2021 Top Ten Shows list

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I didn't seen nearly as many shows this past year as I traditionally do, 22 in all for 2021, but I saw some damn good ones, and just for the hell of it, here's my top ten list...

(These are rated mostly on the music, but my personal experience at each show plays into the rating as well)

2021 TOP TEN 

1.  My Morning Jacket - Greek Theatre, Berkeley

2.  Phish - (1st night) - Shoreline Amphitheatre, MV

3.  Phish - (1st night) - Chase Center, SF

4.  Joe Russo's Almost Dead - Frost Amphitheatre, PA

5.  The Residents - Castro Theater, SF

6.  Thunder & Lightning w/ Phil Lesh, Stu, Lebo, Lane & Grahame - TxR Park

7.  Joshua Redman Trio w/ Reuben Rogers & Marcus Gillmore - Miner Auditorium, SF

8.  Dahveed Behroozi Trio - Art Boutiki, San Jose

9.  Joshua Redman Trio w/ Brian Blades & Zach Moses Ostroff - Kuumbwa, Santa Cruz

10. Phish (2nd night) - Shoreline Amphitheatre, MV

Wa'choo got???

I have an unranked list of live music that I saw performed last year. 

Perhaps I could arrange it next to a list of "favorite people" or "favorite birds", but I'm pretty grateful just to have ten "shows" at all, at least in such a morbid year.

Anyway, nice list, Lance! Here's to some more in '22.

not much ,mostly second half of 2021

 

Billy+Kids Red Rocks

PLF Lyons + Co Tour

Days Between Fest  Laytonville

Billy Strings  Fox

Dear SF   Club Fugazi 

Phish  Chase nite 1>2

JRAD  Frost

DragonSmoke  Independent

Mdou Moctar Lagunitas

Rowan TXR

DNB TXR

Nelson & Friends Iron Springs

 

Good for you WALSTIB, Mdou Moctar puts on a hell of a performance.

1. My Bluegrass Heart - The Theater at ACE Hotel.

2. DNB - (with Molo, Days Between Festival, Mendo)

 

look at lance w/ the mmj #1! 

Billy Strings at the Edgefield

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at the St. Augustine Amphitheater

Los Lobos at the Aladdin 

Phish at the Knight Auditorium

Allman Betts Band at Dailey's Place

Wilco at the Schnitz

Primus at the Edgefield

Lettuce at the Roseland

Quick and Easy Boys at the World Famous Kenton Club

Band of Comerados at the Alberta Street Pub (first live music seen since Tool in March 2020)

King Crimson @ HEB Center

Osees @ Hotel Vegas (8/6)

Goose @ Scoot Inn (Night 1)

Black Angels/Kikagaku Moyo @ Stubb's

Osees @ Hotel Vegas (10/1)

Los Lobos @ Antone's (Night 2)

Phish @ Dick's (Night 3)

High on Fire @ Austin Motocross

Neal Francis @ Antone's

Koodookoo w/ Mad Alchemy Lights @ Far Out Lounge

 

DSO at Roaring Camp

Robert Cray at The Rogue Theater

Mapache at the Lodge Room

DNB at Terrapin Crossroads

caught a private JGB show

 

Might have been it for 2021

unranked of course

I don't make it to 10 shows this year but my top few are;

David Nelson Band, The Chapel, S.F., 6/17/21

My Morning Jacket, Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 9/25/21

 

DNB at TXR Beach Park

Cubensis in San Luis Obispo

Grateful Shred in Ojai

I've got an interesting top 3. My criteria this year was small and smaller venues.

3)Tedeschi/Trucks at the Kravitz Center, West Palm Beach 

2)Bruce Hornsby Solo at the Lyric Theater, Stuart 

1)Jim Messina Band at the Lyric  Theater, Stuart 

The Lyric holds 500. Those 2 shows were incredibly intimate with a lot of storytelling and back and forth with the audiences. I was completely blown away by how tight Messina's band was. A super enjoyable show. Hornsby was amazingly educational about his song writing history, as was Messina. I came away with info I was unaware of about both.

 

 

  1. Zero, The Mystic Theater, Petaluma
  2. Billy and the Kids, Red Rocks, Morrison, CO
  3. Phish 1 + 2, Deathtrap Center, San Francisco, CA
  4. Phil Lesh Quintet, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
  5. Days Between Fest / DNB, Hog Farm, Laytonville
  6. David Nelson Band, The Chapel, San Francisco, CA
  7. David Nelson Band, TXR Beach Park San Francisco, CA
  8. Todd Shaeffer (RRE), private event
  9. Philoween Night 1, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY


 

Easy one for me ... only saw the three shoes that I was willing to get sick from

The Q 10/13

The Q 10/11

King Crimson at SPAC

(honorable mention ... Yankees vs Red Sox at Fenway)

I played a lot of music last year but hardly saw anything, less than half a dozen shows.

