Well, it’s that time of year again when we here at the Live4ever Ezine begin to trail back through 12 months worth of musical delights in a vain attempt to group our favourites of 2011 into some sort of coherent list we like to call Live4ever’s Essential Listening.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be presenting our most cherished gigs, tracks and albums of the year, in the hope that our highlights from 52 weeks worth of sonic adventure will inspire you to investigate our essential picks of 2011, as well as sharing your own favourites with us.
Check back next week for Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2011 – The Tracks, and when you’ve been through our stand-out gigs of the year, don’t forget to leave a comment below to tell the world of your memorable gig-going experiences of 2011.
25: The Duke Spirit @ The Roxy, LA
“The entire set clocked in at just under an hour, leaving the crowd with just enough air in their lungs to salute the band one last time as they sauntered offstage.”
24: Ram’s Pocket Radio @ 2011 Glasgowbury Festival
“The whole way through…there’s a sense of really needing to cherish this act while we still can, before they shoot off into the stratosphere forever.”
23: Best Coast @ Manchester Academy
“Ten seconds and one fuzzbox J-Lo impression later, and suddenly nobody wants this night to end. Forget the French Riviera, balls to Cornwall, this is the Best Coast.”
22: Miles Kane @ London Electric Ballroom
“‘Inhaler’ did exactly as expected – shaking the building like a devastating earthquake. That riff, despite being a cheeky borrowed one, is played ferociously loud…”
21: Motorhead @ Glasgow O2 Academy
“‘Ace Of Spades’ is a genre defining track, a crux at the very heart of rock and roll that has withstood the test of time to be considered a classic.”
20: Stealing Sheep @ Trof Café, Manchester
“The night winds down as couples slow dance to the soothing, mesmeric ‘Shoot The Ducks To Win‘, swept away in shimmering cymbals and dancing arpeggios.”
19: The Horrors @ The El Rey Theatre, LA
“The Horrors could easily be accused of scavenging off the styles of the past, but they so far don’t seem content on letting that past dictate where they go with their own future.”
18: Treetop Flyers @ The Castle, Manchester
“Their output is so upbeat, so filled with that hope and promise uncommon to their contemporaries that they find the direct route to their audience more or less unguarded.”
17: The Cribs @ Coventry Kasbah
“The crowd were at their wildest when guitarist Ryan came to stand on the front of the stage and tease the front row by playing riffs at the end of several dozen fingertips.”
16: The Darkness @ Manchester Academy
“This is a band who completely, fearlessly and devotedly love rock ‘n’ roll. Of course, it doesn’t do any harm that they love their audience, too.”
15: Sleep @ The Wiltern Theatre, LA
“…drop-tuned guitar, fuzzed-out bass, and earth-shattering drums that left every ear in the building with a resonating ring to remember it with.”
14: Fleet Foxes @ Manchester Apollo
“‘The Shrine/An Argument‘ quakes the bones as Pecknold stands hunched over his acoustic guitar, his strumming hand letting rip wild rhythms worthy of Richie Havens.”
13: Pulp @ Leeds Festival 2011
“Always one of rock’s most enigmatic characters, it is immediately apparent frontman Jarvis Cocker has lost none of the trademark onstage appeal or individuality.”
12: The Richard Thompson Band @ Salford Lowry
“The last notes reverberate into the Lyric Theatre, and his face is framed in stark ribbons of light. Top that, everybody who ever picked up a guitar.”
11: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes @ Leeds Festival
“Directing his troops from the pit, where he spends a sizeable chunk of the gig, Ebert is able to keep both his band and the crowd in the palm of his hand…”
10: Iron & Wine @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
“Sam Beam stood like a dream-catcher at the centre of the stage, stealing and feeding moods and emotions to the mass of ears that lay open before him…”
9: Portishead @ Shrine Expo Hall, LA
“…the most fascinating factor behind the initial rise and recent resurgence of Portishead is the seemingly time-exempt aura that encapsulates everything they do. ”
8: And So I Watch You From Afar @ Belfast Mandela Hall
“It’s candor, energy and pure feeling that’s beyond classification, more deserving than a meaningless genre title could compensate for.”
