The Shows

These are the best concerts I was able to catch during 2005. You will notice that I didn’t include the ACL festival, since there are so many bands there and it is such an all encompassing experience I decided to leave it out, just know that it was a great time. My number one show was The Arcade Fire but the rest are in no particular order.
1. Arcade Fire / The Black Keys What Made Milwaukee Famous Stubb’s Bar b que Austin, Tx
By far the best show I have ever been to. This was my first time to see a show at stubb’s and the first time I’ve ever eaten a bar-b-que sandwich during a show. And a kid in line gave us some chicken strips. The Arcade Fire are my band of the year. All the hype about their live show is true. They rocked the roof off of the place. There was so much going on that I could only process a small fraction of what was going on. They started with Wake Up and 5 Years by Bowie was in there somewhere amongst most of Funeral and part of their first album. That was the first show in a while that had me dancing and moving the entire time. The Black Keys opened and were once again amazing. The opener was a local band What made Milwaukee famous. They were very good and very nervous.
2. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals The Gypsy Tea room Dallas, TX
Emily’s brother got me drunk on the way to this show so Ryan Adams and I showed up in the same state. There were some amazing moments in the show. Ryan Fell apart after abusing some jerks up front and stormed off of the stage giving be a chance to hit the bathroom. He came back after the break in even better form and wearing a t-shirt. At one point during the second set he left the stage and led a sing along of Come Pick Me Up while standing on the bar. He also did a countyed up verson of Dear Chicago.
3. The Black Keys / Henchmen /El Paso Hot Button The Green Door Oklahoma City, Ok
Most of you know that the Green Door is a tiny venue. We were so close for the Black Keys that we sat on the stage during breaks. We were right in front of the drum kit(which was on the very edge of the tiny stage) and would periodically get hit by broken drum sticks. If you never been to a Black keys show it’s hard to describe, two guys are able to fill the room with an absolute fog of blues drenched rock. We got to meet both of them after the show and they were unbelievably gracious. I don’t remember much of the henchmen but the opener was this one man band El Paso Hot Button. He sat down and played jack White style guitar while playing a modified trap set with his feet. He told okryan to stop taking pictures.
4. Bright Eyes / The Faint /Airborn Audio Cain’s Ballroom Tulsa, Ok
Finally I’ve seen bright eyes. He was touring on the Digital Ash album so he played most of that album and a couple of songs from Fevers and Mirrors. The Faint opened up and blew me away, I am now a Faint fan for life. Bright Eyes had several members of the Faint as his backing band along with Nick Zimmer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The most disturbing part of the show was that Conor wore a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up for the first few songs and it was hot as hell.
5. Kings of Leon / The Features Cain’s Ballroom Tulsa, Ok
I believe that the Kings of Leon played every song off of both off their albums at this show. They announced that they had family there and then commenced to rock. They sounded great. The rock was loud and dirty. The Feature were the openers and were beyond belief. I bought one of their albums at the show and had it signed. Once again they were great guys. I predict that they will be pretty big in the new year. The only drawback to this particular show involves the new practice at the Cain’s of offering six packs for sale. The show was pretty short so we were pretty drunk at the end of it and were slightly concerned about getting home but we made it. This was also the first time I ever witnessed someone order a pizza to a concert. I guess being a pretty girl has its advantages.
6. Wilco The Orpheum Memphis, TN
This was a Christmas present from Ryan And Emily and what a present it was. We made a day of it hitting Graceland, eating honest to god one pound burgers and after the show hanging out on Belle Street in the rain. I have to say a couple of things abut the venue. It was this beautiful old theatre with lots of gilt carvings and carpet and seats. Wilco was amazing. They played a pretty good mix of old and new ad they were all sick with the flu.
7. Gomez The Cains Tulsa, Ok
This is the only show I saw without okryan this year. In his place was the much prettier Brittian. I really only knew a couple of Gomez’s songs before going to this show in the middle of the week. It was a very light crowd but every single person seemed into the show. The band rocked like the place was packed to the rafters, much respect to them for going all out.
8. Kasabien The Cains Tulsa, Ok
Ryan and I just went to this show on a whim. We had heard good things about them and the show was cheap and we had money so away we went. They put on a great show to another undersold house. Clubfoot sounded great live really the whole set was perfect.
9. Snow Patrol The Cains Tulsa, Ok
This is another show we just went to for the hell of it. I constantly played the new cd the week leading up to the show and by the time the show rolled around G! was wishing we had bought her a ticket and found a sitter. I was afraid to tell her how moving it was to hear Run being sung by so many people at once, she would have hit me.