This is this time of the year when we have to decide about the best songs, albums, concerts and make our 2012 best-of list. I haven’t been to as many concerts as the previous years, blame it on my ever-more-demanding job and a bad schedule that forced me to wake up at dawn, but I saw some good ones nevertheless… here is my top ten of 2012 in a chronological order:
– Ceremony at Eagle Rock’s Center for the Arts, on March 8: The energy was really impressive, the mostly male audience went wild and carried the band’s powerful riffs from start to finish. I was just afraid that this kind of place wasn’t ready for this hardcore hurricane, people were holding in place the shaking large amps and the whole set was terrorizing,… but in a good way.
– Sharon Van Etten at Avalon on March 20: Sharon is the fierce songstress with this unique crystalline voice, yeah her voice is something and she uses it with such ease. Plus I learned something this night, to 'never apologize!’ Sharon said so to a girl who was precisely apologizing for requesting a song, because Sharon is a damn strong woman!
– Beck at the El Rey theater on May 22: This one was a little nostalgic, I mean Beck did all his classics, not even a new one, but it was nice to hear some Odelay material. May be I was secretly expecting something, a new tune, a surprise guest, a stage diving? Naaah, but it was just a plain good show, professionally executed, and Beck is so rare these days.
– Mogwai at the Fonda theater on June 2: I have seen the Scottish band twice and each time, they built these grandiose and magnificent post-rock soundscapes over and over. This last time, I just regretted they didn’t play enough of their latest album ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’, but they looked like triumphant guitar warriors all night long.
– The Afghan Whigs at Bootys Bellows on June 28: I am a little bias for this one because it was the beginning of the summer, and you know that feeling… full of freedom and hope,.. for the good times to come. It was also my first Afghan Whigs concert and a lot of fun, I was just under Greg Dulli’s noise, and I think I have had a little crush on him since.
– Fiona Apple at the Palladium on July 29: Fiona was back in action and she was a tiny tornado on stage, crawling on the floor, striking her piano keys, delivering her angry songs like a hurting animal… I wonder how her little dog is doing.
– Sigur Ros at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on August 12: This place is special and worked at perfection for the mysterious Icelandic band. The show was superb, visually and sonically, all these gold, red, icy blue lights caressing Jonsi’s cello bow, all these lyrical soundscapes haunted by his falsetto, sent tons of shivers down everyone’s spine. It was a magical night.
– FYF at LA State Historic Park on September 1 and 2: One of the highlights of this year, no doubt about this! A musical celebration in dust, heat and thirst, with too many bands to see at once,… let’s remember, I saw Refused, M83, Beirut, Quicksand, Sleigh Bells, Desaparecidos, American Nightmare, Warpaint, Paul Banks, Lightning Bolt, Fucked Up, King Khan and the Shrines, Cloud Nothings, Ceremony, Moonface, Fidlar,… It was intense but I will do it again next year.
-The Shins at the Gibson Amphitheater on October 2: I know that Iman finds them boring live, but I go to shows for different things. I don’t expect a lot of talking and moving from Mr. James Mercer, he doesn’t need to, he just have his power-pop big-chorus tunes, and his new pro-band backing him up, and it worked. He couldn’t believe he was playing the Gibson, ‘this place is huge’, he exclaimed,… you see, the Shins have become arena-rock band now.
– Cat Power at the Hollywood Palladium on November 8: Chan Marchall is all about warmness and love, if she could have hugged each person in the audience, she would have done it, I am sure. She was nervous to take the stage, but once she was there, she gave everything she had. She gave us roses at the end and hugged her ex-boyfriend’s daughter on stage after a duet on ‘Nothing but Time’, and time is Chan’s secret, she totally ignores it.