The Best Concerts of 2013

As you’ll read below, it was another banner year for concerts.  The one minor weakness, however, was in the local club/bar scene.  Club Mercy and others did their best to bring in bands (though Club Mercy is clearly So-Cal focused these days while doing their best to bring shows to SB and Ventura), but it seems that many of the artists (and their booking agents/labels) are skipping the “smaller market” venues (such as the clubs/bars in Santa Barbara) in favor of the big cities and festivals. Here’s to hoping this short-sighted trend will quickly reverse itself. While the festivals may provide the artists a good and certain payday (we completely get the thrall thereof), because of shortened sets, off-peak slots and disinterested-crowds, neither bands (particularly nascent bands), nor fans nor newbies arguably benefit from the festivals. The best exposure for new bands remains more complete sets for fans and the curious in small venues at peak hours.  Recognizing that the times they have a-changed, we can’t fault the artists or their assistants, but question the long-term success of this strategy. Coachella continues to corrupt the concert scene in and around Southern and Central California because of its blackout edict.  May Coachella go the way of the Cabezon dinosaurs. Below were our favorite concerts of 2013, listed in order of preference.

In contrast to prior years, we’ve decided to limit our list to the best three shows of the year.  Check ’em out below.

1. The National at Hollywood Forever Cemetery/Greek Theater

In October we managed to piece together back-to-back concerts by The National at LA’s Greek Theater and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery the next night. As we had anticipated (given prior shows by the band), the latter proved to be the Concert of the Year, with the Greek Theater show a close second. The National are simply the best live band on the planet right now (we reserve judgment on the comparative status of the only other contender–Radiohead–until we catch them again). Singer Matt Berninger (with his omnipresent wine, baritone balladry and bent-yowl), the guitar-chiming Dessner Twins, and the Devendorf rhythm brothers (perfectly augmented by horns/keys/vocals/utility players Ben Lanz and Kyle Resnick) co-mingled with and gathered energy from the crowds both nights, ultimately playing each night as if it might be their last.  This felt especially the case on Sunday given the grave(yard) environs and the perfect audience. Rumors continue to swirl that The National might play our hallowed Santa Barbara Bowl in 2014.  If this comes to fruition, it will without question be THE Best Concert of 2014.

2. Atoms For Peace at Santa Barbara Bowl

Speaking of Radiohead…having caught Atoms for Peace’s Best Concert of 2010 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, our expectations for their October 2013 show at the Bowl were incredibly high, particularly in the wake of their scintillating debut album, Amok.  The band (Thom Yorke, Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Warnonker and  Mauro Refosco) again took the Bowl by storm in October with their non-stop kinetic energy and drive.  Yorke’s sinuous, ever-captivating vocals and Flea’s percolating basslines, coupled with their kilt-aided dancing, were particular riveting, along with the 1-2 rhythm section of Waronker and Refosco (possibly the best percussion duo we have ever heard live) and the MVP-on-stage, Nigel Godrich.  Between the light show and the sounds, it was a sonic phantasmagoria.  In the end, though (as great as they were) AFP couldn’t match the intensity and emotional-impact of the The National.  As much as we loved Amok, we hope that next time around AFP will be performing songs that grab hold of us more and better engage our hearts (in addition to our feet and eyes).

3. Iron & Wine at First Unitarian Church

The great Sam Beam brought his Iron & Wine in all it’s transformed, 13-member glory to Los Angeles to play an intimate show on Sunday at the First Unitarian Church in MacArthur Park and to perform last night on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, all in support of the band’s superb new album, Ghost On Ghost.  Suffice it to say that this incarnation of Iron & Wine is the best yet, and they gave one of the most soulful, rocking concerts we’ve seen in recent memory.  Iron & Wine has dramatically evolved from Beam’s solo guitar origins into a species of a whole different order.  While there are plenty who lament the more intimate side of Beam’s confessional songs, at the Church Show there were hallelujahs all around.  The First Unitarian Church was an ideal place to see Iron & Wine in all its manifold glory.  Though the sound took some continuous dialing, the intimate venue was perfect for this band.  The large band consisted of Beam and four threes (three backup singers, string trio, three strutting, scatting horn players, and a rhythm section consisting of bass, drums and keys).  And great joy was had by Beam and the beaming crowd.  The singers and horn players danced most of the night when they weren’t getting serious, and Beam paid tribute to his father by explaining how his dad contributed mightily to the Motown-Stax sounds emanating from the stage.  It’s obviously no coincidence that most of the songs from the new album also reflect the band’s large look and feel, with its big band sound and bountiful production.

