July 28 at Ascend Amphitheater
My good friend Bill had a spare ticket to get me into Pixies coheadlining show with Weezer, so off I went to make my first trip to Ascend. It's an impressive place to catch a show; you can breathe in that outdoor, open air feel to watching a band that gets missed being in a small, dingy auditorium or club. The always reliable Pixies were, not surprisingly, the better act of the evening. Naturally, there was a solid dose of material from their newest album, Head Carrier, that went by the wayside. I admit I haven't kept up with their newer material. There's something so uplifting about alt-pop staples "Here Comes Your Man," and "Where is My Mind," rocking out with bassist Paz Lenchantin as she takes the lead on "Gigantic," while also diving in to the band's darker, grimier sound with off the rails blasts like "Crackity Jones" and "Isla Del Encanta."
9. David Byrne
May 4 at Shaky Knees
8. Jack White
May 4 at Shaky Knees
This was my third time seeing White, and unfortunately it was not the charm. He didn't seem to be meshing with the audience as well, which may or may not have had to do with why he only filled 90 minutes of his scheduled two hour headlining set, but even a less than stellar White concert has more than its fair share of standouts. Touring on such an experimental and polarizing album as Boarding House Reach, I wondered if he'd shy away from some of its more unconventional cuts. To his credit White went for the jugular, showering with with spoken word/noise cut "Everything You've Ever Learned," his hip hop jam "Ice Station Zebra," and even took a moment to pound on a drumkit. His earlier career selections were also on point, including the slithering and grooving "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" from the Stripes late period as well as the cackling insanity of "Black Math."
7. Tenacious D
May 6 at Shaky Knees
Of all the zany sights and sounds I've witnessed at music festivals, there is little that compares to seeing a legitimate film star less than 50 yards away from me. Who didn't love Jack Black's in the early to mid 2000s, whether flattening competition as a Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre, or inspiring the next generation of musical geniuses in School of Rock? Seeing the D is a rare treat indeed, and it came with all the expected trappings. Everyone may recall "Tribute," their Devil Went Down to Georgia inspired duel with the devil in which the band struggle to remember the greatest song in the world, but the highlight was "Beelezeboss (The Final Showdown)," which saw the band's guitar player come under possession by the devil himself to challenge Kyle and Jack Black to a guitar shred off. We also witnessed the band break up and reform onstage during the saccharine "Dude, I Totally Miss You," we headbanged with "The Metal" and "Dio," and were educated on the finer points of lovemaking on the D classic "Fuck Her Gently."
6. Queens of the Stone Age
May 5 at Shaky Knees
There's not too much to say about a Queens of the Stone Age concert, other than prepare to be buried under a barrage of rock and roll! Hope you weren't expecting to hear anything old school -- nothing was played from before the band's breakout record Songs for the Deaf -- but what we did get was a ringing testament to the specific brand of sludge/desert/hard rock the California band has championed since the early 2000s during their Saturday night headlining set at Atlanta's Shaky Knees festival. The biggest question for me was how the new material would translate to the big stage. Their 2017 album, Villains, polarized the fanbase with its switch to more dancy beats behind the helm of producer Mark Ronson. I personally found the production a bit thin but thought those riffs might translate into a meatier performance live. I wasn't disappointed as the band swished and caused the crowd to sashay to stompers "The Way You Used to Be" and "Feet Don't Fail Me Now." Their set lacked the variety of 2013 Nashville set the last time I saw them, but that just meant there was less time to rest during Queens Staples "In My Head" and "No One Knows," before finally coming up for air with the bone crunching "Song for the Dead."
