I love going to see Shellac. Gets me all worked up, fuck or fight mode. I never miss them when they come to town.

Saw Rodriguez when he came to town, it was early in his first U.S. tour, before the documentary was out but after he had become "rediscovered" (I had been listening to his album for years, had to order it from South Africa, but I guess we all rediscovered him). He had a young band with him and started out super tentatively, half ass guitar strumming and weak voiced, looked very under confident. He played his first tune and the audience gave it up for him in a big way.

He cracked a big smile at the adoration and set into the next number with a little more oomph. He and the audience just gave it back and forth, love and joy for love and joy, building up the intensity every number. By the end of the show he was doing songs without the band, belting it out like a boss.

Earlier that week the wife and I went to see David Burn, it was just fucking terrible but everyone there loved it. The songs were faithful note for note copies of all his lite FM hits, there was nothing more original or engaging about show than the album cuts. His band was probably masterful but he dressed them all in white and never let any aspect of the talent or take on the compositions show at any time.

So the wife also went to Rodriguez with me. I was giving it up for the guy, totally inspired and appreciative of the opportunity to see a guy who never got his due in his prime rule an audience. As we left the show she said "So you've never like a single show we've seen together have you?" If an artist isn't knocking me down I don't get all mushy over a show and while I have liked some of the shows we have seen together, most haven't made the blood pump like that Rodriguez show.

Seeing a Specials reunion tour in the early 90's at St. Andrews Hall was another memorable show. Few hundred people having a party, Blacks and Whites locked arm in arm kicking up dust, was a fabulous time.

Leonard Cohen puts on an amazing show. Three hours of an old guy, master of his craft giving everything to the audience. I cried when he played "The Partisan". I'm a fan of the older Cohen my wife of the later material. After the show she said that "The Partisan" was the best song of the night even though she hardly knew it.

Antony of Antony and the Johnson's performed with the Portland Symphony a few years back. I'm not a big fan but the fact that his stuff is heavily inspired by Scott Walker is enough for me to keep an eye on him. He covered a Beyonce song that moved me to tears, fuck all if I saw that coming. Something about the symphonic arrangement, a simple but effective lighting scheme and his performance just overwhelmed me.