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The Concerts: 2005

First off, the shows, winners one and all:

Scissor Sisters [Majestic Theater 1.18]
Secret Machines / Autolux / Moving Units [Magic Stick 2.3]
Bloc Party [Magic Stick 4.1]
Coachella Music & Arts Festival [Empire Polo Field, Indio, CA 4.30/5.1]
Adult. [Magic Stick 5.6]
Electric Six [Blind Pig, Ann Arbor 5.7]
The Decemberists [Intersection, Grand Rapids 5.19]
LCD Soundsystem / M.I.A. [Majestic Theater 5.20]
Kraftwerk [State Theater, Detroit 6.3]
Wolf Parade / Anathallo [Intersection, Grand Rapids 10.15]
Gang Of Four [House Of Blues, Anaheim, CA 10.21]
LCD Soundsystem / The Juan MacLean [House Of Blues, Cleveland, OH 10.22]

Now, the memories, such as I can summon them:

-- a much smoother Coachella this year [Coldplay! Bauhaus! Wilco! M83! New Order! Gang Of Four! The Arcade Fire! Nine Inch Nails!], leaving from Los Angeles instead of San Diego and staying close to the Indio grounds, although the miracle of consistent Motrin usage is still off in future days

-- experiencing the best that Detroit had to offer with the back-to-back jack of Adult. and Electric Six, needing only the White Stripes to hit the troika

-- seeing the best show of the year [5.20] and coming oh-so-close to keeping M.I.A.'s track jacket until the guilt becomes too much to bear, forcing us to return it to her team; meanwhile, finding it impossible to resist one of the best rock bands of the past half-decade putting it all together for the live show

-- pulling off a somewhat-insane post-birthday gift of flying to Los Angeles to see GO4's last show with the original line-up [their Detroit date a few months back was the day of NCMC graduation, which I could not shirk] then flying that next day to Cleveland to see LCD for the second time in five months; at the LCD show, I meet up with Jason Pettigrew from Alternative Press, setting the stage for my first freelance gig at AP a few months later (where, for my first assignment in January '06, I interview The Juan MacLean as he takes the train to a gig)

A good year for concerts, certainly. Even if we didn't take M.I.A.'s clothes.

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