5. Courtney Barnett
October 26 at Marathon Music Works
Courtney has grown so much as a guitar player since the first time I saw her I almost couldn't believe it. She may be known for being a gritty, indie rock dream girl but on this night she put on a guitarist's clinic. She must have picked up plenty of pointers from her time with Kurt Vile, as song after song cascaded into extended runs and breakdowns. Each one built more tension than the last. The trademark garage rock energy she's always had is still there, but now it's become even more mesmerizing and kickass than ever before. It all unfolded over a grand 21 song set, an impressive feat considering she only has two albums and a pair of EPs to her name to date. Barnett delighted with fan favorites "Depreston," "Avant Gardner," and " Pedestrian at Best," but demonstrated new potential with the brooding "I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch" and a poignant covers of Gillian Welch's "Everything is Free" and Elyse Weinberg's "Houses."
4. Nine Inch Nails
September 29 at Ascend Amphitheater
May 6 at Shaky Knees
Of all the zany sights and sounds I've witnessed at music festivals, there is little that compares to seeing a legitimate film star less than 50 yards away from me. Who didn't love Jack Black's in the early to mid 2000s, whether flattening competition as a Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre, or inspiring the next generation of musical geniuses in School of Rock? Seeing the D is a rare treat indeed, and it came with all the expected trappings. Everyone may recall "Tribute," their Devil Went Down to Georgia inspired duel with the devil in which the band struggle to remember the greatest song in the world, but the highlight was "Beelezeboss (The Final Showdown)," which saw the band's guitar player come under possession by the devil himself to challenge Kyle and Jack Black to a guitar shred off. We also witnessed the band break up and reform onstage during the saccharine "Dude, I Totally Miss You," we headbanged with "The Metal" and "Dio," and were educated on the finer points of lovemaking on the D classic "Fuck Her Gently."
6. Queens of the Stone Age
May 5 at Shaky Knees
There's not too much to say about a Queens of the Stone Age concert, other than prepare to be buried under a barrage of rock and roll! Hope you weren't expecting to hear anything old school -- nothing was played from before the band's breakout record Songs for the Deaf -- but what we did get was a ringing testament to the specific brand of sludge/desert/hard rock the California band has championed since the early 2000s during their Saturday night headlining set at Atlanta's Shaky Knees festival. The biggest question for me was how the new material would translate to the big stage. Their 2017 album, Villains, polarized the fanbase with its switch to more dancy beats behind the helm of producer Mark Ronson. I personally found the production a bit thin but thought those riffs might translate into a meatier performance live. I wasn't disappointed as the band swished and caused the crowd to sashay to stompers "The Way You Used to Be" and "Feet Don't Fail Me Now." Their set lacked the variety of 2013 Nashville set the last time I saw them, but that just meant there was less time to rest during Queens Staples "In My Head" and "No One Knows," before finally coming up for air with the bone crunching "Song for the Dead."
5. Courtney Barnett
October 26 at Marathon Music Works
Courtney has grown so much as a guitar player since the first time I saw her I almost couldn't believe it. She may be known for being a gritty, indie rock dream girl but on this night she put on a guitarist's clinic. She must have picked up plenty of pointers from her time with Kurt Vile, as song after song cascaded into extended runs and breakdowns. Each one built more tension than the last. The trademark garage rock energy she's always had is still there, but now it's become even more mesmerizing and kickass than ever before. It all unfolded over a grand 21 song set, an impressive feat considering she only has two albums and a pair of EPs to her name to date. Barnett delighted with fan favorites "Depreston," "Avant Gardner," and " Pedestrian at Best," but demonstrated new potential with the brooding "I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch" and a poignant covers of Gillian Welch's "Everything is Free" and Elyse Weinberg's "Houses."
4. Nine Inch Nails
September 29 at Ascend Amphitheater
Any Nine Inch Nails show is going to be a showcase of brutal power combined with creative and visual virtuosity. Their last visit to Nashville saw major production values with a crane suspending nine video cubes that could act as a ceiling, light screen, or source of video projection. This time it was actually refreshing to witness a set that was more or less anchored by just the band playing onstage, though there were just enough lighting wizardry to remind us whose show we were at. The reinvention wasn't confined to the sights but also to the sounds, as the setlist offered up some tunes that had been out of rotation for years. Most notable was "The Perfect Drug," a breakneck paranoid electro-hell drum off taken from the soundtrack from forgotten film The Lost Highway. It's peak 90s rave/goth for Reznor, and a song that had never been played prior to this tour. Other treats included the lusty "You're so Physical" off the Broken EP from the early 90s, the mechanical doom of "Reptile," the shout-along madness of "Head Like a Hole," and the sinister David Bowie cover "I'm Afraid of Americans." It's definitely a setlist that attempts to explore the finer corners of the artist's back catalog, but I could personally have done with a little more from the classic Fragile/Downward Spiral era over some of the newer cuts off the band's recently released EPs.
