100best: Concerts Of 2006

Like every other year, Tam and I went to approximately one zillion concerts in 2006. To be honest, that’s the main thing we do when we go out together. And we saw some good stuff last year: Beck put on a puppet show, Ryan Adams walked off stage for some reason we still don’t know, Art Brut covered Metallica, The Datsuns covered The Misfits, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah got down with Dr. Dog, Maximo Park blew last year’s show away, Tapes N Tapes celebrated a birthday, and The Magic Numbers played a wee little show to a crowd that wouldn’t let them leave the stage. Good times indeed.

But we’re dorks and we like lists, so here’s our favorite shows of the year - the ones that we’ll still be reeling from years from now - in chronological order:

Tam already wrote about this show, and she described it perfectly. I’m still in awe of the Lips’ ability to make every single show an event. I’d read about their insanity but I still had no idea what what coming. It was like an explosion (literally) of music and glitter and balloons and dancing. If you haven’t seen them yet, get yourself some tickets and I’ll give you your money back personally if you don’t have a good time.

What can I say about The Decemberists? We’ve written about them several times and their The Crane Wife was my Number One album of 2006. I think this night was probably the beginning of my obsession with them - Tam asked me to go along with her and I agreed happily. I figured that if she liked them, they must be worth seeing. I went home that night and immediately downloaded everything else that emusic had of theirs. And we get to go see them again next month - I’m practically counting down the days.

Any night you get to hear Jack White play is better than … well, the nights you don’t get to hear him play. The Raconteurs are even better live than on record, and this was a wonderful concert experience in general. There weren’t any push-you-out-of-the-way-to-get-the-front types there, everyone just seemed to be having a really good time. Plus, The Raconteurs covered Nancy Sinatra and that tops just about everything.

We saw The Black Keys on their last tour and we thought they were absolutely amazing live. But this show was something else altogether. It felt a little like that old Maxell commercial where the guy gets literally blown away by the music.

Tam and I were just as excited to see Cold War Kids as Two Gallants, though I think we were two of the very few Cold War Kids fans there. They definitely won over the crowd though - at the end of “Hang Me Up To Dry”, when all the instruments gradually drop out and only Nathan Willett’s goosebump-inducing voice is left, there was this split second of stunned silence before the room absolutely erupted in applause. That silence, that may have been the most perfect moment of the entire year.

Needless to say, Two Gallants were even way more than we’d expected. I mean, c’mon - their shows have been known to incite riots. Seriously though, I did think they’d have a hard time following up Cold War Kids, but they got the job done. As I said in my Albums Of The Year post, I don’t think I really appreciated Two Gallants until we’d seen them live. Hearing an entire room full of people sing along to the chorus of “Las Cruces Jail” is another concert moment I won’t ever forget.

So now we just have to sit around and wait for the upcoming Fratellis, Elvis Perkins / Cold War Kids / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Decemberists, and Brakes shows. I expect at least a couple of those will make the list next year.