Live Music Review 2018

December 31, 2018

Frank Turner

 

Michael and Kathy 

Sharon Van Etten

Rod Stewart

Paul Simon 

Old 97s

Live Music Review 2018

After what seemed like an off year as far as attending concerts in 2017, this year returned to our usual fury of heading out to see about as many shows as possible once again and we had a stellar year of seeing live music performances both here in Key West, in South Florida and around the country wherever we traveled. The quantity and quality of shows showed a steep incline this year as this may well have been the most difficult year since I started doing this that I have had in selecting a top ten for the year.

The Roots

Cyndi Lauper

Jackson Browne 

So many shows narrowly missed the cut as we experienced some truly special shows and moments over the course of the year in a wide variety of venues. While we once again missed out on regular festivals that we had previously attended such as Coachella, Lollapalooza and Folks Fest, we added some new ones as replacements including the wonderful Mile 0 festival right here in Key West, the Green River Music Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts and the incredible Innings Music Festival in Tempe, Arizona.

I'm With Her

Rick Springfield

Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper 

Jake Bugg

Spoon 

Brandi Carlile

We returned to old favorites like the Gasparilla Music Festival in Tampa and our favorite large music festival, the ACL Festival in Austin, Texas. In addition to the large festivals where you can catch multiple musical acts over the course of a few days, we had a ton of large arena shows that we attended, a bunch of shows in smaller venues and clubs and of course the great line-up of shows at the Key West Theater.

Innings Festival

ACL Festival

Michael Franti 

Robert Earl Keen

In fact the music scene in Key West has never been better, the new Key West Amphitheatre started hosting shows including the fantastic Mile 0 Festival, we attended our first shows at the incredible and intimate outdoor setting of the lawn at Sunset Green, the Key West Songwriter’s Festival brought shows to venues all over the island and the folks at Coast and the amazing Key West Theater continued to dazzle with a great selection of acts appearing on their stage. 

Kevin Griffin

Scandal

Arlo Guthrie

On a sad note the Coast location on Stock Island, which has been one of the coolest venues in town hosted its final show earlier this month as the lease on that location ran out, hopefully a new location can be secured by Coast that matches or improves on the vibe they created at that space. The shows that we attended here in Key West this year at various venues included The Zombies, Yonder Mountain String Band, Kevin Griffin, Bodeans, Firefall, Scandal,Arlo Guthrie, Rick Springfield, Michael Franti, Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett, Ottmar Liebert and Rayland Baxter.

Rayland Baxter

 

Avett Brothers

Tone Loc

Lyle Lovett

There was also the very special show aboard the Schooner Hindu by Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band which was sort of a once in a lifetime intimate private performance while sailing around Key West that was just magical. Perhaps one of the best times I had at any show was attending the “I Love the 90s” tour at the Florida Strawberry Festival that featured Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc, Salt and Pepa, Rob Base and Coolio. It was not among the best shows, but was damn fun.

Reverend and Breezy Peyton

Queens of the Stone Age

The Breeders

Salt n Pepa

So what were the top ten shows that I saw in 2018?, here is the list:

10) Counting Crows/ Live, Al Lang Stadium, St. Peterburg, Florida, July 31, 2018. After missing the top ten last year, my favorite band makes a return to the list based on their wonderful 25^th anniversary show. I caught two nights of this tour this year, in St. Pete and West Palm Beach and the shows were wonderful. Live was a great opening band, but unlike last year, the Crows were not upstaged by their opener and put on a fantastic show highlighting their career. The between song banter with the crowd added a lot to the show, especially for long-standing fans like myself, though it was somewhat off-putting for some. I love the entire show both nights I saw it. We also caught the Crows at the Innings Festival in Tempe where they delivered an awesome set, but not quite as awesome as…

