kid's allright

This is the last in a series.  I’m sure we’re all tired of reading/talking about 2006 by now.  But I would feel remiss listing my favorite albums of 2006 without also mentioning the best live shows that I saw.

So this time, with little introduction, here we go.  This list is purely from memory…so stay tuned to the comments section in case I remember a gem of a show that is currently hiding somewhere in the recesses of my mind.  Oh, yeah…and as I’ve done with the last two posts…since I wasn’t blogging in 2005, my favorite concert of 2005 — hands down — was Dizzee Rascal at Irving Plaza in NYC, which I saw with my brother and sister and my high-school-English-teaching brother-in-law Kelly’s high school literature class!

1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Architecture in Helsinki @ Henry Fonda
The artists of two of the best all around albums of 2005 got together and put on one heck of a show at the Henry Fonda.  Architecture in Helsinki was about 300 times better live than I thought they’d be.  I assumed that they’d just be a fun quirky little band, which is pretty much how they sound on their albums.  Live, they had rhythm and groove — a very fun dance vibe.  Clap Your Hands were the tightest act I’ve seen all year.  And any indie band that inspires the whole crowd to dance rather than just do the indie-rock head-nod thing scores big points with me.

2. Hot Chip @ Troubadour
Continuing on the fun dance theme, Hot Chip just blew me away.  I was sitting in the balcony at the Troubadour…and the entire thing was bouncing up and down with the beat during the encore version of their hit "Over & Over".

3. Figurines @ Spaceland
I consciously try to see international bands that I like whenever I notice them coming through (the Figurines are Danish).  I went to this show by myself on a quiet Friday night just before Halloween.  And I’m glad that I did.  As I stated earlier, the Figurines’ album Skeleton was my second favorite album of the year.  And they were the perfect Spaceland act –  a straight-up indie rock band with energy and passion.

4. Beck @ Yahoo!
I would think that this show was possibly the most blogged about show of the year.  Rather than go into another (fully deserving) praise-fest of my employer and the web development community at large, I’ll just link to Bradley since he said it all much better than I ever could. 

5. The Elected @ The Echo
Molly has been driving around with a mix CD that her brother made for her probably two years ago.  The best song on the CD is called "Greetings in Braille", but neither of us knew who sang it (we could have probably searched for it…but well…we never did).  It has the memorable line: "And if you see me down at the liquor store, please don’t tell my dad.  And if you see my dad down at the liquor store, don’t tell me anything more."  Before the show, this funny little guy with a mustache was hanging out near Molly and me.  An hour later, he took the stage as the lead singer.  And on the second song into the set, he broke into "Greetings in Braille".  We were both floored…and we stayed that way throughout the show because it was that good.  Here’s my review from the day after the show.

6. Belle & Sebastian (with the LA Philharmonic) & The Shins @ Hollywood Bowl
This was the most difficult show for me to rank.  Belle & Sebastian were absolutely wonderful.  The Shins were absolutely flat (I’m 1 out of 3 now in terms of enjoying the Shins).  But Belle & Sebastian — with the LA Philharmonic behind them — were just that crisp, poppy and entertaining!

7. Roman Numerals @ The Prospector
The Roman Numerals were the third KC-area band I saw this year.  My review of the show is here.  Thanks to my friends Brandi & Bob moving to LA from KC, I’ve been introduced to a really fantastic reborn KC music scene.  The other two KC-area bands were also quite entertaining: White Whale and Blackpool Lights.

8. Mates of State @ SXSW
I knew nothing about Mates of State going in.  I still don’t have any of their albums.  But as full as their sound was, I could have sworn that there were at least five musicians on stage…but, nope, there were only two — one keyboardist and one drummer!  If I make it back to SXSW for work this year, I hope that I can stick around for more of the music too.

Shows I really wish I hadn’t missed:
The Boy Least Likely To; Editors; and Long Winters — all @ Spaceland
Willie Nelson & Friends (Ryan Adams and Neko Case); Massive Attack & TV on the Radio — both @ The Hollywood Bowl

That’s it for ‘06. On to 2007!