Check out my Best Of coverage (2016-2021) from last year: 50 things that make sounds, 150 do it all again, 250 sounds of people, 365 where this goes, 500 last call, and 600 hidden meaning.
In 2022, I saw a grand total of one hundred fifty two artists at seventy four shows and four music festivals. The furthest I travelled to see a show was to Spain, and thirty three of the artists I saw were at the Greek, which is a few blocks from my house. I saw Remi Wolf four times this year alone, making her both the most seen artist of my year and my most seen artist ever (five times total). I’ve still got seven shows scheduled for this calendar year.
I don’t know how sustainable this pace is going to be for my wallet or my body—moshing really takes it out of you—but this year was bonkers in the best way. In chronological order, these are my favorite shows of 2022:
I saw Big Thief two nights this spring at the Fox Theater. I saw them again at Primavera, but the Fox shows were special—they played an unreleased song and two Adrianne Lenker covers that I actually preferred to the original versions. They opened with “Change,” which set the tone for the rest of the show: emotional, poignant, imbued with a sense of great significance. I was completely enthralled the whole night. At the end of the show, everyone danced wildly to “Spud Infinity,” and it felt like the room was just brimming with energy. I think Big Thief is one of the best bands making music today.
I waited for two hours at the barricade of the festival stage to see The National at Primavera. It was morning by the time the band came on, and I was delirious, but so happy; I had never seen them before, and they are arguably my favorite band. I jumped around the whole time, screaming probably. You can watch the whole set here.
I saw Jenny Hval once in Oakland, in a tiny room. Usually I prefer intimate shows like that, but her Primavera Sound set was in an amphitheater and the lighting and visuals actually greatly enhanced my experience of the set. Classic Objects (2022) is my sleeper album of the year, and seeing “Cemetery of Splendour” live was really moving. I felt that I was witnessing art, rather than music, somehow.
I mentioned moshing above—the biggest, wildest, scariest, most exhilarating mosh pit I was ever in was at the Tyler, The Creator show at Primavera. He split the crowd down the middle to open up a pit the size of a soccer field. There’s no footage of this performance on the Internet because he told everyone to put their phones away so they wouldn’t get smashed in the crush. The opening of the live version of this song is Tyler chanting over and over again until the song breaks and the crowd runs into the pit. Multiple times I was sure I was going to die—so worth it.
I saw LCD Soundsystem at the Fox Theater later in the summer. It was one of those crowds that’s really open and welcoming; I ended up dancing next to a group of probably twenty people all there together. There were maybe ten people onstage, all playing very intently. Some of the songs went on for ten minutes or more, and I entered this weird trance state where I was just a bunch of limbs dancing, no thoughts in my brain.
The thing that really struck me about the Courtney Barnett show I saw at the Frost Amphitheater was how much noise was coming off the stage from just three people. A lot of larger bands play with tracks these days, and I absolutely respect and even prefer that fat sound, but it was novel and extremely impressive to see Barnett’s band absolutely crush her discography with just three instruments. The musicianship rolling off of Courtney Barnett is palpable, and I wasn’t even in the front row.
I wrote about this show once already, but Grace Ives at Cafe Du Nord is worth mentioning here as one of my favorite shows of the year. She’s such a superstar, and it was really special to see her in a small room before she starts playing stadiums or whatever.
Seeing Broken Social Scene at the Fox Theater on their You Forgot It In People (2003) anniversary tour was so special to me. I love this record more all the time, and I felt very lucky to be witnessing the performance. Specifically, hearing “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” was a bucket list moment, and I’ll never forget how it felt to be a little speck of dust on the wind of that outro.
Comment your favorite shows you’ve seen this year! Best Of 2022 playlist drops next week.
There were a lot of shows I wanted to see this year. I turned 16 6 months before the pandemic started and my plan was to start going to as many concerts as possible. Obviously, that didn’t happen. This is the first year that the concerts really started back up, and I live an hour from Portland, which gets some phenomenal shows. I wanted to see Lord Huron and Marcus Mumford at Keller Auditorium, Norah Jones and Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers at Edgefield, Florence + The Machine and Twenty One Pilots at the Moda Center, FINNEAS at the Crystal Ballroom. I even wanted to see AURORA and SYML in Seattle. Alas, I am but a teenage girl with limited funds, so I only went to two shows. But they were SO WORTH IT. In July my mom and my sister and I went to see The Lumineers with Gregory Alan Isakov opening, and a few weeks ago my dad, my sister, my cousin and I went to see Matt Maeson with All Get Out opening. Now, my top three favorite musicians of all time are Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, and Matt Maeson. I stood there for both shows, singing every song and doing a bit of crying. They were amazing. Not only that, but I gained a new favorite in Gregory Alan Isakov. Next year, I plan to see more shows, but I don’t think they’ll top the ones I saw this year.
The national is amazing live! I'd love to go to a Big Thief show