The Best Shows Of 2024
(excluding the Big Ears festival)
Confession: I’m still not recovered from the pandemic in a social sense. I got used to being home. And I like it here. It’s nice. I like it. THROW AWAY THE KEY.
I love people but being among them can be subtly stressful. Or rather, the minutes and hours leading up to being among them, especially. I’m sure there are many factors, not just the pandemic, but all those IRL relationships transforming into social-media relationships for a couple years or so probably didn’t help. On top of that, I had forced myself to be hypersocial for ten years doing an interactive radio show and phewww that was a lot of people-ing for an introvert. And then suddenly that was gone too. And it was…kind of a relief. Maybe I’m still trying to recharge. Whatever the case, a lot of times when the night of the show rolls around, my heart can’t square my head with going out.
Also I just have so much to do at home, and staying home saves money versus going out which un-saves money. Sometimes I get paid to go out, but rarely to small shows headlined by local artists. And with ticket prices for touring acts skyrocketing the last few years, my entertainment budget often gets gobbled up by tickets I feel compelled to buy in advance. Sorry, local artists. I’m just one guy; I hope I’m not speaking for very many others.
A couple years ago I declared intentions to cut out travel for all but a few artists and to whittle down the must-see list. I made some progress on the first point; I suppose time will tell as to the latter. The problem is, as far as I know, I only live once, and a lot of the artists below are on the must-see list for good reasons. At least I didn’t ADD to it this year…? However there will be some definite surprises below for any regular visitors here. It was another stupendous year of live music, just not QUITE as busy as last year.
Read on about the ten best shows I went to this year, in approximate reverse order of greatness. Original reviews are linked if there was one.
Overkill | Milwaukee Metal Fest | 17 May
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/May/milwaukee-metal-fest-2024
Many moons ago I’d listened to some Overkill; this year was my first time seeing the thrash legends live and it was such a rush. You see so many grim faces in metal, and then on the other end you have the total goofy side like Anthrax, and then there’s Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth, who’s not exactly goofy but definitely doesn’t take any of this shit too seriously, with that voice that can still pierce through anything. A far cry from the band’s return to Milwaukee opening for King Diamond a few months later (https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/king-diamond-reigns-supreme-at-riverside-theater/); three members from the Metal Fest lineup were gone, only two of ‘em replaced! (It turned out that guitarist Derek Tailer was just out sick for the one show, though.) This is where I tell you you should probably make a point of catching this band while Ellsworth still has the pipes; he sounded fantastic both times.
Daniel Romano’s Outfit | Cactus Club | 7 February
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/February/daniel-romanos-outfit-or-cactus-club-or-2-7
I had a terrific first impression of Romano and his band going in completely blind; aside from a stray youtube video or two, I had no idea what to expect, although smart people had been nudging me. Risky, because I didn’t know any songs, and it was all ABOUT the songs, in dizzying succession. And the more familiar you get with Romano’s output, the more rewarding the twists and turns within and between songs will be, or so I’m told. None of that knowledge was necessary to recognize what a killer rock and roll band this is, with the hallowed tight-but-loose balance most groups simply don’t play often enough to achieve. It would be hard to have more rock-n-roll fun on a Wednesday night than this.
Buckethead | The Rave | 16 August
It was actually my dad who got me into Buckethead. Magnum, p.i. voice: I know what you’re thinking. ‘You’re too old for your dad to have turned you on to Buckethead!’ drone shot of a red Ferrari racing down a Hawai’ian coastline So it was especially sweet of Bucket to return to these parts after a six-year gap, during which he’d done cryptic interviews about the dire state of his health and nobody was really sure if we’d ever see him perform again. It could all have been an act! I don’t care! My dad was too busy supporting the family to go to concerts in the ‘80s and ‘90s, so we try to make up for lost time when we can, and this was, ahem, bucket-list material. Add to this an accompanying 10-year-old in full Michael Meyers regalia seeing his first real concert…and receiving a toy and a high-five during the ‘toystore’ interlude… I should mention that the man himself was as good as I’ve ever seen on the electric guitar and the setlist was a dream and the circus-like atmosphere of my favorite Buckethead performances was on full display, not through elaborate getups or effects (HE WAS WEARING SHORTS?!!?) but through twisted yet intermittently familiar music that pulls the psyche this way and that. Most Buckethead shows I’ve seen have been way too short; this was two sets and he gave us EVERYTHING, just him and drummer/occasional vocalist Dan Monti. It was probably my favorite Buckethead show ever.
