The Dead Part of You

Shows of the year? Sure - I can count that down:

• JANUARY: Mark Eitzel played a one-off show in Boston with nothing to promote that was pretty discardable. However Drew O'DOHERTY opened up and I became a pretty big fan of his record this year.
• FEBRUARY: Grizzly Bear played at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Seeing them live turned me into a huge fan, seeing Dirty Projectors open turned me off to them for good.
• MARCH: Under Byen headlined an unofficial Swedish invasion tour at the Boston MFA. El Perro Del Mar killed the opening slot, Frida Hyvonen not so much and Under Byen brought it home by flashing a strobe light at the audience for close to an hour.
• APRIL: Low played the Somerville Theater, again. Loney, Dear did a good opening set and Low schooled me that there really were songs behind Drums and Guns's electronic blipping and bleeping, and they were bleeping good songs.
• MAY: LCD Soundsystem at Avalon. This was the best show I saw this year. For the first time in a long time I danced and bounced around in a pit of people getting all kinds of sweaty.
• JUNE: Psychic TV played to a nearly empty house at the Paradise, so it was across a fairly empty room was where I first laid eyes on my boyfriend Rob. Oh, Psychic TV weren't very good, so I'm glad I at least got a great guy out of the show.
• JULY: Eric told me I would regret it if I didn't see The Polyphonic Spree at Avalon, and he was right. How amazing are they!
• AUGUST: Lollapalooza in Chicago. What a great festival - it lacks the beauty and pilgrimage vibe of Coachella, but makes up for it in convenience.
• SEPTEMBER: Animal Collective played what would be the last show I would see at Avalon, RIP. And they were fucking brilliant.
• OCTOBER: The reunion of Scarce at TT the Bear's Place.
• NOVEMBER: Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines, on my birthday at the Boston MFA. In hindsight, I definitely prefer the electric lineup. In hindsight, wild horses would not have kept me from seeing them in an acoustic lineup, so cross that off of life's To Do list.
• DECEMBER: All I saw in December that was good was Cold War Kids opening for Spoon. It's also all I saw in December, but that doesn't diminish from their being the best thing I saw all month.