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The Concerts: 2006

2006 was the first full year that I'd been cut off from the music retail teat since 1990, but somehow I managed to go here and there, from one state to another, and see some shows. Some were magnificant, some fell into the "just a show" category, but here's how the year shook out:

The National / The Cloud Room [Intersection, Grand Rapids 3.23]
Electric Six [Magic Stick, Detroit 4.1
Editors / Stellastarr* [Magic Stick, Detroit 4.13]
Coachella Music & Arts Festival [Empire Polo Field, Indio, CA 4.29/4.30]
Secret Machines [Magic Bag, Ferndale 5.14]
Movement: 06 [Hart Plaza, Detroit 5.29]
Intonation Music Festival [Union Park, Chicago 6.24/6.25]
Gnarls Barkley / Peeping Tom [State Theater, Detroit 8.7]
Steely Dan / Michael McDonald [DET Energy Music Theater, Clarkston 9.2]
Lindsey Buckingham [Emerald Theater, Mt. Clemens 10.22]
Mobius Band / Baby Dayliner [Intersection, Grand Rapids 10.23]
Electric Six [St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit 11.4]

Aside from the usual high points of Coachella (Depeche Mode! Franz Ferdinand! Gnarls Barkley! Jamie Lidell! Scissor Sisters! TV On The Radio!) and the lowest point of Coachella (watching about 30 seconds of Daft Punk and thinking "meh" like some kind of idiot), what else hit me that year?


  • Gnarls Barkley was a fantastic live force, one that is gone too soon


  • Steely Dan gave up trying to play recent material and pandered to the boomers, while Michael McDonald played too many Motown covers


  • Electric Six took my money twice, for some reason


  • Lindsey Buckingham live is one of the most stunning guitarists I've ever seen; I was supposed to see him in the early '90s but had to do the inventory at WHR, but my decade-plus wait turned out to be well worth it


  • Secret Machines filled the small room of the Bag with pounding psychedelic rock


  • Intonation also brought the most eclectic and delightful acts of the year, from Jose Gonzales and Jon Brion to Bloc Party and The Streets to the reunited Blue Cheer dazzling in the Chicago summer heat and humidity

By 2007, the Intonation Festival was no more, but I finally decided to go for it with the Pitchfork Festival. And oh yeah, there were some other shows. But that's for another time.

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