Well, my efforts to dial back the live music this quarter failed spectacularly. Twenty-one shows this quarter (as usual, counting each festival day as one show), bringing my total for the year so far to 31, which is an unsustainable pace, even for me. Fortunately, the pace should slow for the remainder of the summer.
As for highlights, Coachella really delivered this year, leaving me oddly rejuvenated (perhaps because we skipped all the headliners). As always, the best sets were those early in the day, like Ethel Cain, Ali Sethi, and Los Bitchos. The Despacio tent exceeded my (high) expectations, and I'm glad I finally got to see Wet Leg, the breakout indie band of 2022. But boygenius really carried the weekend for me. Having seen all three of them on their own tours earlier in the year, I was struck by how much more joyful their show together was.
Other highlights this quarter included Los Bitchos, who I saw in SF almost immediately after discovering them at Coachella. And also boygenius again, who I saw at Stanford's Frost Amphitheater, which seems like it's going to be a regular music venue again. MEUTE delivered the goods, both at The Fillmore and at a mini-show on Christmas Tree Point. And The Tallis Scholars continue to make the most beautiful choral music that I've ever witnessed live. And special mention for Molchat Doma, the Belarussian dark wave synth band who gathered perhaps the most goth audience that I've ever been in.
- Modigliani Quartet
- Coachella Day One (Lava La Rue, Doechii, Dombresky, BENEE, MUNA, Wet Leg, Blondie, Gorilaz, Angéle, The Chemical Brothers)
- Coachella Day Two (Ethel Cain, The Linda Lindas, SOFI TUKKER, boygenius, Underworld, Monolink, NIA Archives, Eric Prydz, Keinemuzik)
- Coachella Day Three (Ali Sethi, Los Bitchos, Joy Crookes, Big Wild, Elif, Momma, 2manydjs, Christine & the Queens, Cannons, Despacio, Sudan Archives)
- Los Bitchos
- Trio Medieval
- Tallis Scholars
- Gogo Penguin
- Sofar Sounds (?, ?, Cardboard People)
- Cecile McLorin Salvant
- Crowded House
- Vikingur Olafsson
- Fenne Lily & Christian Lee Hutson
- Overcoats
- Molchat Doma
- Meute
- The Cure
- boygenius, Clairo, Dijon, Bartees Strange
- The Alaya Project
- SF Opera (Die Fraue Ohne Schatten)
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