Live Music Review 2019
December 31, 2019
The Cure 
Lizzo 
The Who
Bret Michaels
Squirrel Nut Zippers 
The Revivalists 
Frank Turner
Live Music Review 2019
For the first twenty-five days of 2019, Kathy and I did not
attend a single concert or music event. It wasn’t until we caught Air Supply
playing at the wonderful Key West venue Sunset Green that we saw any live
music. It was an uncharacteristically slow start to our musical year. Once we
got going though, we quickly kicked things into high gear as we attended 35
stand-alone concerts and 4 large music festivals that had me once again seeing
over 100 bands perform in 2019.
Air Supply 
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Donovan Frankenreiter 
the Avett Brothers
As usual, anywhere that I traveled, I always check the local
concert calendar to see who might be playing while I was there, I also made a
number of trips just to see music and thankfully as has been the case the past
few years, the Key West music scene continues to improve and there were a
plethora of options right here on the island.
The Avett Brothers
Tank and the Bangas 
Jenny Lewis
The Key West music scene is in as good a place as it has
been in the close to 30 years that I have lived on the island as the folks at
Rams Head, Coast, The Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center, Mile 0 and more
continue to bring top notch entertainment options to our island community. It
seems there are concert options now almost every week and even a couple of
excellent festivals in the Mile 0 Festival and the Coast is Clear Festival as
well as the stellar Key West Songwriter’s Festival which brings many of the
best songwriters in America to the island.
Shastina Chiles
Bret Michaels
And while I am at it, I must mention that the quality and
quantity of local musicians is awesome as well. While this blog will focus on
National Acts, there are a number of high quality local bands and musicians who
play regularly in town. In addition, venues like the Green Parrot continue to
bring some of the best regional rising talent to town on a regular basis making
this truly a golden age for live music in Key West.
Metric
Banks 
Katie Toupin
This year found me back at some of my favorite large music
festivals which included weekends at the Gasparilla Music Festival in Tampa,
Folks Fest in Lyons, Colorado, and another visit to my favorite large music
festival, the ACL (Austin City Limits) Music Festival in Austin. ACL this year
had an absolutely amazing line-up of historic greats and cutting edge new
talent and I probably could just do a top ten of the bands that I saw there.
Shawn Colvin
Squirrel Nut Zippers 
Another cool thing about attending big festivals is that
they often have after-show concerts at local venues where you can see some of
the acts in much more intimate settings without the throngs that accompany many
bands during the main stage performances.
Raul Malo 
Metric 
The Cure
With Carter Sampson and Erik Oftedahl at Mile 0 Festival
So who did I see that stood out? I will list my top ten
shows below, but there were enough great shows to fill a few lists and I want
to mention a few excellent bands that just missed making the top 10. Among
these was a killer set by the Mavericks at the Mile Zero Fest, fantastic
performances by Tank and the Bangas and the Avett Brothers at the Gasparilla Music
Fest, and performances by The Cure, Kacey Musgraves, Metric, the Raconteurs,
King Princess, Banks, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons and James Blake at ACL.
The Raconteurs 
With Donovan Frankenreiter
The Amazons
the Mavericks
As far as smaller club venues, I saw some terrific shows by
the likes of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Guster, Katie
Toupin, Brass Against, Donovan Frankenreiter, Ben Folds, the Violent Femmes,
St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Jenny Lewis, Shawn Colvin and Los Lobos.
Possibly the most fun and best surprise of the year was a set by former Poison
frontman, Bret Michaels at the Key West Theater, he put on a really fun and
energetic show, that just missed my top ten.
Mary Gauthier
Ben Folds
With Katie Toupin and Megan 
Katie Toupin
So after much thought and deliberation, here is my list of
the top ten live music shows I saw this year:
10) Ganstagrass- The HiFi, Indianapolis, Indiana, May 15,
2019. I had never seen or even heard of Ganstagrass when I got tickets to their
show at the Hi-Fi while in Indianapolis in May. I just know that the Hi-Fi
brings in excellent, often eclectic bands to the small intimate venue in
Fountain Square and I took a chance. I am so glad I did. This band combines rap
and bluegrass into an entirely unique and interesting new genre. It sounds like
it shouldn’t work, but they are good at both and it creates an entirely new and
wonderful concert experience and they perform with an energy and abandonment
that made this show sneak into my list.
