Favorite concerts of 2009

1. BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY, March 14 at the Vic. ... Beginning in a hush, one song built to a dramatic crescendo, and Oldham looked as if he was being transported by the magic. ... it become clear that this was one show where the performer was pouring everything he had into his songs. He did not let up, either. A little while later, as he let the band play an instrumental break in "Even If Love," Oldham raised his eyes toward the ceiling. He seemed to be shaking all over. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

2. THE FEELIES, June 29 at the Pritzker Pavilion. ... a young man danced his way into the empty area between the front row and the stage, twitching with the sort of spastic moves that looked perfect for the jerky sounds of songs from the first Feelies album, Crazy Rhythms. A park security guard led this fellow away, but he came back a minute later and continued dancing. That seemed to open the flood gates, as people jumped to the front area of the pavilion and started twitching along. Feelies lead singer and guitarist Glenn Mercer seemed to revel in the moment, coming out to the edge of the stage for guitar solos inches away from the upraised hands of fans. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

3. VIC CHESNUTT, Nov. 5 at Lincoln Hall. ... At moments, Chesnutt was singing and playing all by himself as the audience quietly listened to each and every creak of the guitar strings and bend in his voice, almost like sitting in Chesnutt's living room and attending an unplugged performance. And then the songs would erupt as the guitars, keyboards and bowed bass came in, making mountainous, majestic chords. And Chesnutt would rear back his head from the microphone and shout his words up to the mountaintop. (And now alas, Chesnutt is no longer with us. The emotional impact of his Dec. 25 death makes the two concerts I saw by Chesnutt in 2009 feel all the more special.) READ THE FULL REVIEW.

4. PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH, June 12 at the Riviera. ... Even in minimal moments, she seemed like a lively presence on the stage. And then, the contemplative music gave way to outbursts of ferocity — as on the new record's lacerating title track. Harvey dropped her voice to dramatic depths or let it soar to lovely highs, as the characters from her lyrics seemed to possess her.READ THE FULL REVIEW.

5. ECCENTRIC SOUL REVUE, Nov. 7 at Lincoln Hall. ... The evening was a real blast. A younger soul group, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, served as the house band, keeping the music going almost nonstop for more than two hours as various singers stepped up to the mike. There was barely a pause as the horns kept blowing and the funky guitar chords kept twitching. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

6. ANDREW BIRD, Dec. 14 at Fourth Presbyterian Church. ... The most extraordinary moments of this show were the very quiet ones — Bird making a little clicking noise with his music to build a rhythm track, or plucking at his violin strings. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

7. FANFARLO, Nov. 9 at Schubas. ... They play with a sense of communal spirit, switching instruments frequently, adding extra drum beats, raising all their voices high in chorus. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

8. FAIZ ALI FAIZ, June 18 at Pritzker Pavilion. ... More often than not, Faiz Ali Faiz sang with such full-on force that his face contorted and turned red with exertion. As he sang, his hands were in constant motion, making gestures that seemed almost like a game of pantomime. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

9. MÚM with Sin Fang Bous and Hildur Gudnadottir, Oct. 28 at Logan Square Auditorium. ... Múm's records have sublime hymn-like harmonies, when it sounds like this is a bunch of Icelanders getting together in a little room somewhere and singing to their heart's content... And so it was at the concert. There was a lot of joyous singing. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