Marc Ribot’s Jazz-Bins | Vivarium | 10 April
For what may have been Marc Ribot’s first performance ever in the city of Milwaukee, he brought heat. Whereas a good percentage of Ribot’s output over the years would be deemed unlistenable by the general population, this project (Ribot on guitar, Greg Lewis on Hammond organ, Joe Dyson on drums) played relatively feelgood music that definitely stretched the boundaries of the traditional organ trio sound but was never short of engrossing. On paper, this almost looked like a regressive project for Ribot, like the way Medeski, Martin & Wood just decided to stop getting wild one day. A simple trio playing a bunch of oldies, yet what a glorious din these three made, and for whatever degree of Ribot’s usual noisy experimentation was tempered, the Jazz-Bins compensated with rich spiritual uplift. I’m sure some of the credit should go to the songs themselves, too; I still have no idea what any of them were called.
Bizhiki | Vivarium | 11 September
I saw Joe Rainey at Big Ears in 2023 (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2023/April/big-ears-2023) on the strength of his debut solo album NIINETA and it was very low key, only Andrew Broder DJing to back him up for that set, a great fit—particularly considering their collaboration at Eaux Claires a lifetime ago (https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/eaux-claires-closes-in-collaborative-insular-fourth-installment/) helped spark Rainey’s ventures outside strictly traditional indigenous music. Now he’s started a band with his adopted brother (and fellow powwow singer) Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings and multi-instrumentalist Sean Carey, augmented at this show (as on their album) by Jeremy Ylvisaker on guitar, Ben Lester on keys, and Steve Garrington on bass. Admittedly, there are a TON of bands under the loose post-rock umbrella vying for your entertainment dollar, and given the rather static, regional legacy of the Bon Iver cinematic universe at this point, Bizhiki probably won’t ever get the recognition they deserve. I still would gently urge you, if another chance comes around, to check out this completely unique fusion of Native musical and storytelling traditions with powerful genre-defying instrumentation. The album barely hints at the full emotional impact of how these pieces expanded in the live setting. Even if you’ve heard the album, or future albums this group might make, even though you’ve read THIS, try to leave your preconceptions at the door.
Ispíní na hÉireann | Irish Fest | 18 August
I’ve said it before: Milwaukee Irish Fest USED to bring in top names in Irish music, and going to the festival often meant discovering an incredible act you’d never heard of before as well. Then at some point it became Gaelic Storm and Red Hot Chili Pipers year after year. (I love Irish Fest to death and lots of their perennial headliners have certainly earned their place and it keeps getting more expensive and complicated for overseas artists to perform in the U.S. and the increased focus on local talent doesn’t go unnoticed, just sayin’!) So even though this year’s lineup was fairly strong and eclectic (confession: as long as Rory Makem shows up I’m happy!) it was super refreshing to stumble upon Ispíní na hÉireann. At Irish Fest if I have no particular priority at any given time, I usually go with the name that looks hardest to pronounce in hopes it’ll be archaic trad music; this one turned out not to be hard to pronounce at all and translates as “Sausages of Ireland”. They caught me right away with a grand rendition of “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”; Tomás Mulligan has a rare voice robust enough to do Tommy Makem justice. Their originals were raucous and heartfelt and not just your typical drinkin’ and fightin’ fare; some of it was very pandemic-inspired and hit home poetically. The combination of acoustic and electric instrumentation made them very versatile; I wouldn’t call them doom folk but maybe Celtic post-folk-rock? I bought the display copy of their CD, all they had left; well done Milwaukee. Bring them back every year please!
