2021 Live Music Recap!

2021 was certainly not the live music year that 2019 or any prior year was, but it was a vast improvement on 2020. I went to a whopping 19 shows, including a 4-day musicfestival (which counts as 4 shows), and only 2 of the 19 shows were virtual ones!

While I may not be ready to put together the full slate of annual concert statistics that I usually do, I can at least share a few data points.

In 2021 there were 2 artists that I saw more than once: Glass Animals and Marc Rebillet, both of whom I saw twice.

I went to 2 new music venues in New York: Brooklyn Made, and the Skyline Drive-In.

I went to 5 free shows: 2 of them were actually free, and 3 were free because I was stationed close enough to listen from outside without having to actually pay.

My favorite sets of 2021 were, in chronological order:

1. Rebirth Brass Band in Kansas City, MO

2. Foo Fighters in Milwaukee, WI

3. Weezer/Green Day at Citi Field

4. Kesha at the Stone Pony

5. Remember Jones at Sea. Hear. Now Festival

6. CloZee at Firefly

7. Glass Animals at Firefly

8. Machine Gun Kelly at Firefly

In 2020 I had 5 music-related goals, none of which I accomplished, so I just renewed them for 2021. How did I do?

Go to one new music festival No, but I did go to 2 music festivals, so I’m okay with this.

Write one real blog post a month HAHA. Nope.

Visit at least one new NYC music venue Yes!

Go to Colorado for a Red Rocks show Yes!!!! I went to Above & Beyond in October.

Buy a ticket to see an artist I don’t know much about I went to Jade Cicada at the end of November, solely because a friend from out of town came to NYC for it. I think the idea behind this goal is that I was “supposed” to buy a ticket to a show just because I was inspired to check out a newish-to-me artist, but whatever, buying a ticket to a show so that I see a friend I hadn’t seen in 2 years is an equally good reason.

And, out of laziness and also because I like this set of goals, I am renewing these goals for 2022. I already know I’m not going to write a blog post every month and I may not even write a blog post ANY month, but whatever, shoot for the moon and even if you miss you’ll land among the stars, as some corny motivational poster out there says.

With omicron running rampant here in New York, the 2022 live music forecast doesn’t look great just yet, although I do have tickets to see Rezz in March and to see the Foo Fighters in July, but anything can happen. And by that I mean, hopefully the thing that happens is that we emerge from this pandemic and live music resumes in full force.