3. Slayer
August 12 at War Memorial Auditorium
Goodbye is a hard word to say, but if it really is the last hurrah for the fabled thrash metallers they saved their best for last. It was simply the awe of Slayer that so impressed me here. My previous experience with them was their Bonnaroo set three years ago, and while that was a fantastic show, it was nothing that prepared me for this. For a farewell tour, there were disappointingly no surprises and the setlist was a bit by the numbers, but with Slayer that's all you need. The set ending run of "Hell Awaits," "South of Heaven," "Raining Blood," "Chemical Warfare," and "Angel of Death" was the most positively draining musical experience since my first time seeing Nine Inch Nails. If I'm being honest, I didn't expect them to rank this high, above several other bands on this list. The torrent of 90 minutes of some of the most chaotic, visceral metal you can see live in the area combined with propulsive pyrotechnics so dynamic you can feel the heat would be enough to excuse you for thinking you may just have descended into hell to dance with the devil's music alongside him and his army of lost souls.
2. Steven Wilson
December 10 at Cannery Ballroom
I've long been enamored with the works of English prog rock musician Steven Wilson. It's such a shame that his visits to Nashville are so infrequent, but he most certainly took note of that fact in delivering a nearly three hour extravaganza that showcased each of his brilliant sides as a musician. As his latest album, To the Bone illustrates, he's been shying away from his more orchestral, extended pieces in favor of shorter pop nuggets with an anti-authoritarian vibe. This is best summed up by the intro video that played before the band came onstage that urged the crowd to think about the nature of security, surveillance, and to look at 21st century global matters from varying perspectives, signified by a single word emblazoned onto an image meant to represent it, which shifted from one image to the next as the film progressed. The set ranged from the spacey and delectable opening number "Nowhere Now," demented sludge rock with "The Creator Has a Mastertape," King Crimson inspired guitar bombast of "No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun," and the heart melting isolation of "Routine." Wilson was very talkative and engaging with the crowd. His best moment came when he told the story of a kid wearing black metal shirt at a show in Turkey who turned his back when the band played their "disco" cut "Permanating." There was plenty of time to unleash their progressive side with "Home Invasion," a 9+ minute jam boasting guitar and keyboard solos that would make Yes proud. Wilson polished it all off with a cover of childhood idol Prince's "Sign o the Times" before closing with a tune of silent heartbreak in "The Raven that Refused to Sing." Hopefully it doesn't take another eight years before his return, but we'll always appreciate the memories, Steven.
1. Janelle Monae
July 13 at Ryman Auditorium
Monae has dazzled her way onto this list twice before on the strength of her wacky personality and energy, but her outing in support of April's fantastic Dirty Computer was on another level altogether. Monae has blossomed into something altogether different in the five years since her last album. The old elements of her show are still there but now there's a dynamic element of racial and gender empowerment. Monae is bold and dramatic in a way she's never been before, and much more openly sexual. She's ditched her black and white android dress from years before for a vastly more colorful repertoire; she switches from perching atop her throne to donning leggings meant to look like a vagina during "Pink." She played almost the entire Dirty Computer album, but found time for "Primetime," which Monae dedicated as a tribute to love of all kinds, as well as "Cold War," which morphed into a rallying cry for the masses. Her message is about love, acceptance, and tolerance. She's elevated her live performance from a fun, James Brown inspired stomp to something that now feels genuinely important, and utterly unmissable.
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