Brittany Howard | Summerfest | 20 June
On the other hand Milwaukee YES I’m still pissed at you about this. Brittany Howard came to our town and played a fantastic set on the beautiful lakefront and you didn’t show up. I’m pissed at this whole country actually; we all saw her with Alabama Shakes and said ‘wow she’s amazing even though the rest of the band is adequate at best’ and so she went solo and assembled an incredible band and wrote all these great songs and…what is it with you people?? You can’t even NAME another living artist who can sing AND shred at Howard’s level; what more do you want from this woman?? This opening-night set at the BMO Pavilion had festival-closing headliner energy and Howard performed like a legend. I hope people come out next time if there IS a next time; I bet it’ll be a lot more expensive.
Sound Tribe Sector 9 | Radius | 18 October
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/October/sts9-or-radius-or-18-19-october
I’m confident that nine nights out of ten I’d feel like a geezer at Radius. It’s like the corporate version of what they tried to do with warehouses in the ‘90s—I mean that in a mostly good way! As in, tickets were pretty cheap by modern standards, the dancefloor was packed but not stupidly, the room sounded good, and yes you could purchase adult beverages from a licensed establishment and enjoy uncrowded restroom facilities. (I can’t report on the food.) One would think Sound Tribe are re-ascending the ranks of jamband fans’ stretching concert budgets; I can’t claim to have SEEN THEM ALL of course but STS9 move me in a way they didn’t even do back in their so-called glory days—but also, for the most part, that way too. And back then I thought they were one of the most original and potent live acts around. But ten years ago I thought I was basically done with ‘em. And now to have their keyboard player David Phipps destroy me in a way I can only compare to John Medeski, I had an inkling of it last time they played Milwaukee/my first ‘2.0’ show (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2018/December/eighth-best-show), but that was like a fledgling voyage compared to this show. While Phipps was the star on this night, the full spectrum of the band continues to expand in ways that were unfathomable while (former bassist) Murph was still in the band. Yes the music is way more challenging on the whole than the usual populist fare in this realm, but as they take you places most bands only hint at before returning to safety, there’s no previous experience required; the power of the music is undeniable. AND you don’t have all those pesky lyrics littering the songs. If you (like me) gave up on STS9 at some point, or if you (like me) hate jambands for the most part, but you (like me) love to dance, you’d be stupid (like me from 2014-2018?) not to go see this band.
Dave Matthews Band | Alpine Valley | 30 June
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/July/dave-matthews-band-or-alpine-valley-24
As weather gets less predictable every year, we’ve gotta thank our lucky stars any time a show at Alpine goes off without a hitch. (I thank those same stars that the bands I like can’t quite sell it out any more; see here: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/09/12/noah-kahan-covers-harry-styles-worth-long-wait-awful-traffic-alpine-valley-music-theatre-concert/74331916007/) Night two of Dave’s two-night stand was one of two Alpine shows rained out this summer; both were rescheduled, and in Dave’s case, this makeup set was dotted with rain references early on to fans’ delight. Most criteria separating Dave shows nowadays are rather intangible; to me it was a dreamy setlist, the band was ‘on’, I loved the novel cover versions, and faking us out in the encore with “Ants Marching” only to transform it belligerently into “Halloween” was a peak moment up there with almost any in my three decades of seeing DMB, one of those cool tricks that strikes hard in terms of both music and fandom. Matthews is a man who’s been trying to duck his own reputation (not to mention a certain ex-bandmate’s) for his whole career; in this sense he’s far more of a Jerry figure than Trey, cursed with a horde of fans whose behavior and attitudes overwhelmed the general consensus about the artist/art. However DMB has outlived this problem; it’s not on constant FM/MTV rotation, the fans are older and chiller, there’s no pressure to produce hit songs, and a vast jambland sea has absorbed all the pressure of shepherding the ‘scene’. DMB is now simply a very good jazz-folk-rock band that seems to give fewer and fewer fucks what anybody else thinks. I can’t ask any more of Dave than to keep it interesting; most artists his age are playing the same setlist every night milking nostalgia 100%, whereas Dave only played two legitimate hits at this show, and in listening back to the performance I can’t imagine a random curious non-fan being in any sense unimpressed. That goofy hippie yarler from the ‘90s actually turned into a great singer? Who’d’a thunk?
