Concerts In 2011
A complete and in order list of every band I saw in 2011. I'm pretty
sure I'm done for the year, but I left a few blank spots just in case a
show comes up. Definitely the best year Ive had- went to a few
festivals and a ton of shows. 26 days and 82 sets to be more exact.
Next year?s calendar is already filling up quickly! |
| 1 | Friends
Opened for Darwin Deez. Didn?t really like them, though the second half of
their set was much better. |
| 2 | Bear Hands
Opened for Darwin Deez. Went to show to see Bear Hands, they put on a
great show as always but it was a little short cause they opened. |
| 3 | The Love Language
Opened for Telekinesis. Honestly don?t remember much of this set, almost
bought a CD but ended up having to leave the show early. |
| 4 | Telekinesis
Headliner. Very good set, much more in-your-face sound than on their
albums. |
| 5 | Against Me!
Opened for Dropkick. I was glad they played a lot of old stuff, cause that?s
what I/everyone likes from them. |
| 6 | Dropkick Murphys
Headliner. (Week of St. Patty?s Day show) Really fun concert. Basically a
bunch of drunk irish guys stumbling over each other in a mosh pit and
everyone singing along. |
| 7 | The Black Angels
Headliner. My dad bought me tickets to this very last minute and I had a
great time, despite barely knowing the group at the time. |
| 8 | Bridge the Borders
Bamboozle, Day 2. Only went on Saturday. This was a local pop-punk band,
played the first of 3 covers of Dammit |
| 9 | Cheers to Romance
Bamboozle, Day 2. Local band of little kids, they were good considering
their age. |
| 10 | Julian Fulton and the Zombie Gospel
Bamboozle, Day 2. Apparently a friend of a friend knew one of the 10+
members of this band, I enjoyed it even though they left. |
| 11 | Political Party Crashers
Bamboozle, Day 2. Local ska band, played Dammit. |
| 12 | Abandon All Ships
Bamboozle, Day 2. Not my type of music at all- imagine if Pauly D from
Jersey Shore started a crab-core band and hired some Korean pop star to
play synth and sing using autotune. |
| 13 | RX Bandits
Bamboozle, Day 2. Didn?t know them, but really enjoyed it. If they didn?t
break up I would?ve tried to catch them again. |
| 14 | Streetlight Manifesto
Bamboozle, Day 2. One of the reasons I went toBamboozle. Put on a
fantastic show, but the circle pits were too crowded. |
| 15 | Alkaline Trio
Bamboozle, Day 2. Never really got into to these guys, and their show was
pretty average. |
| 16 | DJ Chance
Bamboozle, Day 2. Spun a lot of Deadmau5 and dubstep tracks |
| 17 | The Closers
Bamboozle, Day 2. Local NY ska band, I really liked them a lot. They also
played Dammit I think. |
| 18 | Das Racist
Bamboozle, Day 2. After all the hype I was expecting something more than some
seemingly shitfaced guys stumbling around mumbling into the mic. Lost pretty much
all respect for them. |
| 19 | The Gaslight Anthem
Bamboozle, Day 2. The other reason I went. They played a great show for
the hometown crowd. |
| 20 | Sodafrog
Opened for Toh Kay. Played some acoustic songs. |
| 21 | Toh Kay
Headliner. This is the singer from Streetligt Manifesto playing acoustic
versions of their songs. I really enjoyed it a lot, Tomas was really funny and
seemed like a chill guy. |
| 22 | The Vaccines
Opened for Arctic Monkeys. I ended up buying their album before it came
out in the states and they got some attention, which was really cool. |
| 23 | Arctic Monkeys
Headliner. I saw them about 4 years ago and they really amped up their
live performance since then. |
| 24 | Bun B
Summerfest (Houston), Day 1. Bun B never disappoints, UGK 4 Life, RIP
PIMP C. |
| 25 | Big Boi
Summerfest, Day 1. He actually performed for this festival and showed off
his skills as a rapper. |
| 26 | Fucked Up
Summerfest, Day 1. Expected a lot from these guys and they really let me down.
