Shows I saw in 2023

I’m super late doing this post. I usually try to do a retrospective post in the first few weeks of the year. I suspect it’s because I’d rather not look back on a lot of 2023 – the first 6 months were a horror show of stress due to a family member getting illegally evicted, and another family member with serious health problems that their doctor ignored, leading to an ER visit and surgery. In the middle of all that, we had one of our cats put down. And when things finally settled down, I decided to change jobs. Never let it be said I do things by halves.

I knew the stress was affecting me when I found myself turning down chances to see shows because I was just too exhausted. But the ones I did see were fucking epic. Here are some of the highlights:

Depeche Mode and The Cure: Two giants of modern music that I have seen many times, but no two shows are ever alike. The DM show happened right in the middle of all the stress, and provided welcome relief even as the band played songs that tackled their grief in the wake of Fletch’s death. The Cure happened as things were lightning up a bit. Robert’s voice is as perfect as ever and they played for damn near three hours. Bats even emerged from the trees and swirled about during “A Forest”. Also, I realized it had been 34 years since I first saw The Cure live. I really do need one of those shirts that reads “I may be old, but I’ve seen all the good bands.”

Tears for Fears: One of my bucket-list bands. To be outdoors on a hot summer night singing along with the crowd to “Mad World” gave me goosebumps.

The Twilight Sad: They opened for the The Cure, but they deserve their own entry because they’re just so damn good. Hailing from Scotland, they create sweet, sad, poignant songs that comfort you and uplift you all at once. And I love that they end each set with Frightened Rabbit’s “Keep Yourself Warm”, in tribute to Scott Hutchinson.

Freaks on Parade tour (Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ministry and Filter): This show was just pure fun and adrenalin from beginning to end. Uncle Al brought the noise, Alice brought the theatrics, and Rob Zombie brought both in abundance. It was my first time seeing him live, and I suspect it won’t be the last.

Le Tigre: I was there with a big crowd of my friends and we all danced our feet off to banging feminist electro-punk. The energy level in the venue was off the charts – just an epic night.

Girlfriends and Boyfriends with Komodo and Rosie Wyse: This stellar triple bill went down on a hot Friday night at a delightfully grungy dive bar. In other words, my kind of night.

The National with Patti Smith: Two of my favourite artists, both brilliant but yet so different. It was an odd pairing, but it worked. I walk out of every Patti Smith show believing in humanity again, in our collective ability to connect and do good. Matt Berninger’s ability to work a crowd never ceases to amaze me.

Vital Sines: Never in a million years did I anticipate this. A post from a friend on IG alerted me to the fact that this seminal Toronto new wave band was reuniting for one night to play at the birthday party of a local musician. Said friend graciously offered me their extra ticket. Back in 1984, Vital Sines recorded a song called Collage. This plangent, and melancholy song has followed me for years. I still request it at retro nights and when that insistent drumbeat kicks in, the world stands still. Never did I think I would hear it performed live. Vital Sines looked and sounded as if no time had passed at all.

The Mission/The Chameleons/Theatre of Hate: I rearranged my family’s Thanksgiving dinner plans to make it to this triple bill of goth/post-punk greats. Great performances by all, but no thanks to Embrace who published the wrong set times, causing many people to miss acts they had really wanted to see. And when they were called on it, they refused to admit they had fucked up and doubled down, insisting that people should have checked their social media more often.

Pussy Riot’s “Riot Days”: This wasn’t billed as a concert, but as a multimedia activist experience, and that’s exactly what it was. It was one of the most intense and brilliant things I have ever seen. Based on Maria Alyokhina’s memoir of her arrest and two years imprisonment in Russia, Riot Days was a lesson in history, protest, politics, and human rights all set to punishing electro beats.

John (Times Two): Sometimes, social media algorithms don’t suck. This band from London, UK popped up on my IG feed and before I had a chance to click away, I was struck by the noisy intensity of their stripped down, no-holds-barred post punk. How can just two people make that much noise? Just a couple of months later, they embarked on their first North American tour and proved every bit as raucous live as they are on record.