"The night life ain't no good life, but it's my life." I will have taken in over 365 individual performances in 2011 by New Year's Eve.. The following list of my favorite ten percent of these shows is deceptive. While hip hop is the dominant force in popular music, the genre is underrepresented. Only the charisma and vibrant catalogs of Weezy, Black Elvis, Tech and Ye and Jay allowed them to overcome their otherwise sketchy presentations. The reverse is true of jazz. Kansas City's jazz renaissance is, if anything, underrepresented here. Matt Otto and Jeff Harshbarger, pictured in the accompanying photo, are my second and third favorite musicians in Kansas City. And finally, how is it possible that Knuckleheads, the region's best venue, didn't make the cut?
1. KC Sound Collective- Blue Room
2. Deftones- VooDoo Lounge
3. Daniel Johnston with Capybara- Beaumont Club
4. Janelle Monae- Independence Events Center
5. An Evening with Virgil Thomson- Helzberg Hall
6. Matt Otto Quartet- Blue Room
7. My Morning Jacket- Uptown Theater
8. Diverse with Tony Tixier- Grant Recital Hall
9. Lil Wayne- Sprint Center
10. Joe Lovano & Us Five- Gem Theater
11. Goitse- Washington Square Park
12. Civil Wars- Crosstown Station
13. A Perfect Circle- Kansas Speedway
14. People's Liberation Big Band- RecordBar
15. Jay-Z and Kanye West- Sprint Center
16. Bon Iver- Uptown Theater
17. Motley Crue- Sprint Center
18. Tedeschi Trucks Band- Crossroads KC
19. Deborah Brown- Gem Theater
20. Enter Shikari- Sandstone
21. Pat Metheny and Larry Grenadier- Liberty Hall
22. Kool Keith- Czar Bar
23. Old Crow Medicine Show- Crossroads KC
24. Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience- VooDoo Lounge
25. Clutch- Midland Theater
26. Del McCoury with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band- Lied Center
27. Stone Sour- Penn Valley Park
28. Ingrid Fliter and the Kansas City Symphony- Lyric Theater
29. Grisly Hand- Plaza Art Fair
30. Marilyn Maye- Jardine's
31. Jonathan Butler- Gem Theater
32. Hearts of Darkness- Crosstown Station
33. Micah Herman Quintet- RecordBar
34. Tech N9ne- Midland Theater
35. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra- Helzberg Hall
36. Guns N' Roses- Sprint Center
I conducted similar exercises in 2010 and 2009.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
1 comment:
The catholicism of your taste is inspiring, Bill. Keep up the good work.
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