Pretty boring show. Honestly don't see the appeal in their music at all. |
| 27 | Beirut
Summerfest, Day 1. This was my first time hearing them and I really liked
how different they were from everything else |
| 28 | Ween
Summerfest, Day 1. I thought Id like them more, but I guess I never really
enjoyed any of their albums so not a huge surprise. |
| 29 | The Black Angels
Summerfest, Day 2. They were great, and since they were on so early I got
pretty close. |
| 30 | Yeasayer
Summerfest, Day 2. I would?ve enjoyed this more except for the
100+degree weather. Luckily halfway through it started to rain. |
| 31 | Health
Summerfest, Day 2. Not as good live as I would?ve thought, but still enjoyable. |
| 32 | Neon Indian
Summerfest, Day 2. The first time I heard them at all. I really enjoyed all
the effects and stuff they used. Plus the theremin was incredible |
| 33 | Z-Ro
Summerfest, Day 2. Had a blast singing along/pretending to know all the
rap verses. Best song was I Hate U Bitch (Fuck that Ho) |
| 34 | Cut Copy
Summerfest, Day 2. Super fun, had the whole crowd jumping up and down
but ended on a slower song for some reason. |
| 35 | Weezer
Summerfest, Day 2. Incredible, I got lost in the music and crowd and had
some major realizations. Set was also really good- 11 songs from
blue/pinkerton and only the good stuff from the others (nothing from Hurley
and no BHills). #1 Set of 2011. |
| 36 | Bane
Opened for The Bouncing Souls. Honestly don?t remember this set at all? |
| 37 | The Bouncing Souls
Headliner. Ill save some time and do all 4 shows at once. They played 2
albums straight through in order each night. Do the math to figure out what
they played each night, third night was the best |
| 38 | The Unseen
Opened for The Bouncing Souls. Really good set, ive been wanting to see
these guys for a while. Though the jean jacket and Mohawk kids still kinda
scare me out of moshing |
| 39 | The Bouncing Souls
Headliner. |
| 40 | The world Inferno Friendship Society
Opened for The Bouncing Souls. Very interesting sound, pretty unique. |
| 41 | The Bouncing Souls
Headliner |
| 42 | Make Do and Mend
Opened for The Bouncing Souls. Reminded me a little of Gaslight Anthem.
They played a really short set though. |
| 43 | The Bouncing Souls
Headliner. ?104 songs in 4 nights, a musical dream? ? bassist. No repeats! |
| 44 | Rodeo Ruby Love
Opened for Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Didn?t really fit in with the ska
sound much. I know theyre on the same ?label? as Streetlight so this was
probably more for exposure. |
| 45 | Reel Big Fish
Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Little kids who didn?t know how to
properly do a circle pit completely clogged everything up. I tried to teach
them what to do by elbowing the ones who could grasp the concept of a
circle. |
| 46 | Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Super fun show. The kids learned what to
do or got tired. Either way the pit was almost wall to wall. I also ran into a
few HS friends I hadn?t seen in a while. #2 Set of 2011. |
| 47 | Rodeo Ruby Love
Opened for Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Not a typo, I saw the show
once in Houston, then planned my family?s vacation around seeing it again
in Boston. |
| 48 | New Riot
Opened for Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Fun and interactive band but I
was saving my energy for the main show cause I didn?t get much sleep the
night before. |
| 49 | Streetlight Manifesto
Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Different venue, same story- except the lack of
skanking skills hurt streetlight much more than RBF since RBG is more of a jump up
and down band anyway. Seriously though, any time the band did a half time beat
over half the kids in the pit just stopped moving. (For those counting...me... I saw
Streetlight 5 times in a year counting last summer) |
| 50 | Reel Big Fish
Streetlight/RBF Co-headline tour. Very fun again. They asked who had
never been to a ska show before and 2/3 of the crowd raised their hands.
To any remaining ska newbies- watch before you mosh, please. |
| 51 | Phantogram
Outside Lands, Day 1. Very long story that goes with this one. Basically me
and 2 of friends were gonna go on a road trip to LA then drive to to SF to
see OL. One of them dropped out last second so me and the other ended
up paying a shit load of money for plane tickets so we wouldn?t waste the
200 dollar tix. We made the right call, it was one of the best experiences of
my life. Anyway the plane Friday morning was delayed so we missed Joy
Formidable and started the day with Phantogram, who were quite
enjoyable. |
| 52 | MGMT
Outside Lands, Day 1. I used to be pretty into them, so I enjoyed the set,
but they had a really bad song selection for a festival. Probably the worst of
the 3 times Ive seen them. |
| 53 | Big Audio Dynamite
Outside Lands, Day 1. After waiting unsuccessfully for Big Boi to show, we
were freezing cold (45 in August!! When we got there it was perfectly 65)
and went to biggest crowd we could find and got good spots for the Shins.