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum | Lincoln Hall | 13 March
My thought process went something like this: “If I see ‘em at Lincoln Hall, that’s one less thing I have to catch at Big Ears.” Unfortunately they were so good at Lincoln Hall I had to see them at Big Ears anyway—and they were even better! But we don’t speak of Big Ears (much) in the year-end list; we’d have no room for other things if we did. So on that technicality, I sing the praises of this Chicago show, even though I arrived late and MISSED MOST OF CHEER-ACCIDENT’S SET ARRGHH. Sleepytime’s set was like a garish vaudeville troupe performing dystopian chamber-blackmetal. If that sounds like the most nauseating thing you’ve ever heard of then you simply MUST see this band. (The first time I saw them back in 2007 they were less theatrical but still very powerful; I make no guesses at all as to what they’ll be like next time but since they come around so rarely you can’t afford to risk missing it.)
BEAT | Riverside Theater | 2 November
SWEET JEEBUS IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED, he’s putting tribute bands on the list, THIS SITE HAS GONE TO SHIT. Here’s the thing: no one could’ve anticipated the utter breakdown of the concept of authenticity in rock and roll. Ever since Queen and The Doors hired new singers the line between artist and tribute artist has been blurring, and where BEAT is concerned, the owner of the King Crimson name still lives and (as of a few years ago) plays! Some day I’ll dig deep and figure out where the disconnect between Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew stems from; Fripp ended the band in 2010 and when he reconvened it three years later he didn’t invite Belew. In the years since, the touring Crimson has focused primarily on its pre-Belew material, which is both unfair and understandable, as Crimson became something entirely different when Belew joined in 1981. But what if there IS no actual rift? What if Fripp, having the opportunity to reunite with genius multi-instrumentalist Mel Collins, simply felt like basking in/exploring his most-celebrated material? Sure, Adrian COULD sing all that material, but could tours like that really contain or sustain him? What if in the long run, Crimson fans could have the best of both worlds? Both Robert and retired drummer Bill Bruford declined to join BEAT but gave their blessings to the project, and with the current status of Crimson in limbo once again, I…am still in awe, weeks later, that I was able to witness Belew and Tony Levin perform these songs as living breathing interconnected organisms. To see Steve Vai for the first time, evoking Fripp often while going on improvisational excursions all his own; I knew he was a Zappa acolyte but I’d pigeonholed him decades ago as an ‘80s hair-guitar wanker, which as it turns out was inappropriate. (Never mind the fact that I was way into DLR’s “Just Like Paradise” in 1988, I can’t lie.) I personally wouldn’t have nominated Danny Carey as Bruford’s replacement but I’ve tried hard to think of a better candidate and I couldn’t, Bill is one of a kind. Still, when Danny came out to start the second set on an electric bongo rig or whatever that was at the front of the stage, the solo he played was the most Bruford-esque thing I’ve ever heard that wasn’t actually Bruford. He brought his heavier impulses to some of the material as well but I witnessed a few new dimensions of Carey’s talent at this show and I’m so happy he’s going to decide that Tool is many years past relevance anyway and BEAT is way fresher. As my buddy Joel succinctly put it, “this isn’t covers”. It was half of the band that created this music, and two other guys who obviously worship it, bringing it back to life in ways that these songs DESERVE. I wasn’t there in 1981-84 but I don’t know how much better Adrian and/or Tony could’ve possibly been. Please bring in some THRAK material for the next tour, why not?? There absolutely HAS to be another tour and you loyal reader now know not to miss it.
They Might Be Giants | Barrymore Theatre | 23 June
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/June/they-might-be-giants-or-barrymore-theatre-or-6-23
It bears repeating that the truly important shows are happening in basements in your neighborhood, in case you’re a young person reading this. That said, we lose legendary performers every day, not just to death but to an inability to put on the show they want to give us. If I can do some good in the world, if these words mean anything, I would implore you not to pass up your next chance to see They Might Be Giants. Sure it helps being a nerd, but I’m thinking of all my non-nerd friends and how they’d all still have been awed by this performance. It wasn’t a spectacle per se, more of a lovingly-rendered lo-fi pastiche, backdropping a band so locked-in it was impossible not to get caught up in the thrill of their pulling it off. Somehow I’d put it off all these years, seeing TMBG; they were my perpetual something-came-up band, in the back of my mind the eternal stigma of the humor-oriented band—how essential can it REALLY be, that I see them live? I’m here to tell you you can take TMBG as seriously as you need to; unless you actively dislike this band or hate fun you WILL have a good time at their shows.
