2020 Concert Year in Review
I saw 14 bands at 9 concerts in 2020, all of them in the first 67 days of the year. The pandemic locked everything down on the 75th day of the year, and there hasn't been a live show since. Well, that's not technically true, but an accurate assessment is that short of Sharon Jones and Jim Morrison rising from the grave and going on tour together with Tom Waits, there has been no live show that would have come even close to tempting me out of the house.
This means that my totals this year are dramatically lower than the 39 bands and 25 concerts I saw in 2019. In fact, they are the lowest I've ever had, less than even the miserable concert year of 2009 when I had no money and saw all of ten concerts. Obviously it's not really comparable. In fact, if my initial pace through those first 67 days had held I would have made it to about 45 shows, which would have been fantastic. Ah well. Here's the list:
Capsules 1 through 3
Black Sabbitch w/Dead Earth - W 1/08 - Beachland Ballroom
Cracker w/Camper van Beethoven - S 1/11 - Beachland Ballroom
Glenn Phillips w/Chris Barron - W 1/15 - Music Box Concert Hall - bought CD
Capsules 4 through 6
Badi Assad - W 1/29 - Nighttown (Patio)
The Cleveland Orchestra (Michael Tilson Thomas/Dashon/Berlioz-Symphonie fantastique) - F 2/21 - Severance Hall
MC Lars w/The Doubleclicks and Schäffer the Darklord - S 2/22 - Mahall's - bought CD
Capsules 7 through 9
We Were Promised Jetpacks - R 2/27 - Grog Shop - bought CD
Cyrille Aimee (with Diego Figueiredo) - S 2/29 - Nighttown - bought CD
The Cleveland Orchestra (Franz Welser-Most/Krenek-Static and Ecstatic/Mendelssohn-Symphony No.2) - S 3/07 - Severance Hall
Top Venues:
Severance Hall - 2
Beachland Ballroom - 2
New to Me Venues:
Nighttown Patio - I didn't even know they had a back patio, let alone that they had shows on it!
I bought 4 CDs spread across 4 shows, although it's possible Chris Barron just gave us his. I know we tried to buy it, I don't remember if he let us give him money. That's what happens when the musician sleeps in your spare bedroom!
All of these shows were fun, and not one of the fourteen bands was terrible. I regret none of them. However, I don't think I saw anything that would be a show of the year candidate in a normal year. Cyrille Aimee probably came closest, but it wasn't even the best show I've seen her put on. As such, I won't be naming honorable mentions or a top 3 as I normally do. I can't even use a tie breaker of "how many friends went with me" because at least one person was with me at all of these shows, and usually more. That's also pretty unusual.
In lieu of a show of the year choice, I will pour one out for all the shows that I had tickets to that got cancelled along the way.
- The cancellations started with Fatoumata Diawara getting cancelled due to her being stranded in another city by inclement weather on February 26.
- Erykah Badu was originally March 21. Early in the pandemic she got rescheduled for November, and as far as I know got cancelled. M actually bought me those tickets to the Wolstein Center for my birthday in 2019. Maybe I should get her to give me another gift!
- Dad & I were going to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Cain Park in June.
- M and I had tickets to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in Chicago in September.
- AJJ was going to play with Xiu Xiu at the Grog in May. That was pushed all the way back to March 2021, and literally just last week was finally cancelled.
I think that's everything I had tickets to as of March 15 when the world stopped. Obviously a lot of other great shows were also cancelled. Maybe next year, if these vaccines
[a] work (very likely)
[b] have enough doses made to impact the back half of 2021 (probable)
[c] are gotten by a large enough group of people (who knows, given anti-vaxxers)
I sure hope so. Virtual live concerts hold no interest for me.
This means that my totals this year are dramatically lower than the 39 bands and 25 concerts I saw in 2019. In fact, they are the lowest I've ever had, less than even the miserable concert year of 2009 when I had no money and saw all of ten concerts. Obviously it's not really comparable. In fact, if my initial pace through those first 67 days had held I would have made it to about 45 shows, which would have been fantastic. Ah well. Here's the list:
Capsules 1 through 3
Black Sabbitch w/Dead Earth - W 1/08 - Beachland Ballroom
Cracker w/Camper van Beethoven - S 1/11 - Beachland Ballroom
Glenn Phillips w/Chris Barron - W 1/15 - Music Box Concert Hall - bought CD
Capsules 4 through 6
Badi Assad - W 1/29 - Nighttown (Patio)
The Cleveland Orchestra (Michael Tilson Thomas/Dashon/Berlioz-Symphonie fantastique) - F 2/21 - Severance Hall
MC Lars w/The Doubleclicks and Schäffer the Darklord - S 2/22 - Mahall's - bought CD
Capsules 7 through 9
We Were Promised Jetpacks - R 2/27 - Grog Shop - bought CD
Cyrille Aimee (with Diego Figueiredo) - S 2/29 - Nighttown - bought CD
The Cleveland Orchestra (Franz Welser-Most/Krenek-Static and Ecstatic/Mendelssohn-Symphony No.2) - S 3/07 - Severance Hall
Top Venues:
Severance Hall - 2
Beachland Ballroom - 2
New to Me Venues:
Nighttown Patio - I didn't even know they had a back patio, let alone that they had shows on it!
I bought 4 CDs spread across 4 shows, although it's possible Chris Barron just gave us his. I know we tried to buy it, I don't remember if he let us give him money. That's what happens when the musician sleeps in your spare bedroom!
All of these shows were fun, and not one of the fourteen bands was terrible. I regret none of them. However, I don't think I saw anything that would be a show of the year candidate in a normal year. Cyrille Aimee probably came closest, but it wasn't even the best show I've seen her put on. As such, I won't be naming honorable mentions or a top 3 as I normally do. I can't even use a tie breaker of "how many friends went with me" because at least one person was with me at all of these shows, and usually more. That's also pretty unusual.
In lieu of a show of the year choice, I will pour one out for all the shows that I had tickets to that got cancelled along the way.
- The cancellations started with Fatoumata Diawara getting cancelled due to her being stranded in another city by inclement weather on February 26.
- Erykah Badu was originally March 21. Early in the pandemic she got rescheduled for November, and as far as I know got cancelled. M actually bought me those tickets to the Wolstein Center for my birthday in 2019. Maybe I should get her to give me another gift!
- Dad & I were going to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Cain Park in June.
- M and I had tickets to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in Chicago in September.
- AJJ was going to play with Xiu Xiu at the Grog in May. That was pushed all the way back to March 2021, and literally just last week was finally cancelled.
I think that's everything I had tickets to as of March 15 when the world stopped. Obviously a lot of other great shows were also cancelled. Maybe next year, if these vaccines
[a] work (very likely)
[b] have enough doses made to impact the back half of 2021 (probable)
[c] are gotten by a large enough group of people (who knows, given anti-vaxxers)
I sure hope so. Virtual live concerts hold no interest for me.