Really blew it by not catching the residents or mdou moctar (I love to include my biggest didn't gtts regrets in these threads just for Lance)

but even if I had made it to those shows I doubt it would have changed the fact that mmj at the Berkeley Greek was far and above my best concert experience of 2021.

So nice to see those guys back in action, band and tour of the year imo.

I woulda even forked over $60 for the 3 night nugs video stream package for their Denver NYE run if it hadn't been cancelled and I usually never pay for streams

Quiet covid year for us. 

Albert Lee 

Gov't Mule

Crimson/Zappa Band

That's all I remember right now. How long have we been under this covid thumb anyway ? 

4 shows between 9/4 and 12/4

Crimson/Zappa Band

Q 10/11

The Mavericks

Tuna

 

I needed that.

Oh Carl Palmer

1. King crimson friends n family the egg

2. king crimson spac

3. king crimson cmac

4. king crimson Buffalo 

5. Zappa band cmac

6. Zappa band Buffalo 

 

no Zappa band at the egg and I missed em at Spac 

Zero, nada, nil.

Last big show was Herring/McLaughlin in New Orleans, 2017. Last live music was here in town, Molly Thomas and Rare Birds CD release show at Jake Peavey's club, 2019.  Rick Hirsch is the guitarist who some may recall as the guitarist in Wet Willie.

Nothing on the horizon as where I live has the extra stupid when it comes to vax and masking.  Of course the covid is raging again and hospitals again filling with the unvaxxed.

 

Didn't see much more than 10, so there all here, the ones in bold are the nights that stood out for one reason or another.

Cabinet / Dirty Grass Players - Ardmore

Billy Strings x2 - Philly

Philoween

Kitchen Dwellers / The Plate Scrapers - Philly

The Q

Joe Russo's Almost Dead - Montclair

Trey Anastasio Band - Philly

Dead & Company - Hershey

Dead & Company - Philly

Phish x2 @ Hershey

Billy Strings - Asbury Park

Cabinet / Kitchen Dwellers / The Englishtown Project / Willie Jack & the Northern Light / Serene Green / Dee Maple Band / Moonlicker / The Wormdogs / Wes Knorr / Electric Moose Knuckle @The Get Down #6 - Blain, PA

It was lyme disease more than covid that kept me from attending more shows last year.

You know that's some nasty shit if it kept me away from live music. 

Thank The Maker and the Noodler for them Dead + Co live streams.

I only saw 5 shows and 4 of them were Phish, which probably disqualifies me, but out of those shows I would say it's a toss up between Phish the first night at the Shoreline and the first night at Chase center. 

i saw :

Cracker (x3)

Dead & Co (x2)

Billy Strings

Only saw local shows last year, lots of them, but just local bands. (and I only played one gig, but that was out of town...)

Phish AC (n2)

Phish Dick's (n2)

Phish AC (n3)

Phil Q Cap (n2)

Trey Band Radio City Music Hall

Trey Acoustic Saratoga

Phish AC (n1)

JGB Keene 

Phish Dick's (n3)

Midnight North Stowe Cider

Phish MSG.... Oh wait, postponed!

 

Q shows

In reverse order of the nights played

Midnight North was the only other live music of note

If couch tour counted then the phish Halloween run

The top three for me and I really did not see much at all all year. I think I went to six shows! 
billy strings at the fox in oakland 

wilco in Napa 

DSO at roaring camp

all three were great time 

Not many for me this year.

James Taylor and Jackson Browne. Stellar from the 4th row center. What a joy.  

Todd Snider solo - in the front row. 

Garth Brooks at the U of U stadium this summer, where I was harassed for wearing a mask. 

Billy Strings-Marymoor Amphitheatre

Howlin' Rain-Tractor Tavern

The Rolling Stones-SOFI Arena

The Dusty 45s/Ron Artis II & The Truth-Neptune 100th Anniversary show

 

That's all I saw.  All 4 shows had their moments.  Glad to have any at all.

DSO @ Dark Star Covid Jubilation May, 2021, Buckeye Lake, Ohio

Born Cross Eyed Private (1st post covid) memorial show, Terrapin Farms, Harrodsburg, KY June, 2021

El Dorado @ The Burl, Lexington KY, August, 2021

Big Thief @Headliners, Louisville, KY September, 2021

Frankie & The Witch Fingers, Expansion Psychedelic Festival, Lexington, KY September, 2021

Juliana Theory @Basement East, Nashville, TN, October 2021

Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express @Southgate House Revival, Newport, KY, October, 2021

Dinosaur Jr @Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville, TN, November 2021

Grateful Sunday (Lee Owen, Brandon Bowlds, Rob Barnes, Dino English) on Friday, Fishtank, Lexington, KY December 2021

Born Cross Eyed 30th Anniversary show, @Rockhouse brewing, Lexington, KY December 2021



I was musically starved, and it was a great year for music despite the covid obstacles, and I feel blessed for having seen some great music every month.