December 14th, 2009
So Dan DeLuca over at the Inky has listed his five best shows of 2009 — hmm, how did we know that Springsteen would be tops? I guess you can’t really argue with these sorts of lists, since they’re so subjective and all … still, we were at nearly all the shows DeLuca has cited (we saw Pearl Jam on the first and last nights of the four-concert stand, not the second-to-last) and aside from Leonard Cohen I’m not sure any of them would make our Top 5. Ours might look a little more like this:
• Kurt Vile & the Violators (July 2nd @ Electric Factory). This was hometown dude’s Kurt’s big coming-out party after signing with Matador Records in May. KV and backing band the Violators brought the sounds they’d been playing in the small clubs to the Electric Factory stage opening for Sonic Youth, and they absolutely killed it with psychedelic jams both noisy and trancey.
• Roots Picnic (June 6th @ Festival Pier, Penn’s Landing). You know the Roots are all-powerful when they can make two of the New Kids on the Block seem cool, as they did when they brought Donnie Wahlberg and Jordan Knight out on stage to jam with them at midday during their Roots Picnic opening set. Of course, that was nothing compared to the undisputed highlight of the entire event — the Roots (and Antibalas) teaming up with Public Enemy as the sun set to tear through It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in its entirety; an inspired and fierce performance. But there were plenty of other fantastic moments during the day: the Black Keys’ roaring noise-blues; Santigold’s triumphant dance-rock; and emerging Philly hip-hop unit Writtenhouse’s crackling, uplifting grooves and rhymes.
• Fucked Up/Pissed Jeans (January 21st @ Kung Fu Necktie). Talk about getting the year started right — on a brutally cold and icy night, Philly noise-punks Pissed Jeans decimated Kung Fu Necktie’s tiny back room with volume and fury and frontman Matt Korvette’s bizarrely great antics and showmanship as the quartet plowed through a set that included songs from this year’s unbelievably great King of Jeans. They set the bar pretty high for the headliner, Canadian experimental hardcore punks Fucked Up, but they rose to the occasion with a raging and aggressive set drawn mainly from 2008’s Husker Du-meets-Poison Idea masterpiece The Chemistry of Modern Life, with bear of a frontman Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham getting half-naked (as usual) and spending most of his time in the pit (in the case of Kung Fu Necktie, the entire room) with the rabid fans.
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs (July 29th @ Electric Factory). If there’s a more compelling figure fronting a band these days than singer Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I couldn’t name ‘em. Her over-the-top stage fashions and vocal style — ranging from croon to caterwaul — are widely lauded, but she’s evolved from merely a punkish singer to a performer of Broadway-sized proportions (in the way she prowls, stalks, and glides across a stage, and even just stands motionless at center, with dramatic movements that can’t help but rivet and command) while still coming across unscripted, spontaneous, and entranced by the moment. While YYY’s latest album It’s Blitz! is a more synth-pop affair than their previous output, there was plenty of guitar bite courtesy of Nick Zimmer and touring dude David Pajo (of Slint fame). But Karen was the star of this show — the big eyeball at the back of the stage, and every eyeball in the sold-out crowd, was glued to her, and she didn’t disappoint.
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Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam (June 15th @ World Cafe Live). Lots of young, up-and-coming blues guitarists over the past two decades have been described as “the second coming of Stevie Ray Vaughan,” but for my money, the Isle of Man’s Davy Knowles comes the closest. Mostly because yes, the kid can shred, but he’s equally adept at holding back, too, allowing his guitar to murmur and quietly sob as much as scream and wail. At WCL, Knowles’ playing was astounding; his gritty voice was equally as impressive. And with his band Back Door Slam he summoned emotion and passion like few bluesmen I’ve ever seen. SRV would be proud.
Honorable mention: Arc in Round (February 26th @ Johnny Brenda’s), the Decemberists (August 15th @ Philadelphia Folk Festival), The Flaming Lips/Explosions in the Sky (August 29th @ Festival Pier, Penn’s Landing), Sgt. Sass/Benni E/Chang Chang (June 5th @ 941 Theater), Spectrum/Tickley Feather (April 23rd @ Kung Fu Necktie).
[All photos by Michael Alan Goldberg]
Posted by Michael Alan Goldberg | Posted in Features |
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4 Responses to “Best Shows Of 2009”
By Lauren on Dec 15, 2009
Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam are playing at World Cafe Live again this New Year’s Eve!
By Ron Ozer on Dec 15, 2009
Nice list, though I didn’t see any of them. I would put the Ray Davies show way up there, and the final Pearl Jam show. However, not having any of the shows from Arden Gild Hall in northern Delaware, simply an error of yours!
By Michael Alan Goldberg on Dec 15, 2009
I’ll hafta rectify that in 2010!
By Seamus on Dec 17, 2009
Davy Knowles! The greatest living guitarist!? YES!!