Mr. Bungle | Milwaukee Metal Fest | 18 May
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/May/milwaukee-metal-fest-2024
Aaaachhhh how long can I stare at the page wondering if this now becomes my last Mr. Bungle show. When I think of all the bands that have ultimately gone to shit in my lifetime, and thinking about my last Bungle show prior to the RAGING WRATH OF THE EASTER BUNNY reunion (Modjeska 2000), it looked for all the world like they were one of ‘em. And now, as a fan, to have experienced even one reunion show—in ANY capacity—was euphoric (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2020/February/mr-bungle-plays-the-raging-wrath-of-the-easter-bunny-at-the-warfield-2-13). To experience a second one (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2023/September/riot-fest-2023) was triumphant. To experience a third…was painful. It wasn’t a nostalgic run-through with a couple of old-school ringers any more, it was a band goddammit. But I don’t get to make that decision. Besides, I’ve had numerous shows change my life that afterwards the performers dismissed as crap. I’m not saying this one changed my life, I’m saying I’d hate to see what I felt as vibrant and huge at this show and at the same time hamstrung by the constraints of the definition of the endeavor…disappear. But if it does, WHEW what a way to go out. Almost 25 years after playing The Underground (now known as The Rave II) on a sweltering July night, Bungle played just one repeat at Metal Fest from that night: “My Ass Is On Fire”. And it blew away the ’99 rendition. There’s a verrrry short list of acts who’ve had a brilliant reprise after a two-decade-plus hiatus, and Bungle did it purely on their own terms. And yes, it was generous of them, after getting a few legs of shows under their belts, to FINALLY start playing ONE SINGLE SONG that old-school Bungle fans actually wanted to hear. P.S. Remember back in 2021 when Patton canceled his whole touring schedule to focus on mental health? Notice how he came back and absolutely melted faces for weeks on end? Let’s all be patient as fans and let musicians be compassionate with themselves. This might scan as contradictory to some things I’ve written in the past; look at me altering my opinion and shit.
Phish | Alpine Valley | 27 July
http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/July/phish-or-alpine-valley-or-2024
Maybe you recall my raving about Phish in last year’s roundup (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2023/December/the-best-shows-of-2023); my praise was glowing and it’s pretty rare for Phish to have two banner years in a row. However, summer 2024 was an entirely new level for the reformed group. It wasn’t just Phish doing more of what Phishheads love for longer stretches of time, it was Phish making spontaneous music night after night that a lot more people would love if it weren’t Phish making it. Drew Carey was mesmerized by the experience of Phish at the Sphere, sure, but it’s the jams from summer tour (and that “Chalk Dust” from Mexico of course) that will stand up against pretty much any music they’ve ever made. I found it difficult to stop listening to the jams. And every time the “Simple” from this show at Alpine Valley is reaching its ecstatic boiling point I think ‘how has it been 40 minutes??’ Another one of theee most astounding things I’ve ever witnessed Phish creating. It’s seriously time for a down year in ’25; we can’t take much more, we need to pee.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard | Northerly Island | 1 September
http://www.you-phoria.com/blog/2024/september/kingz/
There’s still nothing that comes close to peak Phish. There’s live music every bit as good; it’s all just on a much smaller scale, so in that sense of communal energy and unpredictable music that can rise to meet its demands, there’s nothing else. However at this show, I became hopeful that there could be. Nooooo, I’m not putting that expectation on KGLW; hell, they’re already doing an ‘orchestra tour’ next year, which in my generation’s vernacular equates to leaping over a large sharp-toothed fish. However these guys are not OF my generation. King Gizzard excel in so many directions and are currently riding such a fruitful wave of creative energy that they make almost all other bands of THEIR generation seem lazy. They have youthful hunger driving them; they haven’t yet conquered the world. This sold-out show at the Huntington Bank Pavilion (lawn closed) on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, just as Phish were wrapping up their triumphant Dick’s run, felt like being present for a leveling-up. Three hours and fifteen minutes, no setbreak, no encore, no ballads. On this night there could be no question, they were the greatest band in the world. They didn’t just ignite hope for the future in me that I hadn’t felt in ages. They frankly made Phish sound like sloppy old men even at their modern-day best. They did it again a few nights later in Milwaukee, only the show wasn’t QUITE as long and it was more metal-centric and a completely different flow, no less impressive on musical merits alone, but as an experience, Chicago was massive, the crowd was zoned in and fired up, a legend was very obviously in the making, and there were no squeaky plastic piggies.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