Gangstagrass 
9) Guns n Roses- ACL Festival, Austin, Texas, October 5,
2019. Often times I will avoid the headlining acts of large music festivals,
the mass of humanity, late nights after long days and sheer exhaustion have me
only watching a small portion of the set or at times skipping it entirely. I
couldn’t bring myself to do that when I learned that the classic line-up of
original Guns n Roses was headlining the first night of ACL. I had not seen
them perform live since 1990 and I am sure that I had not seen so many fans
donning GNR gear since then. It was like a throw-back in time, except that
unlike many bands, this was not an exercise in nostalgia. The band truly rocked
and looked and sounded as good as I remembered them. I am so glad that I stayed
up to watch the show and it was an amazing start to what was truly a magical
weekend of music.
8) Psychedelic Furs- The Key West Theater, Key West, FL,
April 19, 2019. The PFurs keep touring and I keep going to see them, always
nervous that this show may be the one where they finally drop off and
inevitably decline, leaving me disappointed. It still hasn’t happened as the
80s icons brought their tight, well-oiled and amazing band back to the Key West
Theater. I had my usual table in the front row, but was accompanied by my
friend Caitlin, who was not alive during the Furs heyday and was totally
unfamiliar with their music. They even managed to win her over, which is saying
something as they are at least a generation removed from what she normally
likes. I love this band and may be a tad bit biased in my ranking, but they put
on a truly amazing show.
The Psychedelic Furs
7) Billie Eilish- ACL Festival, Austin, Texas, October 6,
2019. The ACL festival always does a great job in booking acts that become
break-out stars, this year was no exception as the two hottest new artists of
2019 both appeared on their stages on consecutive days. I had heard of Billie
Eilish and certainly had heard her songs which seemed to be on constant radio
airplay over the summer and into the fall. The seventeen year old singer and
songwriter had exploded onto the music scene and I wanted to check out her set
and see what all the fuss was about. She has received six Grammy Award
nominations, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and
Best New Artist, becoming the youngest artist ever to be nominated in the four
main categories in the same year While I was only vaguely familiar with her
music, watching her set in front of a crazed crowd of mostly the younger
portion of the ACL crowd was a real treat. She was amazing and her talent and
charisma was evident from her terrific set. It is easy to see why she now is
routinely selling out major venues around the country. I feel really fortunate
to catch her perform live.
Billie Eilish 
6) UB40/ Shaggy/the Green- Mizner Park Amphitheatre, Boca
Raton, Florida, September 15, 2019. We always enjoy revisiting our youth by
going to see the bands that we loved back in the 80s. It is often a hot or miss
occasion, as many of them have lost a step, if not most of their original
members. I am also sometimes leery of anniversary tours where bands celebrate
however many years since they first started or released some significant album.
With that in mind, we headed up to Boca Raton to catch the 40th
anniversary tour of reggae/pop legends UB40. There are actually two bands
touring claiming to be the original UB40, but this one is the more legit as it
has original singers Ali Campbell and Asto who were the heart and soul and
sound of the band during their heyday. Openers the Green were strong, a real
slice of the current state of reggae which seems in good hands. It was the other
opener that propelled this show into my top ten though. Shaggy the Jamaican
singer, reggae star, actor and musician put on what was simply one of the best
live performances that I saw this or any year. I was familiar with his hits
like, “It Wasn’t Me” and “Bombastic” but had never been much of a fan and had
never seen him perform live. Well color me converted. He was truly spectacular,
charismatic, energy packed, sounded great and was a ton of fun. One of the rare
artists whose live music is better than what you heard on his recordings. I
absolutely loved it. UB40 was great as expected as well, sounding as good as
ever, but Shaggy was the star of the night and the reason this show is on this
list. I hope to see him again soon.
Shaggy 
UB40
5) Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band- the Funky Biscuit, Boca
Raton, Florida, February 20, 2019. This band should probably have made my top
ten list a couple of times previously but I think the fact that I am friends
with them, getting the pleasure of hanging out with them when they spend a
month each year in Key West recharging and relaxing from their constant
worldwide touring schedule, has made me do a sort of reverse bias, not giving
them the their due. They are consistently one of the best live bands around,
their immense skill honed by nearly year round tours and hundreds of shows a
year. And talented they are, Reverend Peyton is easily one of the greatest
guitar players of his generation and Breezy and Max (on the washboard and drums)
make this band one of the most unique and interesting bands you are likely to
hear. While I love their music, I get that it may be an acquired taste for some
as they are not readily radio-friendly, but seeing them perform live is one of
the great joys of my long music loving life and never have I taken anyone to
see them who has not come away with a deep appreciation of their talent and the
fun that their shows always are. They are truly on my top live shows ever list,
especially if you want to experience something completely new and
different. And while I am happy to count
them among my personal friend, that is not the reason they are listed here. Chances
are that they will be appearing near you at some point during the next year, if
so make sure you head out to check them out.
4) Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls- The Culture Room,
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, November 7, 2019. I have to send out a thank you to
Flogging Molly for this one, as Frank and his band were booked for this year’s
Flogging Molly Cruise which departed out of Miami and thus allowed for this
show to happen the night before departure at one of my favorite venues, the
Culture Room in Lauderdale. It is a perfect match for one of my favorite bands
(and my top ranked concert just last year). Frank and the band had been doing a
special seated acoustic tour in support of his brilliant new album, “No Man’s
Land”, and while I am sure I would have enjoyed one of those shows, this was a
return to his more traditional live set as sort of a warm up for the more
raucous sets that would happen on the cruise. I was able to catch a sample of
the acoustic stuff during the pre-show set at a local record store and then the
amazing full band, full on set late into the night at the Culture Room. Frank is a truly amazing live performer, one
of my all-time favorites and this show found he and the band in top form and
Frank in a fantastic mood as he was reunited with his new wife for the first
time since their honeymoon as he had been away on tour and she was joining him
for the cruise. I really hope that he tours again next year, he is certainly
one of the acts that I will travel to see.
Frank Turner 
3)The Alarm, Modern English, Gene Loves Jezebel- The Ground,
Miami, Florida, September 7, 2019. In all my years and thousands of live shows,
there are really just a small handful of bands that I count among my all-time
favorites. The Alarm are near the top of that list and during the 80s, I saw
them more than 25 times before the band broke up in 1991 and while they have
been reunited in various incarnations in the years since, It has been thirty
years since I saw them live. When I saw thy were making a rare return visit to
Florida along with fellow 80s icons Modern English and Gene Loves Jezebel, I
snapped up VIP tickets. The VIP tickets included a cool pre-show set by each
artist and a meet and greet which was awesome. The show was terrific, all three
bands were amazing and the Alarm, led by the indomitable Mike Peters were as
good as they ever were even back in their prime. They are one of the best live
bands that I have ever seen. I have no idea how the Alarm never hit major
superstardom in the US. People seem to forget that at one time they were bigger
than U2 and I still prefer their music over almost any of their contemporaries.
I had not seen either Modern English or Gene Loves Jezebel perform live before,
and they were both great as well. Getting to hear both a slow acoustic and a
full on live jam of the iconic “I Melt With You” was a real treat. Three
fantastic bands in one show makes this one of my top three music experiences of
the year.
Gene Loves Jezebel 
The Alarm
Modern English
2) Lizzo, ACL Festival, Austin, Texas, October 6, 2019. In
addition to Billie Eilish, the other superstar breakout sensation of 2019 was
Lizzo. The release of her third album this year opened the floodgates for
attention and adoration for the amazing performer. She is nominated for Best
New Artist and received eight nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards,
including Album of the Year for the deluxe version of Cuz I Love You and
Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Truth Hurts". Her
performance at ACL came at the absolute top of what was an amazing year for the
artist. I wasn’t about to miss this and made my way very early to get a decent
spot for her set. In the fifteen years that I have been attending ACL, this was
by far the largest crowd I ever saw assembled for a single performer. The crowd
was unbelievable and I literally felt sorry for those tasked with playing
opposite of her on the other stages as about 90 percent of the ACL crowd, about
80,000 people jammed in to see Lizzo. They were not disappointed as she delivered
a wonderful set of her high energy, body positive songs. I thought the crowd
would be dominated by young women and girls, but everyone seemed to love and
appreciate this bright new star on the music scene. I am so glad that I got a
good spot early and that I was able to see this talent perform, it almost made
my top show of the year.
Lizzo 
Muse 
Muse
So that’s my list for this year, It was another fantastic year of live music. I hope you enjoyed the list and that you had some amazing music experiences of your own,
posted by Michael and Kathy @ 6:42 PM
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