2011 in review: Live Music

And now, the last recap for 2011.


Total shows (counting each day of multi-day events): 46
Up six from last year's total of 40.

Performers seen for the first time (headlining, in this particular incarnation): 5
(Gillian Welch, The Baseball Project, The Levon Helm Band, Mavis Staples, Feist)

Performers seen for the first time (support or other variety setting): 29
(including Mountain Man, Teddy Thompson, Justin Townes Earle, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Smith Westerns, Arctic Monkeys, Syl Johnson and the Sweet Divines, Paul Simon, The Walkmen, and Nick Lowe)

Seen most often: Wilco, Liam Finn, Nick Lowe, Bon Iver

Fond concert memories of 2011, in no particular order:

• The opening notes of Bon Iver's first concert since 2009, at the Riverside
• The Decemberists playing "Grace Cathedral Hill" in Milwaukee, perhaps because I asked
• Chatting with and getting a hug from Mavis Staples after her Green Bay show
• The Old 97's April Fool's Day fakeout ending, which led to playing "Timebomb" twice in the same show
• The National leading an audience singalong to "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks," with no amplification
• The Baseball Project playing in the stands at the Mallards Duck Pond and eating cheese curds
• Jeff Tweedy covering three Black Eyed Peas songs at the @mayoremanuel book release party
• U2 playing a glorious version of "One Tree Hill" for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Greg Carroll's passing
• Neil Finn joining Wilco for a cover of Split Enz's "I Got You" on the heels of Wilco's own "I Got You" at Solid Sound

Let's go, 2012.