Year In Review 2015- Favorite Live Show

The live show is a slippery thing. There are lots of variables at play, most having little to do with the performance itself.  Does the venue have enough bathrooms?  Is it going to rain?  What day of the week is it on?  Did I have a shitty day at work before hand?  Did tickets cost waaay too much? All of this effects one's opinion of a live show before the band even tunes up and with reason, but when the stars align, there is no place RtBE would rather be then in the moment of magic occurring spontaneously from the stage.

Live Music Has No Equal.   

While we can't see every show that is out there, we try our hardest to see as many as we can (and more then most) here at RtBE.  Sure there are a few left in the calendar year, (we are even playing one Friday) but for now, here is a listing of of the best concerts we were fortunate enough to have seen in 2015. Also because who doesn't love arbitrary rankings, one show at the bottom  took the top prize as RtBE's 2015 Show of the Year. To continue our Best of 2015 just click that Read More button and get started

If there is a review it will be linked in the title. We are NYC based so most of these shows happened here, and will include video if we can find some. Last year this contest was a real close one, with lots of great shows, but two in particular that we could barely choose between. Not so much this year, 2015's title fight in our brains and ears was decided way back in the first month of the year...but first the:

Honorable Mentions:
Ruby Amanfu 9/17/15 Rockwood Music Hall, NYC

We linked to our review on Glide in the title, but we should reiterate that Ruby has it. Whatever it is, she's got it. This was a great performance by her full band, but she was the clear cut star. A killer night of music spent with a special person that we will remember for who we were with and how god damn good it sounded.


Warren Haynes 7/23/15 Town Hall, NYC

Having never seen Railroad Earth before and only hearing Warren's excellent acoustic album once before the show, this one took us by surprise. Town Hall was not prepared for the rowdy crowd but if anything that allowed everyone to focus on the music and that was needed; the intricate playing was fantastic on this night. A top notch show that saw everyone involved (friends attending included) pitch in for a memorable night of acoustic backed music in a historic venue.  


Jason Isbell/Craig Finn 5/20/15 Capital Theater, Port Chester, NY

Sometimes things just work out in your favor. Catching two of our favorite Singer/Songwriters on the same night, in a historic venue with a good friend makes for an easy entry onto this year end list. Finn played all of his newest record while Isbell only played a few from his, but both sets were great as was the Flower Power Beer...owwww my head just started hurting again. Let's fix that by re-listening to some tunes from that show.



RtBE's Favorite Show of 2015:

Jack White 1/30/15 Madison Square Garden, NYC

For the second year in a row, Jack tops our list. This one was incredible, a hip hop vibe was flowing throughout as Run The Jewels opened with a great live set (which even featured Zach De La Rocha) and Q-Tip joined Jack to sing "Black Bat Licorice", but there was more to it then just the vibes. Jack is a mega star and with him playing down the block from where we live, we couldn't miss it. A lot of shows we get press passes for, but not this one, we paid (face value) to be up front on the floor of the Garden and it was completely worth it. White had the garden in the palm of his hand and it was a pleasure to be in his presence.

With White taking a break from touring for the near future we will always have this show to remember, but here's hoping that hiatus doesn't last all of 2016, we want a three peat in this category.

   

Feel free to let us know your favorite show from 2015 in the comments and as always thanks for reading.