Counting Crows

Live 

9) Phosphorescent, Innings Festival, Tempe, Arizona, March 23, 2018. The Innings Festival was my favorite festival that we attended this year, we had never been before and loved the set-up, the fact that you did not have to pick and choose between stages, but mostly the incredible line-up that included Counting Crows, Queens of the Stone Age, the Avett Brothers, Chris Stapleton, Head and the Heart, Syvan Esso, Citizen Cope, Lord Huron, Bishop Briggs, the Decemberists, Dispatch and Local Native among others. There were any number of performances that could have snuck in to this list, but a couple were true stand-outs. The first was by Phosphoresce. Supporting his wonderful new release, “C’est La Vie”, Matthew Houck the singer/songwriter performing as Phosphorescent delivered a beautiful set that on many years may have been in my top five. It was just incredible. I know many seeing this may be unfamiliar with the band- do yourself a favor and check him out.

Phosphorescent

8) Mt. Joy, Innings Festival, Tempe, Arizona, March 23, 2018. While you are checking out new bands, you should also look into my favorite new band of the year and best discovery at the Innings Festival, Mt. Joy. Their major label debut album was released just a couple of weeks prior to their set at the Innings Festival and watching them, I felt much the same way as I did when I saw the Lumineers at a tiny club in Indianapolis just after the release of their first album and they went on to huge success. I hope the same thing happens to this band. I love the album, I loved their performance and I was thrilled that I got to see them again later in the year at the ACL Festival, but it was the initial awe of witnessing something new and special that makes this performance the one to make my top ten.

Mt. Joy

7) Anderson East, the Vogue Theatre, Indianapolis, Indiana, May 12, 2018. My absolute favorite venue in the world is the Vogue in Indianapolis and so I always try to catch a show there when I am in town, no matter really who is playing. It is a rare thing for me to go see someone that I am totally unfamiliar with and even less likely that what I see will be one of the best shows that I have seen this, or any year. I had no idea who Anderson East was when I showed up at the Vogue, only googling him after I had bought the tickets to his show, but I certainly will not soon forget him. I guess Country music fans know him because he once dated Miranda Lamberrt, but I had no clue. His live performance was incredible. His style is hard to describe, sort of R&B meets country, it is very unique and he has a fantastic presence and vocals to match.

Anderson East 

Anderson East

6) Elton John, BB& T Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, November 23, 2018. Elton John announced that he was embarking on his final tour, “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road” last year and it made two stops in South Florida, in Lauderdale at the BB& T Center and the following night at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. We went to both shows as Elton John is one of Kathy’s all-time favorites and we never miss an opportunity to catch his live show. The show was exactly the same both nights, a 24 song set that covered his extensive career in a mind-blowing show. It was absolutely incredible, he is always the consummate showman and he pulled out all the stops in what he says is his swan song, though the tour is already scheduled to last about three years so you should have plenty of opportunity to catch it- you should it is truly iconic.

Elton John

5) Paul McCartney, ACL Festival, Austin, Texas, October 5, 2018. I was thrilled to hear that Paul McCartney would be one of the headliners at this year’s ACL Fest along with Metallica and Travis Scott. He has been a fixture on my top ten list every year that I have seen him, which is seemingly about every year of the past decade. His performances are nothing short of spectacular, songs covering one of the most celebrated careers in Rock and Roll history. From the opening note to the final stands of “The End”, the love you take is equal to the love you make, McCartney delivers a tour de force of some of the most powerful songs ever from his Beatles hits, through his underappreciated by amazing time with Wings to his solo career which continues to astound, he is one of the best performers in rock history and his show at ACL was no exception.

Paul McCartney 

4) Gang of Youths, Antone’s, Austin, Texas, October 4, 2018. Each night during the ACL Festival, there are any number of after-shows at local bars and music venues featuring the bands who appear at the festival. I alwsys try to make it to at least a couple of these shows and this year I got to shows by Houndmouth, St. Vincent, LaLa and the best one- Gang of Youths. Once again it was a band that I was not all that familiar with, but this band had already developed a huge following in their home country of Australia but for some reason has just not made it as big here in the US. If there performance at this show and at the festival itself are any indications they should soon become as famous here as they are at home. Lead singer David Le'aupepe is about as charismatic a lead singer as I have ever seen, reminding me a lot of old videos that I have seen of Jim Morrison. He and the band are captivating live and their music is really awesome as well. I was so glad that I picked their show as one of my late night aftershows as it made it into the top five in what was truly a remarkable year of live music.

