Much to my disappointment, Joey did not respond to the encouraging shouts from the crowd to “try them on!!”
-I can’t really remember much else about the show so I’ll just throw this out there: when Kenneth cracked that he didn’t write any harmony or guitar parts for Joey on “All The Things…” because “I realized where our strengths lay,” Joey responded that “my strength is playing the bass” while holding a bass and he smiled and his smile was beautiful. Honestly, it’s beautiful when both of them smile because they usually look so stone-faced when performing (which is part of what makes their deadpan banter work so well).
3. Florence and the Machine and Blood Orange, Columbia’s Merriwether Post Pavilion, June 3rd
This is the only concert that I didn’t do a formal writeup or really post about at all on this blog. Let me just say, I’m not ranking concerts, but if I were, this would have been at the very top. I was absolutely emotionally unprepared, too- I had no idea it would be as emotional as it was. It totally made up for my second time seeing Florence, which was at the same venue but out on the lawn, so I could barely see her and the band.
-I want to say it was right before the last song of the night when someone handed Florence a trans pride flag. She said “this is a very important flag!” while wrapping it around herself, and we all cheered. Later while performing, someone gave her a gay pride flag, and she laid both it and the trans flag out onstage, and it was just a nice moment, especially since it was June and Pride was occurring. (Now that I think about it, I feel like her own song “June” might be about Pride, “when love became an act of defiance.” Which makes me love her more.)
-The second-to-last song before the encore was “Delilah,” which I’d seen Florence perform before, but not like THIS. After the first chorus, she jumped into the audience and I lost sight of her… only to see a security guard run up the aisle beside me, followed by Florence herself in a beautiful blur, followed by another security guard. She sang the entire song from the crowd, only returning to the stage for the next song, “What Kind of Man,” which she started by embracing audience members and then pushing them away. She is truly an actor/performance artist and I love it.
-During “Dog Days Are Over,” Florence told everyone to turn off their phones, turn to the person next to them and tell them that we love them, and then start jumping up and down once she starts singing again. So we did, and it was awesome. She created a holy moment. I guess I should also give a shout-out at this point to the woman beside me, who went HARD with the dance moves and didn’t care what anyone thought. It inspired me to do the same.
4. Lake Street Dive and Madison Cunningham, Richmond’s The National Theater, October 12th
After a whole day at the local folk festival, you’d think that I’d be done with music for a week, but NO. I went to a concert right after.
-Madison Cunningham is the highlight of everything. I have to admit, I don’t think she’s as good live as she is in the studio (though that’s probably due to her song choice more than her actual performance abilities; she didn’t play any of my favorite songs from the new album), but she was the reason I went to the show and she didn’t disappoint. When she dragged out the line “ever heard real MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSIC in your ears” from “Beauty Into Cliches,” I was in open-mouthed awe.
-The band’s entrance was awesome, especially seeing Rachael Price skate in on a little scooter (she had broken her foot), and feeling the crowd get extremely hyped and realizing, wow, this audience is a lot more hardcore than I expected, I’m going to get crushed if I don’t dance. So I danced. I can’t believe I didn’t collapse at the end of it all.
-In the middle of the show, the band went to the front of the stage and did a few unplugged numbers, and this was my favorite part of the night. Especially their cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.”
Next year, I have tickets to see Aoife O’Donovan and another Live from Here show, and I’m planning on getting tickets to see David Archuleta for old time’s sake. Looking forward to all of this.
