2011’s Five Most Magical Moments In Live Music

Sleep at Sled Island (photo: Aaron Vanimere)

It has been an insane year for live concerts. I bitch and moan about bands not travelling to Edmonton as much as I’d like, and yet I still got to see more than my share of shows – in fact, as of today, I’ve seen 168 different live bands perform in 2011, with a total of 183 sets overall (which obviously means I saw fifteen bands twice). While a lot of those are because of the various festivals I attended – SXSW and Sled Island to name a couple – here are my five most magical moments in live music for the year.

#5 – Sleep at Sled Island

Sled Island was an extraordinary experience overall, not much of a step down from SXSW, but the one moment that topped it all off was seeing Sleep at the Olympic Plaza. Not because I’m a huge fan, not because it was an incredible set, but because of the audience. Sleep is one of those bands that is beloved by every other musician, and so every band member in the city who wasn’t performing at that second, or preparing to perform, was there, rapt with attention as they performed. And the instructions into the photo pit for Aaron still ring through my head – “first ten minutes of the first song only”.

#4 – Mudhoney (with Eddie Vedder) at New City Legion

Mudhoney at New City Legion (photo: Aaron Vanimere)

The perfect venue for a evening like this, a little basement club that still is a bit of mystery to many Edmontonians, played host to Mudhoney on a Thursday night, the day before they opened for Pearl Jam at the Coliseum. They were completely awesome, and then the night only got better when word started going around the club that Eddie Vedder was in the club, and sure enough, he joined Mudhoney on stage for a cover of MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams”. Epic.

#3 – Jack White at SXSW

The morning of the first official day of SXSW’s music days, I was hanging out at one of the venues waiting to get in, when I got a tweet from Aaron back in Edmonton. There was talk of Jack White being seen at 3rd and Colorado, and something was going on. I had the time so made a beeline just in time to see the man himself, Jack White, perform two songs – “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, and “Not Fade Away” – in front of his Third Man Records van. A stellar performance, and of course the entire time I was thinking to myself – “oh my god, it’s Jack White; oh my god, it’s Jack White”.

#2 – Library Voices House Concert

What more can be said about this. A band I love, a band almost everyone in our #yegmusicclub loves, and they played in a friend of a friend’s basement. With opening band Dinosaur Bones. I mean, seriously? Does it get ANY better than that?

#1 – Braids at SXSW

Raphaelle of Braids at SXSW (photo: Michael Senchuk)

It does, actually. I ended up seeing the Braids twice, but the first time at South by Southwest was the capper. I already loved their album “Native Speaker” heading down there, but Raphaelle and the rest of the band laid down such an emotional set, played to the top of their game and then some, were in such complete control of the audience and the entire world at that very moment, I actually had a couple of tears well up in my eyes. The set to compare every other set to for the rest of the year.

Honorable Mentions

My friends in Honheehonhee swirling around on the floor at Wunderbar to end their second performance of the year in Edmonton; seeing one of my favorite bands of the last two years, Joy Formidable, at Sonic Boom; and being in the photo pit for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros as their frontman strode right up beside me to be closer to the audience.

Honheehonhee at Wunderbar (photo: Michael Senchuk)

Tagged as: best gigs, top 5 list, top five list