Best Concerts of 2010: The Daily Gazette
The pop music writers at Schenectady’s Daily Gazette – that would be Michael Hochanadel, Brian McElhiney and David Singer – compiled their selections into one Top 10 Best Concerts of the Year list (behind paywall), which was published on Sunday.
NOTE: There is definitely no hometown bias here. Of the Top 10 Best Concerts and 19 honorable mentions that are included, only one of the performances actually took place in the City of Schenectady.
In chronological order, here’s The Daily Gazette’s list:
Disco Biscuits @ The Egg, Albany (March 18)
Visqueen @ Valentine’s Music Hall, Albany (May 18)
Peter Wolf @ The Egg, Albany, (May 21)
Nona Hendryx @ the Central Park Music Haven, Schenectady (July 25)
Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival @ MASS MoCA, North Adams (August 14)
Alejandro Escovedo @ The Egg, Albany (September 30)
Joan Baez @ the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy (October 26)
Peter Case @ Valentine’s Music Hall, Albany (November 5)
Zakir Hussain and Niladri Kumar @ The Egg, Albany (November 6)
The Allman Brothers Band @ the Palace Theatre, Albany (November 15)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Rosanne Cash @ The Egg, Albany (February 27)
John Hiatt @ The Egg, Albany (March 4)
Chip Taylor @ The Linda, Albany (March 5)
Elton John and Billy Joel @ Times Union Center, Albany (March 11)
Bettye LaVette with the Sisters of Soul (Maria Muldaur and Marcia Ball) @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy (March 14)
Angelique Kidjo @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy (April 1)
Bob Schneider @ The Linda, Albany (April 2)
Janis Ian and Karla Bonoff @ The Egg, Albany (April 18)
Cowboy Junkies @ Revolution Hall, Troy (May 7)
Tift Merritt @ The Linda, Albany (June 11)
Melissa Etheridge @ Palace Theatre, Albany (July 19)
Devo at Northern Lights, Clifton Park (July 31)
Janelle Monae @ Skidmore College’s Sports & Recreation Center, Saratoga Springs (October 1)
Carolina Chocolate Drops @ The Egg, Albany (September 12)
Bad Religion @ Northern Lights, Clifton Park (October 16)
Social Distortion @ Northern Lights, Clifton Park (October 28)
Richard Thompson @ The Egg, Albany (October 30)
Martin Sexton @ The Egg, Albany (November 13)
The subdudes @ The Egg, Albany (November 20)
Got a Best of 2010 list that you’d like to contribute? Best concerts of the year? Best local music moments of the year? Best whatever? Please send it along to [email protected]
THE 2010 LIST OF LISTS:
Best Albums of the Year: Nippertown’s Matt Mac Haffie
Best Concerts of the Year That I Missed: Nippertown’s Greg Haymes
Best Local CDs of 2010: The Daily Gazette’s Brian McElhiney
Most Disappointing Concerts of 2010: Nippertown’s Greg Haymes
Best Albums of the Year: Justin Mikulka
Best Capital Region Theater of the Year: Nippertown’s Greg Haymes
Best Entertainers Who Moonlight as Artists of the Year: Art:21
Best Albums of the Year: Spin Magazine
Most Disappointing Capital Region Concert Cancellations of the Year: Nippertown’s Greg Haymes
Best Television Commercials of the Year: TV Squad
Best Feature Films of the Year: Roger Ebert
Best Albums of the Year: Brian Patneaude
Best TV Character Deaths of the Year: Entertainment Weekly
Best Viral Videos of the Year: Videogum
Best Albums & Best Selling Albums of the Year: Billboard
Best Concerts of the Year: Nippertown’s J Hunter
Best Country Albums: The Boot
Best Albums of the Year: WEXT’s Chris Wienk
Best TV Music Moments of the Year: Treble
Best Book Covers of the Year: The L Magazine
Best Folk Albums of the Year: About.com Guide
Best Albums of the Year: We Are Not a Rock Band
Best Movies of the Year: Christian Science Monitor
Best Television Shows of the Year: Channel Surfing
Best Concerts of the Year: Nippertown’s Andrzej Pilarczyk
Best Music Videos of the Year: IFC
Best Books of the Year: The New York Times Book Review
Best Live Acts of the Year: Paste Magazine
Best Poetry Books of the Year: Dan Chiasson of The New Yorker
Best Albums of the Year: Andy Maroney
Best Movie Titles of the Year That Sounded Like Porn, But, Alas, Were Not Porn: Movieline
Best DVDs of the Year: Rolling Stone
Best Albums of the Year: NME
Best Fiction of the Year: Salon
Best Jazz Albums of the Year: A Blog Supreme
Best Albums of the Year: Tim Livingston
Best Albums of the Year: Filter Magazine
Best Albums of the Year: Mojo Magazine
And here’s something else that we just realized as we were re-reading the Daily Gazette’s list: Between the Top 10 concerts and the 19 honorable mentions, 11 of those performances – in other words, more than one-third of the entire list – took place at The Egg in Albany. Here’s hoping that Governor-elect Cuomo takes that into consideration…
I found Peter Case’s set to be incredibly overpriced and thrown together. Legend or not, I don’t want to pay that kind of money to see someone jam with a drummer they just met in the happy hour band an hour before the gig. Ashley Pond made up for it with her great opening set, but I couldn’t make it more than 1/2 hour into Case’s overhyped rehearsal… ahem, set.
Peter Wolf was great as was the Alejandro/Hamell on Trial show. Richard Thompson would have made the top ten for me. Amen to the call for the governor-elect to keep supporting one of the best venues in the country, The Egg. I think there was one glaring omission in the list. The Albany Jazz Fest this year that featured Ravi Coltrane, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstafunk and John Scofield was sensational.