As mentioned previously, one of our most highly anticipated albums of 2014 is the new album from the incomparable Elbow entitled The Take Off and Landing of Everything, which will be released in March.  Now comes the first song released off the album, Fly Boy Blue/ Lunette.  Check it out below.  It’s got everything-Elbow in one sitting.  We can’t wait for the album release.  And hopefully a concert to follow at a nearby venue.

As we said last August,London Grammar combines the atmospherics of The xx with the vocal Flo-urishes of Florence (and her Machine).  The band went on to appear on many Best of 2013 lists for their album If You Wait and its sublime songs.  Last night London Grammar made their American television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.  They performed the stentorian Strong and Wasting My Young Years (the latter a web-exclusive).  Fallon wasn’t the only one to be impressed (though we’re curious if the band can captivate for an entire set).  Check ’em out below.

Last weekend Austin City Limits broadcast its episode featuring Neko Case and Jason Isbell, and you can watch it below in its entirety.  Both artists’ 2013 albums were Honorable Mention winners on our Best Albums of 2013 list.

We’ve recently featured fantastic acoustic performances by Isbell and his wife Amanda Shires. Isbell’s ACL set added some plugged renditions and highlighted songs off of his critically-acclaimed 2013 album, Southeastern.  His heart-rending song Elephant is an obvious highlight of his set.

The second half of the ACL episode features the luminous Neko Case. We’ve been fans of Case’s forever and a day, and her 2013 album, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, was a highlight of the musical year.  Her voice never fails to sear our ears. On the ACL episode Case performed songs from the recent album, and a few other highlights from her oeuvre, but especially I Wish I Was The Moon.

If the embedded player below doesn’t work for you, you can also go HERE to watch the episode.

The artists’ setlists are below.

Jason Isbell:

Flying Over Water
Cover Me Up
Live Oak
Elephant
Alabama Pines
Super 8

Neko Case:

Night Still Comes
Red Tide
Calling Cards
Hold On, Hold On
I Wish I Was the Moon
Ragtime
Man

Last week we wrote about Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires covering Warren Zevon’s momentous Mutineer.   But we’ve been newly arrested by the duo’s performance (with Shires leading the way) of her song Wasted and Rolling off of Shires’ 2013 album Down Fell the Doves.  Isbell we knew about.  He came out of Drive-By Truckers to go solo and, having addressed his devils (alcohol), came out with Southeastern in 2013 and appeared at the top of many Best Albums of 2013 lists.  But until recently, we only knew Shires tangentially (as a valued fiddle player on the Americana scene, having begun in Bob Wills’ The Texas Playboys as a teenager and gone on to accompany many others).   Shires went threw some tumult in recent times, with an onstage accident (and broken finger) to go with a painful breakup.  The upshot is that Shires met Isbell, and they were soon married, and he collaborated with Shires on Down Fell The Doves.   To hear what we’ve been missing, check out Shires (with Isbell and Stephanie Dickinson) perform the harrowing beauty, Wasted and Rolling off the album.  Oh the harmonies with Dickinson (on bass) and Isbell!  And do watch Isbell on solo acoustic starting at 2:11.  Shires’ smile gives it all away.  This is one talented married couple.  We can’t wait to hear more.

Parquet Courts dominated a good part of our listening year with their debut album Light Up Gold, which finished as our No. 8 Best Album of 2013.  The band remains out on tour in support of the album and last night made their television debut on the Jimmy Fallon Show.  Watch below as the boys blaze and feedback through Stoned And Starving (not our favorite lyric from the album, but a great punk-jam nonetheless).  They play the Fonda Theater in LA on January 17th before heading off to sunnier climes (smart lads, they).  Their scheduled tour dates are listed below the video.

