Best Of 2019: All Concerts In Chronological Order Through February 28th

Robyn’s “Honey Tour” At Madison Square Garden, Friday, March 8th – From here to the third mistake of the evening, a weak “Trust Me,” first song of the encore, she could do no wrong. Robyn gave herself completely to the beats, to the rave aesthetic, and to her audience. Her energy level was insane, and she can really, really dance and really sing, her back up band are somewhat anonymous but not in a negative way, they are like assistant chef’s working on a souffle.

The True Groove Allstars’ “Another Kind Of Night” At Parkside Lounge, Thursday, March 21st – It is less a scary transition and more an impacted singularity struggling against nihilism. In the end, The Black Magnolia Project, both as poems and as an album, is a deeply gorgeous and brooding dissertation on the need to face nihilism with hope.

King Princess At Irving Plaza, Thursday, January 24th – These sad songs aren’t suicidal sad, they are heartbreak sad, and yes, still cathartic and the fast ones are sexy and fun and lively and altogether it gives these young women the freedom to be who they are, to scream “marry me” to shout “I’m so gay” at the top of their voices and to look on the stage and not see themselves, like I said Mikaela is a real star, but who they could be. It was wonderful for them.

Weezer At Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, March 12th – Weezer kept to the hits and performed them with solid enthusiasm to a solidly enthusiastic audience, all the hits, even the semi-ones like “Pork And Beans” and “Beverly Hills,” were a pleasure. It was a very good concert, catchy songs to sing on the way to the middle class abattoir

KISS at Madison Square Garden, Wednesday, March 27th At Madison Square Garden – Twenty years after I saw their first farewell concert, here they are leaving us again and sound exactly the same.

Michael Buble At Madison Square Garden, Wednesday, February 21st – Less a disappointing evening, and maybe a case where if all you have is Buble better Buble than nothing, more a case of a sound and an act that is so overplayed all you can do is wait patiently for it to end

Travis Scott’s “Astroworld – Wish You Were Here” Tour At Madison Square Garden, Saturday, March 2nd – The last time Travis was in town, baby Stormi was dancing in the green room with her Mommy Kylie, Kylie climbed on the rollercoaster at the end of the November show and into the future with Travis. This time round she’d had a huge fight with Travis over his (denied) infidelity and his family was nowhere to be found, Travis had cancelled a Buffalo show a week before.

Sarah Brightman’s “Hymn” At Radio City Music Hall, Wednesday, February 6th – It wasn’t an unpleasant evening yet it was also a trick evening, like Sarah’s crossover skills, or Andrew himself, it appeared to be high culture but it was shabby around the edges. Her voice couldn’t carry the evening

Interpol At Madison Square Garden, Saturday, February 16th – A tight knit rock band with the sort of moodiness you might get if you added Depeche Mode to Joy Division, the performance was a brooding, self-aware dance through their latest album and their backpages. But if Travis Scott overkilled with a rollercoaster inside the venue, Interpol underwhelmed without any close circuit TV and only a mirror ball to signify

New Power Generation At Sony Hall, Friday, January 4th – The band have moments that absolutely prove they were a great backing band (there are entire albums as well), but they are a backing band. If they had worked very hard on a streamlined funky set they might have pulled it off. Unlike the Revolution they have the skills. They just don’t have the willpower and so they follow the bottom line and, like the Revolution before them, NPG do the one thing Prince spent his entire career not allowing to happen: they exploit him