I saw 18 shows this year during #MyYearOfConcerts and figured I’d rank them all in one post to wrap up the year. Here we go!
18. The Church (Seattle)
Sorry, The Church. It’s not you, it was me. I was in a lot of back/neck pain that day (and also exhausted from two months of travel), so I left after 5 songs. Maybe we’ll try again someday.
17. REO Speedwagon (Kennewick)
16. Night Ranger (Tacoma)
15. Billy Idol (Spokane)
14. Counting Crows (Spokane)
13. Collective Soul (Spokane)
12. Toad the Wet Sprocket (Spokane)
This group above are all pretty similar. They’re all basically tied. It’s not like Night Ranger was worse than Counting Crows. But Night Ranger was a worse venue, though. Same with Billy Idol…great show but rough night outdoors in the heat.
11. Journey/Toto (Spokane)
I should probably rank this one higher. Most of the shows I saw, the band/artist was playing its old songs more slowly than normal. Don’t know why, I’m not a musician. But musically, Journey sounded so close to their original songs and albums. They were really tight, a much better show than I expected.
10. U2 night 1 (Las Vegas)
9. Duran Duran (Portland)
8. Bryan Adams/Joan Jett (Seattle)
7. U2 night 2 (Las Vegas)
6. Sting (Portland)
5. Billy Joel (NYC)
4. Foo Fighters (Spokane)
Foos deserve to be Top 3 thanks to sheer rock ‘n’ roll awesomeness but I don’t know all of their back catalog so I felt like an outsider for stretches of time. But damn, they were fantastic.
3. Eagles (Portland)
I saw Eagles at the end of their Hotel California tour. The musicianship was perfect, the vocals and harmonies were heavenly. And what I loved the most was how they presented the album. They played Hotel California at the start of the show, in full and in order. Don Henley stopped a couple times to tell stories about the songs and making the album. They brought out a string section and choir for some of the album tracks. They gave the album the respect and attention it deserves.
2. Springsteen (Portland)
This was every bit the masterclass I expected. I was exhausted an hour into the show just from watching and singing, and Bruce kept going for almost three hours at age 73. No stage production, no video production, no crazy light show…just a guy and his band telling great stories.
1. Adele (Las Vegas)
Speaking of storytelling, Adele will have you in tears one moment and in stitches the next with her stories in between songs, then in complete awe when she’s singing. She’s just perfect in every way. Her show was, too.
Shall we do it again in 2024?
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