1/14-Brooklyn, NY @ The Acheron
1/16-San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
1/17-Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda *
1/18-San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe
1/19-Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
1/20-Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
1/27–Aukland, NZ @ Laneway Festival
1/29–Melbourne, AU @ The Corner #
1/31–Brisbane, AU @ Laneway Festival
2/01–Melbourne, AU @ Laneway Festival
2/02-Sydney, AU @ Laneway Festival
2/05–Sydney, AU @ The Standard ^
2/07–Adelaide, AU @ Laneway Festival
2/08–Fremantle, AU @ Laneway Festival
2/14–Brighton, UK @ Concorde
2/15–Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
2/16–London, UK @ Electric Ballroom

* = w/ White Fence
# = w/ Total Control, Constant Mongrel
^ = w/ Total Control, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys

You know, we try. Hard. But sometimes we just completely miss the boat.  Take, for example, Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches and their 2013 debut album, The Bones of What You Believe.  In the past month, we’ve seen their album regularly showing up (often at the top) on the Best Albums of 2013 lists, and we’ve finally taken the time to listen in and watch, and now fully agree with this critical wave.  And so we’ve been digging in and discovering all that we had been missing in the band.  We’ll have more to report soon in case you are not fully familiar with this fine outfit.

We’re finally acknowledging our Chvrches dereliction today because Billboard today released a video of Chvrches’ live cover of Janelle Monáe’s Tightrope at Billboard’s Women In Music luncheon held in December (I know Sufjan, the prepositions!).  At the luncheon, Monáe and Pink were given awards (Monáe was justly given the “Rising Star” award).  And each artist had one of their song’s covered by other female artists.  Tegan And Sara performed a Pink song (whatevs) and Chvrches covered  Monáe.  Chvrches’ performance of Monáe‘s song took us aback, and particularly after the heartfelt introduction by lead-singer Lauren Mayberry in which she fondly recalls speaking with Monáe the night before.  You can hear Mayberry’s nerves a bit in the performance (who can blame her given the astoundingly-talented Monáe’s presence?), but it’s a completely captivating cool-groove rendition.  And you have to love Monáe‘s gracious standing and dancing during the performance.  Too cool.  Check it out below.

Oh, and while we’re at it, following the Chvrches cover, do yourselves a favor and watch Monáe‘s incendiary performance of the song on the Letterman Show in 2010.  One of the best late night performances of all time and one of our Best Songs of 2010.

Against phenomenal competition, John Grant’s Pale Green Ghost received Honorable Mention as one of our Best Albums of 2013.  Stylistically all over the map (disco, electronica, ballads, folk anthems, etc.), the album was justly and uniformly critically-acclaimed.  Grant (an American who now resides in and recorded Pale Green Ghost in Iceland) appeared on the Letterman Show last night to perform the venomous, hilarious, and self-deprecating ode GMF (you know, an acronym for Greatest Mo Fo).  The censors were kept busy bleeping both Grant and Letterman’s post-performance lauding of the song.  Hilarious.  Check it out below.

Singer-songwriter Damien Jurado has given us some of our favorite music over the years, including albums Rehearsals For Departure, Saint Bartlett and 2012’s Mariqopa,.  According to Jurado’s PR, his new album Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son is intended as a sequel to his last album, Mariqopa.  In keeping with recent albums, the new album was again produced by  Richard Swift, and his kitchen-sink production motif is apparent from the beginning of the album.   You can listen to the new album for the next week over at NPR.  As you’ll hear, the first five songs are big-production numbers that smack of various ’60s movie soundtracks but with Jurado’s signature vocals lighting the way.  The last half of the album thankfully yields the spotlight to the quieter and more affecting side of Jurado.  Overall Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son is yet another plum in the Jurado discography.  Check it out at the NPR link above.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks kicked off the year last night as Jimmy Fallon’s first musical guests of 2014.  Malkmus and amalgam are out in support of their wowing new album Wig Out at Jagbags (released today–you can buy it HERE).  Watch below as the band performs single Lariat (with Malkmus stretching out on guitar in keeping with the music’s “best decade”) and Stick Figures In Love (as a web exclusive).  Great to see this return to form by Malkmus and the Jicks.