Sting | Auditorium Theatre | 1 November
He headlined my first concert ever. It’d been over twenty years since I’d last seen him—a show which to be honest was a bit of a disappointment, but no excuse to then NOT go see him all these years. The thing is, he fronted such KILLER bands in the ‘90s; there’s always that part of the weary concert-goer that says ‘leave the memories be, it won’t get any better’. Still, what better way to counter such expectations in his later years than to strip it back to a Police-style power trio? Dominic Miller, as always, on guitar, and drummer Chris Maas from Mumford & Sons, I don’t know how that happened but Maas is top-notch and versatile. As for Sting, the guy had a LOT of hits over the years, and there weren’t many surprises in his setlist, though one stood out big time. He introduced the song by telling us it was be the oldest song he’d be playing tonight, having written it for his old band Last Exit in between teaching shifts when he was about 23, which I never knew before. The song was “I Burn For You”, one of my absolute favorite Sting songs, relegated to the soundtrack of the scarcely-seen 1982 film BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE and barely played live since about ’86. I don’t like checking setlists in advance of shows so this was a complete shock; thank you, Gordy, for bringing this song back after all this time! I’ll still hold out hope for a deep-cuts tour but if I had one wish, it was granted on this night. Another song that’s fallen by the wayside for over 30 years is “Be Still My Beating Heart”, and while Sting didn’t play it in full, he sang a good portion of it during the jam out of “Roxanne”, and this probably tugged at my heartstrings more than any other moment of the show. Give that song a serious listen some time; it’s one of Sting’s greatest basslines, a marvel of pop-poetry and deep musical longing. If this turns out to be the last Sting show I ever see, it had everything I needed, but at 73 he did not perform like a man prepared to hang it up.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead | Riverside Theater | 5 December
Well I already mentioned one tribute band, what the hell. There are lots of ways for Deadheads to deal with the recent passing of Phil Lesh. Many fans, justifiably, will draw the line; no Dead-related live projects are worth a shit without at least Phil in the mix. Many will continue to follow Bob Weir to the grave. Many, of course, resigned themselves to being content with tapes long ago. Some surely still follow the activities of Dark Star Orchestra, and there’s always Jazz Is Dead for the more adventurous heads. One way or another, the songs will live on forever. There’s never going to be a time in human history going forward when dudes with guitars aren’t playing Jerry’s songs with crowds singing along. If nothing else, the songs are a salve; they’ve already crossed generations in a way that even Beatles songs are unlikely to continue to do, and it’s because of the communal experience and the endless possibilities that can spring forth from Dead songs. They belong to the world now, and we’re lucky to have a band like JRAD providing us with a space to dance to them with other likeminded folks. It’s not remotely like a Grateful Dead show, and that’s to their credit; the character of the songs creeps in occasionally, but in general this is modern jambandyness set to Dead songs, and as it turns out these might be the only songs worth hearing in this style. I’d say the band got darker and noisier at this show than I’d experienced previously, and they also played more bona fide hits than usual, neither one of these things a negative development per se. Because deep down I know it’s unlikely I’ll some day be singing every word to every deep cut. I only have room in my brain for a few bands’ repertoires to go that deep with and I missed my chance with the Dead. I’ll always feel like a bit of an outsider, a pretender, having arrived at my fandom via such a backward route, so long after Jerry had left us. Luckily there’s that thing I mentioned above about the breaking down of the concept of authenticity; noobs welcome, no judgment! The band members have no particular Dead cred (okay yes I forgot about Furthur, hasn’t everyone?) except their obvious love of the songs; we’re all in it for the same reasons. As for the sanctity of the tunes or the tones, JRAD blurs the line between tribute band and its own thing; they even have their own fresh arrangements of a lot of these songs, and based on the four shows I’ve seen now, they’re slowly making a crucial transition as an ensemble from ‘making it happen’ to ‘letting it happen’. It’s exciting; few bands even get to that point, but most bands that even TRY, look at the caliber of songs they’re trying with.