10. DEAD MAN'S BONES, Oct. 21 at Schubas. ... The celebratory show had some of the zany sense of humor and the "let's try something weird" attitude that animated the Flaming Lips at their best. It was certainly a very memorable night. READ THE FULL REVIEW.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Jesus Lizard, July 17 at the Pitchfork Music Festival
Sonic Youth, June 27 at the Riviera
The Vaselines and the 1900s, May 16 at Metro
The Flat Five, Dec. 11 at the Hideout
The Poster Children, Lonely Trailer, the Outnumbered and Cowboy X, May 24 at the Highdive, Champaign
St. Vincent, April 9 at the Hideout and June 8 at Pritzker Pavilion
Jeff Tweedy, Feb. 14 at the Vic
The Dirty Projectors, June 22 at Pritzker Pavilion
Os Mutantes, Sept. 27 at Subterranean
The Sadies, Nov. 28 at the Hideout
Mount Eerie, Nov. 8 at Lakeshore Theater
The Vertebrats, Oct. 3 at the Highdive, Champaign
Choir of Young Believers, Oct. 26 at Schubas
Rural Alberta Advantage and The Love Language, Sept. 26 at Schubas
The Fiery Furnaces, July 11 at Millennium Park
Oumou Sangaré, July 2 at the Pritzker Pavilion
Jonathan Richman and Vic Chesnutt, June 11 at the Empty Bottle

January concerts

It's been a quiet month for concerts so far in Chicago. At least, it seems that way. I know I probably could have found a good dozen or more shows worth seeing, but maybe that bone-chilling cold has discouraged me from venturing out too often. That's my only excuse for missing most of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival at Schubas, which is becoming the official start of the concert year in Chicago.

I did sneak in at the very end of the five-day fest, catching the Jan. 18 show. Headliners Bishop Allen put on a spirited set of their indie pop music. I thoroughly enjoyed one of the opening bands, Tulsa, which has prompted me to get their recordings via emusic. I like what I've heard so far – melodic rock, with some the jangly guitar of '80s indie music, maybe a little bit of power pop. The other acts on the Jan. 18 bill were Vacations, who rattled around a lot of percussion, and the Donkeys, who have a decent sound but seem somewhat lacking as far as the songs themselves. At least, that's my opinion.

See photos from Tomorrow Never Knows Day 5.

The next night (Jan. 19) I went to see Adele at Park West. My expectations were not all that high, since her CD, 19, strikes me as merely pretty good. But Adele won me over with her impressive voice and her unpretentious personality. Click here to read my review for the Southtown Star newspaper.

On Thursday (Jan. 23) I saw Annuals at the Empty Bottle. Boy, I'm not sure what happened to this band since the last time I saw them. Or maybe my memory of their show from a couple of years ago is clouded with the fog of passing time. I recall enjoying the energy of the Annuals, even if not too many of their songs stuck in my mind after hearing them. Back then, they seemed like one of countless indie-rock bands trying to channel some of that anarchic spirit that animated the Arcade Fire, even if Annuals never really sounded all that much like the Arcade Fire. On Thursday night, however, Annuals suddenly seemed to me like a jam band. Maybe it was the spastic bass lines or just the general vibe of how the band was playing, but it seemed like Annuals had gone through a subtle but profound shift... into a genre of music that generally turns my stomach. It's one of those musical mysteries I puzzle over: how two songs that are similar on many superficial levels can provoke such different reactions. Beyond the musical theory of how a song is put together and played, attitude seems to play a big role. And the prejudices of the listener. Whatever it was, I was just not into what Annuals were doing on Thursday night, other than a few points when they played some of their older songs with so much jam-band-i-ness. I did enjoy the opening acts. What Laura Says played retro classic rock, harking back to the Allman Brothers. (Hey, aren't they a jam band, too? Yeah, but it's not the same thing...) And Jessica Lea Mayfield played some plaintive roots rock.

See photos of Annuals, What Laura Says and Jessica Lea Mayfield.

Best concerts of 2008

1. Tom Waits, June 26 at the Fox Theatre, St. Louis. "Waits danced like a marionette last night, allowing some invisible strings to jerk his body to the rhythms of the band..." Review.

2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sept. 29 at the Riviera. "Cave is a scary sort of preacher, and he prowled the stage with barely concealed sexual energy, his white shirt completely drenched with sweat...." Review.

3. Radiohead, Aug. 1 at Lollapalooza, Grant Park. "Girls in bikinis dance as Yorke sings about the next world war. People whistle and clap whenever Yorke holds a long, high falsetto note. A collective 'Ahhh!' goes up each time fans recognize the opening chords of a song..." Review.

