Hello! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I go to a ton of concerts. So this year I decided to keep track of all my concerts to see just how many I actually go to. And this year it was 40!! (I should mention that I do wear earplugs!) Here they all are!
- The Givers
- Kelly Clarkson (Atlantic City)
- Kelly Clarkson (NYC)
- Nada Surf
- Aretha Franklin
- William Fitzsimmons
- Van Halen (with Kool & the Gang opening!)
- Pat Benatar
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- Gomez
- The Black Keys
- Temper Trap
- Boxer Rebellion
- The Shins
- Foster the People
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Blind Pilot
- fun.
- Glen Hansard
- Scissor Sisters
- Wilco
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- Mumford & Sons
- Miniature Tigers
- Bloc Party
- Kelly Clarkson with The Fray
- Madonna
- Ben Folds Five
- Austra
- Bon Iver
- Ed Sheeran
- M83
- Frightened Rabbit
- Temper Trap
- The Jezebels
- Alanis Morrisette
- Matt & Kim
- Of Monster and Men
- Ingrid Michaelson
- St. Lucia
BEST CONCERT: The Black Keys This was hard, but I love The Black Keys and their concert at Madison Square Garden was simply amazing from start to finish. Plus, they're super nice midwestern boys. Oh, and you know, for most of the time it was just the two of them, which is insanely impressive. VERY close runner-ups: Of Monster and Men, Mumford & Sons, fun., Bon Iver, Kelly Clarkson
FAVORITE PERFORMER: Kelly Clarkson As you may have noticed above, I saw K. Clark (my little nickname for Kelly) three times this year. She's really great live: her voice, her banter (two different friends I saw her with turned to me at one point and said, "you're practically the same person!"), her songs. I'm usually an indie rock chick, but I do love me some K. Clark. Go ahead and judge, I'll be too busy dancing around to her songs to care. And I also took one of my favorite pictures this year at my third K. Clark concert (of the year, I've seen her a total of five times), here's me with David Levithan. He seemed a little concerned about my enthusiasm....
BEST BANTER: Ingrid Michaelson One of my friends had an extra ticket to see Ingrid earlier this year at the last minute and I had one of her older albums so I went with him. Boy am I glad I did. I bought her other albums the next day. She's not only wonderful live, but she's hilarious. She cracked me up and was so witty and charming, I kinda want to be best friends with her (don't get jealous, Kelly!). I saw her again at the end of the year for her annual Holiday Hop concert. Her and her band opened the show disguised as a choir from a senior home and do hysterical takes on holiday standards (check out a sample here). If this whole music thing doesn't work out for her, she should consider stand-up.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: Ed Sheeran I heard about Ed last year when I was in Ireland. I knew he was big in the UK and Ireland and loved his album, +. I listened to it a lot while writing what will be book #5, especially a chapter that takes place in Ireland. So when I went to his concert, I thought it would be a lot of British ex-pats. No, there were about 3000 screaming teenage girls. But that wasn't the big surprise (although it was to my friend Chris!). Ed came out with just his guitar and a looping station. That was it. The ninety-plus set he performed alone rivaled many of the bands I saw this year. He was charming, sincere, and insanely talented. I'm pretty sure those 3000 girls agreed!
There's so much more I could say about every concert I went to, but I'll stop here. There are some concert tickets for next year I've got to track down. And so it continues...
XO, Elizabeth