Tue 18 May – Caribou, Toro y Moi

I should dwell on the fact that I came to show for Toro y Moi, who was great, and how Caribou really blew me away, not being familiar with his new album, but all I find myself thinking is that the crowd was the worst! I was stuck behind what I can only assume was a bunch of X-ed out hipster fucks who thought they were a lot funnier, cooler and sexier (some of you may no what I mean if you were unfortunate enough to be as close to their shittyness…

Thu 15 Apr – Yeasayer

Okay, so, Warpaint is incredible. If you haven't heard them, imagine if 'Hail to the Thief' era Radiohead got it on with 'Godspeed You! Black Emperor' and had a female love child. Hawt.
Yeasayer. What can I say. Perfect show. I boogied my ass off! A good time was had by all. I hung out for a while after the show and mingled with the bands a bit. They were all fucking down to earth. Especially Ira, what a cool guy! I feel bad for just about everybody at the show though, because you all…

Thu 11 Feb – St. Vincent, Wildbirds & Peacedrums

What a great show! Wildbirds & Peacedrums were amazing! I had never heard of them before this show and was blown away buy them. As a friend of mine at the show said, "phat beats." If you liked their set I recommend their album The Snake. I got it at the show and it's great. And weren't they super fun to watch?

St. Vincent's set was great as well! I was not too familiar with Actor, but am pretty familiar with Marry Me, and the songs she chose from both albums…

Mon 30 Nov – J. Tillman and Pearly Gates Music

What Laura Says Thinks And Feels is a pretty awful name, but the music was pretty good. The one thing that I didn't like about them was the white-soul-beat-boxing thing the singer was doing. I didn't get it. They were, however, the best local AZ band I have seen to date.

I don't think the audience knew what to do with Pearly Gates Music; admittedly, neither did I. It was a one man acoustic set by Zach Tillman, Josh Tillman's younger brother, which consisted of mostly chorusless ramblings about herpes,…

Sat 21 Nov – Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits

Santana Rules.

Thu 5 Nov – Atlas Sound, Broadcast, The Selmanaires

Other than the fact that the doors opened an hour and a half late, there really wasn't a bad thing about this show. The first band, The Selmanaires' set was really great. I thought their sound was pretty great; it's sort of a Deerhunter/Animal Collective/Post Rock mix which was pretty fun to see live.

Atlas Sound, the show's headliner went on second (I assume he did this because of how late the show started and that there might have been people who needed to get going pretty soon). His set was…

Sun 1 Nov – Regina Spektor, Jupiter One

I feel like I dwell on the negative a little too much in reviews, and that's something I should work on, but the crowd fucking sucked. Yes you, the crowd of 12 year old girls and high school drama nerds who have no idea what it means to be a good concert goer. When Jupiter One came out I had about 15 or 16 middle school girls inside my asshole (not literally) who started screaming like the Backstreet Boys just walked on stage.

Jupiter One did put on a good show though.…

Wed 28 Oct – Dirty Projectors, Golden Boots

I am not that excited about Golden Boots. Their set was alright, but nothing that special. I got the impression that they thought they were a lot weirder then they were. Wacky hats and lab coats don't make your set any more fun, I'm just saying.

Dirty Projectors, however, were brilliant. This was favorite concert this year. The group is just so tight and in tune with one another. I was very impressed. Brian Mcomber's drumming really blew me away; the fact that he could keep up with Longstreth's constantly changing tempo…

Tue 29 Sep – BON IVER

A few weeks ago I called Mesa Arts to find out who was opening. I had heard of Megafaun before, but I had never heard anything by them so I downloaded Gather, Form & Fly and was not too impressed. It wasn't bad by any means, but it just didn't blow me away. Now, after seeing them live, I like it so much more! The were incredible! Their harmonies were perfect and the ambient, more experimental parts of their set really blew me away. I also really liked it when they unplugged their instruments…

Thu 18 Jun – Wilco, Grizzly Bear

I have been sooooo excited for this show for months! My girlfriend and I were supposed to go to the Grizzly Bear show at the Rialto and we were pretty upset when we found out that they were going to be opening for Wilco. Now, after the show, I am still pretty upset that they opened. WIlco is a great band and they did an excellent job of recreating their songs live. The songs sound almost identical to the album versions, which really impressed me (especially those smooth ass guitar solos), but Grizzly…