4. Randy Newman, Oct. 12 at the Genessee Theatre, Waukegan. "That was just a gray-haired man with an ungainly voice playing a piano by himself up on the Genesee stage Friday night, but it felt like a cast of thousands..." Review.

5. The Ex & Getatchew Mekurya, Aug. 18 at the Pritzker Pavilion. "It was a perfect day, and the music was perfect, too. With the Chicago skyline there at my side and a terrific band right in front of me in the middle of the day on a Monday, I found myself thinking: Why isn't life always like this?..." Review.

6. Boredoms, March 26 at the Congress Theatre. "All the drumming and sounds abruptly stopped, and all of the musicians paused, their bodies poised to bang away again. The band paused and paused. It was the sort of moment when fans at some concerts will assume that a song is over and start clapping, but everyone at the Boredoms show knew that this moment of silence was part of the music. The vast room was deadly quiet, no one making a sound, except an intake of breath. I could feel the audience recognizing something special in the moment. And then the hammer fell and the drumming resumed with more force than ever..." Review.

7. Neil Young, Dec. 9 at the Allstate Arena. "As soon as Neil Young walked out onto the stage, he launched into the sort of live-wire, feedback-drenched guitar solo you’d normally expect to hear at the climax of a concert... Stomping around the stage with his shaggy gray hair flailing around the balding crest of his head, Young squeezed out his notes as if the energy coming out of those guitar string was charging through his body...." Review.

8. Cat Power, Feb. 10 at the Vic. "Marshall showed a jazz singer’s sense of timing, letting her words drop behind the beat or run ahead of it... She seemed to feel an uninhibited freedom to roam the stage with her peculiar pantomime-like dance moves. She crouched down low as she sang, making gestures with her hands that sometimes acted out the words of the songs – or just reflected one of her fleeting whims. She held her hands in prayer, she flicked her fingers with a fish-like motion, she pretended she was clicking a remote control, and she circled a finger next to her head (the universal sign for 'crazy')..." Review.

9. My Bloody Valentine, Sept. 27 at the Aragon. "Fans standing near the stage could feel the floor of the Aragon shaking... It seemed like that chord might never end, but then it suddenly shifted back to the chorus of the song. A minute later, My Bloody Valentine’s musicians put down their guitars and left. There was no encore, and fans may have wondered if they’ll get a chance to see My Bloody Valentine any time in the next 17 years..." Review.

10. Sam Phillips, Sept. 6 at the Old Town School Of Folk Music. "Phillips often turned her eyes upward as she sang, sometimes darting her glance back and forth, and a smirk occasionally played across her lips. She seemed at peace with herself, and maybe a little amused..." Review.

11. Magnetic Fields, March 16 at the Old Town School Of Folk Music. Review.

12. Monotonix, Sept. 20 at the Hideout Block Party. Review.

13. Andrew Bird, Sept. 3 at the Pritzker Pavilion. Review.

14. Thurston Moore and the New Wave Bandits, March 15, at the French Legation Museum, Austin. Review.

15. Frida Hyvönen, Nov. 3 at the Lakeshore Theater. Review.

Favorite concert photos of 2008

Some of my favorite photos that I took at concerts in 2008: 1. Cat Power 2. The Donnas 3. The Donnas 4. The Hives 5. Roky Erickson 6. Exene Cervenka 7. Fleet Foxes 8. Thurston Moore 9. Zooey Deschanel of She & Him 10. The Kills 11. Russian Circles 12. Icy Demons 13. Jarvis Cocker 14. Boris 15. King Khan 16. Dodos 17. Dinosaur Jr. 18. Gogol Bordello 19. The Raconteurs 20. CSS 21. Explosions in the Sky 22. Wilco 23. Brazilian Girls 24. Saul Williams 25. The National 26. Sons and Daughters 27. Monotonix 28. Neko Case 29. Mucca Pazza 30. A Hideout zombie 31. Nick Cave 32. TV on the Radio 33. Frida Hyvönen 34. The Hold Steady & Drive-By Truckers 35. The Sadies 36. Andrew Bird