They were average. |
| 54 | The Shins
Outside Lands, Day 1. This set was really life changing as well. I felt
completely at peace with the world and knew exactly what I wanted to do
with my life (and no, I wasn?t ?on anything?) James Mercer has a beautiful
voice as well. #3 Set of 2011 |
| 55 | The Vaccines
Outside Lands, Day 2. Missed the first half, but they seemed much more
confident than when they opened for the Arctic Monkeys back in may. It
helped that I loved their album by this time as well. |
| 56 | Starfucker
Outside Lands, Day 2. One of bands I was really excited to see, and they
did not disappoint at all. Learnt a hard lesson though as staying to end of
this cost me a good spot for the next show. |
| 57 | Arctic Monkeys
Outside Lands, Day 2. Not nearly as good as when I saw them earlier in the
year. Seemed distracted. |
| 58 | The Black Keys
Outside Lands, Day 2. Same stage, moved to right about the middle of
infront of the sound board. They were really good, a lot of really good
improvisation. |
| 59 | Muse
Outside Lands, Day 2. Same stage, got to about 20 rows back. Incredible
set (as expected). Unbelievably good at times, and they basically played all
the hits. #3 Set of 2011 |
| 60 | Tune-Yards
Outside Lands, Day 3. After how awesome day 2 was, day three seemed
like a ?buy 2 get one free? deal. This band was very interesting to watch do
all the loops and stuff but they weren?t my style. |
| 61 | Grouplove
Outside Lands, Day 3. Got really into them once I got home. |
| 62 | !!!
Outside Lands, Day 3. Not my style at all, but still had fun dancing. |
| 63 | Major Lazer
Outside Lands, Day 3. Really fun DJ set, the guy and chick they had running
around the stage were pretty funny. |
| 64 | Beirut
Outside Lands, Day 3. Much Improved over the last time I saw them. I
would really want to see them in a smaller club. |
| 65 | Deadmau5
Outside Lands, Day 3. Part of the plane ticket deal was having to choose
between 30 minutes of Deadmau5 or 20 of Arcade Fire. I like this enough to
buy tickets to his headline show, but I wish I coulda seen all of AF. |
| 66 | Wye Oak
Opened for The National. Good band, awful venue. Only about 100/4000
other people showed the first opener. |
| 67 | Yo La Tengo
Opened for The National. Great band, awful venue. People were talking and
chit chatting the entire time. I would really want to see these guys if they
do a headline in smaller clubs though. |
| 68 | The National
Headliner. People finally shut up and stood up. They were incredible, but
the experience was tainted by the overbearing security and respectless
crowd. |
| 69 | Beat Connection
Opened for Starfucker. Cool sound, with cool homemade light set up. |
| 70 | Starfucker
Headliner. Really fun set with everyone singing and dancing along. #8 Set
of 2011 |
| 71 | Chairlift
Opened for James Blake. I didn?t know they were a buzz band from way
back when and funnily only like their hit song Bruises. |
| 72 | James Blake
Headliner. Really great show. They were spot on in the performance of the
songs plus the bass was unbelieveable. #7 Set of 2011 |
| 73 | Anti-Flag
Opened for NoFx. I pretty much only went to this show because I wanted
to go to a punk show in the fall. I got really really sick (cold) though so I
didn?t have that much fun |
| 74 | NoFX
Headliner. Good, but took WAYY too long of breaks between songs. |
| 75 | DJ Excision
Opened for Deadmau5. Played a lot of Dubstep stuff, pretty fun. |
| 76 | Deadmau5
Headliner. Holy shit, one of the craziest stage set ups I have ever seen. He
spun his own stuff for about 2 hours which was pretty much the perfect
amount. #6 Show of 2011 |
| 77 | Purity Ring
Opened for Neon Indian. Interesting band, used a lot of echo and cut off
effects. |
| 78 | Com Truise
Opened for Neon Indian. Good, but I expected more. I guess not all the
chillwave bands have caught on to how to make a good live show yet. |
| 79 | Neon Indian
Headliner. Really fun, played with a ton of energy and the crowd really felt
it. Not a very long set or it would?ve made the top whatever. |
| 80 | The Dear Hunter
Opened for Manchester Orchestra. I thought Id like them much more than I
did. Still enjoyable though. |
| 81 | Manchester Orchestra
Headliner. Much better than when I saw them last year. They really hit their
stride with the new album. Had some really funny comments after/durings
songs as well. |
| 82 | M83
Headliner. Damn, this was an incredible show. The lights were among the
best at a smaller venue, and everything they played was spot on. Would be
higher if it was longer. #5 Show of 2011 |
| 83 | |
| 84 | Shows I missed
Big D and the Kids Table (Mixed up the Dates), BTMI! (Got very sick), Slim
Thug, Z-ro, Devin the Dude (Lost my ticket after driving 3 hours to pick it up
from airport parking) |
| 85 | Coming up in 2012
Less than Jake, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Grouplove,
Young the Giant, Frank Turner, Dropkick Murphys, Of Montreal, Neon Indian,
M83, Houston Summerfest ( 9 events). That?s all I have tix for now,
hopefully much more will be added. Itd be cool to see 100 sets next year-
that?s my goal. |
| 86 | |
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