2010 was a great year for music — aren’t they all? I missed more great shows than I went to, but I still saw a lot of amazing performances.
Looking back, it is hard to determine what my favorite show was, but I will have to say it was Unrest at their crazy triple-reunion show at the Black Cat. I always say how tired I am of old bands reuniting, but then I see a performance like that and it makes me want to rush out and see all the dinosaur bands before they disappear.
For runners-up I will go with Grinderman and The Blow, both of which are at least going concerns, if not exactly spring chickens. But neither am I.
Last year at this time I was super enthused about the DC music scene, but some of my interest has slipped a bit since then. I am still a firm supporter of Sockets Records, and they had a good year! But a lot of their more interesting stuff took place a year or so ago — they have an upcoming showcase that will hopefully rekindle my interest in their roster, and give me a chance to buy the records that I don’t have.
All the energy in DC these days seems to be sucked up by young kids who are playing old-fashioned punk. They play at houses, they play at the Velvet Lounge. I saw a handful of these guys in the past year, including a Windian showcase. These are bands like The Points (R.I.P.) and The Shirks, and they are fine and all, but I am just too old to really get into any of them. When I see any of these bands, I keep thinking it’s kinda weird that they are playing stuff that sounds exactly like what punk bands played before they were even born. I’m not sure I get it. I’m not sure I’m supposed to get it. I wish that whole scene well, though; it is definitely more interesting than a lot of the boring indie rock in this town.
Anyway.
While I am rounding up the year, I will mention that the two new albums that I liked the most are Midnight Kids‘ debut EP (download it!!) and the Flower -Corsano Duo‘s You’ll Never Work in This Town Again.
My other favorite album of the year was from last year but I never heard it until 2010: Grant Hart‘s Hot Wax. There were also some less-awesome-than-I-hoped new albums from some of my favorite bands, like Versus and Les Savy Fav and Ted Leo.
But I hardly listen to new music anymore, and I probably listened more often to “State of Love and Trust” than anything released in the past few years.
Oh, and I feel like I should say something about the DC9 homicide case, but I don’t really have a lot to say, except it is distressing. RIP Mark Linkous, Peter Steele, Captain Beefheart, and Alex Chilton.
Ok, onward and upward. This was a lot more verbose than my overview from last year. Enough, 2010 has been over for like a week and a half!
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