7: Pulled Apart By Horses @ Latitude 30, SXSW Festival
“As the final notes fade down, Hudson throws up off stage. An audience member joins him. There’s stains on the floor. There’s quite literally a mark left in Latitude…”
6: Beady Eye @ Royal Albert Hall, London
“If not yet acknowledged for having the best tunes in the world, Beady Eye are definitely set to become known worldwide for their prowess as a brilliant live act.”
5: The Minutes @ Brooklyn Bowl, CMJ Music Marathon
“Frontman Mark Austin is a jerky, restless bag of energy live, looking like a Wilko Johnson-possessed Marcus Mumford as he peacocks around the stage…”
4: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds @ London HMV Forum
“This was a man…in a jubilant mood and demonstrating the body language of someone who is more enthusiastic about being on stage since God knows when.”
3: The Jim Jones Revue @ The Echo, LA
“Then there was ‘Princess & The Frog‘, a car-wreck of a closer that managed to recreate that same carnal energy that carried rock n’ roll through its early age of infamy.”
2: Pint Shot Riot @ Antone’s, SXSW Festival
“Pint Shot Riot deliver an energetic and, thanks to frontman Rocket, charming performance, superbly hitting their stride with tracks from debut album ‘Spell It Out’.”
1: Josh T. Pearson @ The Royal Northern College Of Music
“His technique is a delight for the eyes, stirring up visions of Booker White slappin’, tappin’ and slidin’ his way through the ‘Aberdeen Mississipi Blues’.”
Essential Listening 2011 series:
Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2011 – The Gigs
Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2011 – The Tracks
Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2011 – The Albums
I’ve been many gigs this year again and these are my best gigs 2011:
Broken Records – Melkweg, FebruaryThe National – Vredenburg, FebruaryEd Harcourt – Vrdenburg, MarchThe Twilight Sad (Fat Cat Tour) – Paradiso, SeptemberNetherlands – a small acoustic gig in a church during the London Calling, NovemberNoel Gallagher – Melkweg, November
and these are the ones I enjoyed:
Beaey Eye – Paradiso, MarchThe Coral – Luxorlive, AprilThe Rifles (acoustic) – Sugarfactory, AprilMiles Kane – Bitterzoet, JuneArctic Monkeys – Paradiso, JuneThe La’s Stripped Back – Bitterzoet, August
I haven’t been to many concerts this year. I saw Muse+U2 and Beady Eye + The Strokes (and others) at Personal Fest. out of those Muse was the best one, it was only 5-6 songs.
HOWEVER, the one that I enjoyed the most was Laura Marling at this small place called Samsung Studio.
my best gig this year? that’s easy— foo fighters, td banknorth garden, november 16th 2011. as a matter of fact, it was the best gig of my entire life
i doubt that beady eye was a better gig than richard thompson.
no laura marling, gillian welch and i havent seen her on this current tour but PJ Harvey is amazing live and has one of the finest albums of the year so i would imagine she should be high on your list.
Pendragon, Birkenhead
The Essential Listening Lists which Live4ever publish yearly are not meant to be a top 25 count down but rather a bunch of music we found inspiring enough to hopefully start great discussions and idea exchanges among readers. Thanks everyone !
For me it’d probably be:Noel, Usher Hall, EdinbughBeady Eye, Barrowlands, GlasgowArctic Monkeys, AECC, Aberdeen
Although I’m hopefully seeing Proud Mary and Kasabian within the next 5 days, with Miles Kane supporting Kasabian
My favorites this year:
Interpol at the House of BluesThe Love Langauge at TT The BearsLCD Soundsystem at Madison Square GardenCut Copy at House of BluesNeil Young at the Wang TheaterTame Impala at the ParadiseThe Strokes at BonnarooThe Horrors at Brighton Music HallNoely G at the Wang Theater