2024 MVP: TREVOR DUNN
The music press has only ever fawned over one member of Mr. Bungle—Mike Patton—and has only granted ‘auteur’ status to one—Trey Spruance—but in the wake of what may be Bungle’s final curtain call, Trevor Dunn has barely paused for a breath it seems. I didn’t see him live with any John Zorn-related projects this year, although I bet if I lived in New York I would’ve. Instead, in between legs of Bungle tour, Trevor put together a set at Big Ears that I sincerely hope felt to him like a crowning achievement the way it did to me: Trio-Convulsant avec Folie à Quatre. One of THE reasons to go to Big Ears, seeing things that normally only happen on the coasts, projects that simply don’t tour, and in listening to the Trio-Convulsant’s latest album of course I never DREAMED I’d get to see it performed live. It was out of this world. I also got to see him play with the mighty math-metal outfit Titan To Tachyons at Big Ears, also otherworldly, and in addition to the abovementioned Mr. Bungle triumph, he spent much of the remainder of the year cruising around the world as half of a duo with the Melvins’ King Buzzo—King Dunn, although when I saw ‘em the marquee said “King Buzzo” (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2024/September/kingz). It might sound like some kind of vanity project but if you listen to their collaborations on record you’ll figure out quickly that King Dunn has its own unique style and impact and it’s endlessly listenable because it retains Buzz’s penchant for hooks but is wide open for Trevor’s improvisational impulses, and they each get to indulge in the other’s specialties. Perhaps a little less stressful than their day jobs but…wait what would Trevor’s day job be…hmmm… Anyway I’m getting old, I’ve been to something like 1,300 concerts, I have a good memory but some of the 1,300 are starting to escape it. When I think about these four performances completely unlike each other I recall them with crystal clarity; they aren’t going anywhere for a long time.
2024 MVP RUNNER-UP: JACK WHITE
Okayyyy I feel a little bad about all those times I made fun of Jack White. There’s absolutely nothing bad I can possibly say about him any more, he’s a standup individual as far as I can tell and I only envy him in regards to his Beefheart record collection, there I’ve come clean. A week before Halloween, as the No Name Tour dictated, he announced a show in Madison at the High Noon Saloon the day of the show; after that performance, he packed up and drove to Milwaukee and played for a handful of folks at Vanguard (a sausage restaurant) in the wee hours of the morning. How fucking cool is that?? I haven’t done enough schmoozing in my life, though, to be in the know about such a thing, and although I found out about the Cactus Club show through multiple channels before it was announced the next day, I knew there’d still be almost no chance of scoring a ticket to that or the show at the Rave II the following night. These are cool-kid events, pure FOMO-inducers as far as most fans are concerned (note: he did JUST play the UWM Panther Arena in ’22—but that was before he had all these excellent new songs); I hate that shit on principle, but also I’ve been to so many shows at this point that the idea of missing out has become meaningless, so I can only salute Jack for this guerilla tour of small venues. For a whole weekend he made Milwaukee feel like New York City; that NEVER happens. He picked very deserving local artists (NilexNile, Sex Scenes) to open for him and gave most if not all of his take-home to charitable causes. He dropped $15,000 in the recovery gofundme for Vanguard bartender Cara Corder, who was struck down by one of the city’s innumerable maniac drivers while Jack was in town. The proceeds from his Friday night show all went toward the Cactus+ Accessibility Initiative. I’ve never heard of another artist anywhere close to Jack’s status going into communities around the country and giving so much direct support. It couldn’t be that…every other rock star…is just that much greedier and lazier…could it? Milwaukee was buzzing like crazy the whole time and I don’t doubt the shows were amazing. I’m pretty sure Jack’s performances are always amazing. But this blog is supposed to be about stuff I’ve actually attended so I can’t say for sure in this instance.