Gang of Youths 

3) Bruce Springsteen, Springsteen on Broadway, Walter Kerr Theatre, New York, New York, June 20, 2018. Arguably the toughest concert ticket of the year, if not one of the hardest to get ever, was a ticket to see one of the shows of Bruce Springsteen’s first ever residency show on Broadway at the small Walter Kerr Theater. I tried entering the lottery three times to no avail before scoring tickets on my fourth attempt. They were not cheap and of course involved the extra expense of traveling to New York, but for me at least, it was worth the money and effort. I have seen Springsteen over a dozen times but never like this, stripped down to an acoustic guitar in the intimate setting of the 960 seat theater. Mixing stories from his recent autobiography with songs from throughout his storied career, it was truly a magical evening. Many people have called it the greatest concert they have ever seen, and it was truly remarkable, but I think they may have been overwhelmed by just getting in to see it. Still it ranks as my third best show of the year this year and that is saying something as we saw some amazing live performances this year.

 

Bruce Springsteen

2) David Byrne, ACL Festival, Austin, Texas, October 6, 2018. Somehow, in my lifetime of attending concerts I had never seen David Byrne perform live, either with the Talking Heads or solo. After seeing his brilliant set at the ACL Festival, my regrets at having missed out run deep. His show was nothing short of amazing. Unique and interesting, fun and creative, Byrne had one of the best reviewed concert tours of the year and after seeing this it was easy to understand why. Easily the best performance of the many that I saw over the weekend at ACL which included sets from McCartney, Metallica, The National, Hozier, Artic Monkeys, Janelle Monae, Brandi Carlile, Mt. Joy, Greta Van Fleet, St. Vincent, Sylvan Esso, Brockhampten, the Breeders, Elle King and more. His stage set up was innovative and none of his band had any wires connecting their instruments to anything that allowed freedom of movement and for a fascinating stage show.He played all the hits from his long and distinguished career including all the Talking Heads favorites.

David Byrne

 

1)  Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, House of Blues, Orlando, Florida, June 10, 2018. When trying to select what was the best concert that I saw in a specific year, sometimes I surprise even myself by trying to fairly evaluate the variety of shows that I see. Though it may seem like it, the choice of number one this year was not really all that close. Easily the best rock and roll performance that I saw this year was the remarkable show by England’s punk-folk star, Frank Turner and his band the Sleeping Souls. I had seen them a couple of times before and they have made my top ten previously, but this show was completely over the top. If there is a better live act currently touring the world I would love to see them, because Turner is as complete a showman as I have ever seen. Combing his punk rock roots with his current folk rock sensibilities, seeing Turner is like experiencing the best of both worlds. How this guy is not a massive star here in the US escapes me, but hey it at least allows me to go and experience amazing shows in small venues where the power, fury and emotional connection that makes the best Rock n Roll. If you get a chance, go and see Turner and his band. They are truly one of the best live bands that I have had the good fortune of seeing.

Frank Turner

Frank Turner

So there’s my list for 2018, there were a number of shows that we saw that just barely missed the cut and perhaps in some other year would have made the top ten. We saw great shows by Rod Stewrt and Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, Justin Townes Earle, Warpaint, I’m With Her, the Hard Working Americans, Carter Sampson, Shooter Jennings, the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Chvrches that could easily have made the list, but there are only ten that make it. Thanks to all the venues, promoters, staff ,sound people, crews and roadies who make this all possible and to my wife and friends who have attended shows with us. Hoping that 2019 brings more of the same. Happy New Year everyone!

Todd Snider/ Hard Working Americans

Cyndi Lauper 

Brandi Carlile 

Scandal

Justin Townes Earle 

Michael Franti