This is the first part of the only Best of 2010 Music wrap-up you need to read
I’ve been thinking about what my favorite concerts and shows were this year and trying to find some distinction between memorable / best / biggest occasion / most fun. I saw a few big deal type of concerts and a lot of small shows. Do big name, Event shows beat the sloppy but fun as shit, drunken sing-alongs in small clubs?
Top 10 Concerts of 2010
10. Broken Social Scene @ Amoeba
9. The Hold Steady @ The El Rey
8. Titus Andronicus @ The Bootleg
7. Built to Spill @ The El Rey
6. The Halloween Circus (The Dig, The Monolators, The Henry Clay People, The Little Ones, The Hectors and more) @ The Echo / Echoplex
5. Parson Red Heads, Cotton Jones and Roadside Graves @ The Echo
4. The Henry Clay People, Le Switch and Olin and The Moon @ The Prospector in Long Beach
3. Arcade Fire @ Shrine Auditorium
2. Pavement @ Pomona Pre-Coachella Show
1. Local Natives @ The Music Box
If I had some badass seats for Arcade Fire and not the 2nd row from the back wall, that might be # 1. If I wasn’t thinking that the dudes in the back corner at the Titus Andronicus show were going to fight me, I might have liked that show more too. There is about a 3,000 word post sitting in my drafts about that Long Beach Show. Bouncing around The Echo / Echoplex and their various patios and smoking areas checking out different bands all night was a lot of fun. (Also, The Little Ones have the crown for the best power-pop band in LA and will have it until someone takes it from them). Seeing Pavement play 31 songs in their first North American reunion show was a bigger deal, historic concert, no question, but being in the crowd for the Local Natives was next level, tribal type shit. I used to think that no band would ever think that LA was the best crowd for their tour. If that wasn’t one of the best crowds for the Local Natives, I can’t imagine what the other shows were like.
