Seeing that Neko Case is coming down again, early next year, has had me thinking about my favourite live music experiences; happily, being (obviously!) the archivin' type, I have a more or less complete Record of shows attended, updated on facebook but now duplicated here (you never know, facebook might explode tomorrow).
Looking back, three really stand out: Françoiz Breut at the Corner in early '06 made a deep impression on me for more reasons than I can count; Neko Case, raising the roof in St Kilda one balmy February night in 2007, was simply great; and then, just a couple of months later, the Pixies' brilliant, ecstatic set at the 'best of V' mini-festival at the music bowl came almost out of left-field to floor me.
To be honest, what the other particularly memorable ones tend to have in common is that they were put on by favourite artists of mine, past or present, but second-guessing why some shows linger while others recede is really essentially a pointless exercise, not only because the sum total of factors feeding in is always so large, but, more importantly, also because, when it comes to music, who cares why something makes you feel good, so long as it does? In chronological order, then: the ineffable electro-pop of Tujiko Noriko at the end of several hours of noise at Ding Dong in early 2004; Radiohead at Rod Laver Arena a couple of months later (objectively probably really only a quite good show, but it felt like such an event - it was Radiohead, after all, and it seemed like everyone was there); Belle and Sebastian's joyful career-spanning set at the Palais mid-winter '04, at the height of my love for them; Pretty Girls Make Graves at the Corner late that year (another that was really probably actually only quite good, but I was basically obsessed with the band at that point, and just enjoyed it so much); then a leap forward to last year where Bjork unexpectedly made my head spin at the Big Day Out, and then, a few days later, Spoon totally killed at the Corner; Wilco a few months on, a show that I took almost for granted at the time, but, in retrospect, was pretty unimpeachably great; and most recently, spring-feeling-like-summer '08, Goldfrapp rocking the Palais something wicked.
* * *
2009
Jen Cloher & the Endless Sea (20/9)
Aimee Mann (5/9)
Flaming Lips (29/7)
Vic Chesnutt & Victoria Williams (9/7)
Luluc (2/7)
Je Suis Animal (17/6)
Ladytron (5/6)
Lucinda Williams (2/4)
Fidler, Sal Kimber & Fireside Bellows (22/3)
Jolie Holland (13/2)
Neil Young + My Morning Jacket (27/1)
Woven Hand (20/1)
2008
Blonde Redhead (31/12)
Final Fantasy (11/12)
Emiliana Torrini (18/11)
Julie O'Hara Quintet (19/10)
Joan as Police Woman (10/10)
Toni Childs (1/10)
Goldfrapp (26/9)
The Last Town Chorus (12/9)
Band of Horses (3/8)
Sigur Ros (1/8)
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson (9/4)
Smashing Pumpkins, Jesus & Mary Chain, Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age + others @ V Festival (5/4)
Patty Griffin (28/3)
Wilco + The Drones (26/3)
Jens Lekman (10/3)
Kelly Clarkson (4/3)
Lisa Miller (29/2)
Stars (28/2)
PJ Harvey (20/2)
Rufus Wainwright (1/2)
Spoon (31/1)
Bjork, Arcade Fire, Spoon, Kate Nash, Sarah Blasko + others @ Big Day Out (28/1)
2007
Amanda Palmer (13/12)
Joss Stone (9/12)
Angie Hart (19/10)
Emilie Simon + Nouvelle Vague (7/7)
Lisa Miller (20/4)
Wilco (18/4)
New York Dolls, Phoenix, Jarvis Cocker, Pixies @ Best of V Festival (4/4)
Love of Diagrams, Camera Obscura, Love is All, the Walkmen, Peter Bjorn & John + others @ St Jerome's Laneway Festival (24/2)
The Audreys, Four Play @ St Kilda Festival (11/2)
Neko Case (2/2)
Lisa Miller, Laura Veirs, Mary Gauthier, Jen Cloher & the Endless Sea + others @ the Harvest Festival (20/1)
2006
The New Pornographers (12/12)
Talvin Singh (7/12)
Yann Tiersen (29/11)
Kasey Chambers (22/11)
Black Cab (4/11)
The Crayon Fields (29/9)
Francoiz Breut (29/4)
The Sticks + Zero/Some (1/4)
Talvin Singh, Kusun Ensemble, Dhol Foundation, Renegades Steel Orchestra, Evelyn Glennie + others @ All-Star World Percussion Spectacular (19/3)
Pretty Girls Make Graves, Augie March, New Buffalo, Broken Social Scene, Les Savy Fav + others @ St Jerome's Laneway Festival (26/2)
Kathleen Edwards (14/2)
Lisa Miller (18/2)
M.I.A. (1/2)
2005
Machine Translations (6/9)
Tujiko Noriko (11/8)
Laura Veirs & the Tortured Souls (29/5)
Architecture in Helsinki, Gersey, Ground Components, Eskimo Joe, the Dears + others @ St Jerome's Laneway Festival (27/2)
New Buffalo (13/2)
Ennio Morricone Experience (23/1)
2004 and earlier (incomplete)
Pretty Girls Make Graves + Love of Diagrams (November 2004)
Belle and Sebastian + Architecture in Helsinki (23/7/04)
Radiohead (26/4/04)
Tujiko Noriko (18/2/04)
Interpol (7/8/03)
Goo Goo Dolls, Tea Party, Billy Idol + others @ M-One festival (2002)
Beth Orton, Alex Lloyd, Spiderbait, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers + others @ Big Day Out (January 2000)
