It’s that time of year when everyone posts their ‘best of’ lists. When I think back on this year in music, I think of live music rather than CD purchases; many of my favourite artists haven’t released an album this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I don’t discover many of the greatest releases of 2006 until some time in 2007.
I made it to a grand total of fourteen shows, including Anathema, Blue Öyster Cult, Hayseed Dixie (twice), IQ, Journey, Mostly Autumn (four times), Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Queensrÿche and Zappa plays Zappa. None of the four chord flavour of the month stuff, but not all nostalgia acts either.
The following four are probably the highlights.
- Zappa plays Zappa at Manchester Apollo on July 1. Dweezil and band reviving his father’s classics on stage, starring old hands Napoleon Murphy Brock and Stevie Vai, plus a bunch of talented unknowns.
- Opeth at Manchester Academy 1 on November 10. I never would have thought I’d really enjoy a gig full of Cookie Monster vocals, but this was just awesome.
- IQ at the Mean Fiddler in London on December 10. What have I been missing all these years? I’ve always known these guys were great on record, but I never realised how good they were live.
- Mostly Autumn at Limelight Club in Crewe on December 21. One that I never got time to review properly due to the flurry of activity over Christmas. But it was very bit as excellent as their previous Christmas shows, and certainly the best of the four of their shows I’ve attended this year. It was as much a party for the fans as it was an ordinary gig; this one ended with Bryan discovering that he couldn’t sing and drink beer at the same time during the final encore.
None of this years gigs were in any way truly awful, because I’m not in the habit of seeing crap bands. Weakest was the merely average performance from Queensrÿche. I’m told they died horribly on stage at Castle Donnington the night before. Most controversial has to be Journey, which would have made the highlights had it not been for those rumours of lip-synching.
Next year it starts over again with The Reasoning in January. See you on the road.
