Top 20 Live Songs of 2012

20. "Banana Boat (Day-O)" - Good Old War, 04.25, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
"Do you wanna hear Tim do his best Harry Belafonte?" Keith asked the crowd. Tim sang the opening to "Day-O" perfectly, but no one expected the band to join in and play the whole song. Nice birthday present.

19. "Como Ves" - Ozomatli & the New York Pops, 06.12, Rumsey Playfield, New York, NY
Classic Ozo taken to new heights with the orchestra.

18. "Ashamed" - Deer Tick, 12.19, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY

Started off slow and built into a frenzy of horn solos and crowd chants.

17. "Spirit Bird" - Xavier Rudd, 12.03, Irving Plaza, New York, NY
Offering the last part to the audience to sing, the fans succeeded with remarkable restraint and pitch control.

16. "Golden Train" - Penguin Prison, 06.24, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
Hopping off the stage to perform while walking through the crowd during the first song surprised the shit out of me.

15. "Stars" - Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, 06.14, Irving Plaza, New York, NY
You could see the pain on her face that she felt when she wrote this beautiful ballad.

14. "One Foot Before the Other" - Frank Turner, 09.30, Webster Hall, New York, NY

Frank Turner goes prog.  Lights and bass were amazing.

13. "Excuse Me Mr." - Ben Harper, 10.10, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Hard to pick a favorite from the night, but the off-mic singing on this sounded incredible in the hallowed hall.

12. "Digest" - Ben Taylor, 05.17, City Winery, New York, NY
John Forté asked if he could sing it with Ben, and modified the lyrics to "Nothing's been the same since I've been gone," to reference his time in prison.

11. "Rat Race" - Antibalas, 08.18, Williamsburg Park, Brooklyn, NY
Likely the best Marley cover I've seen.

10. "Be Mine" - Alabama Shakes, 10.06, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Virgin Mobile Freefest), Columbia, MD

Brittany Howard just aced it on this one.

9. "We Are Young" - Fun, 06.22, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Crowd sang along triumphantly to the single of the year. Great acoustics.

8. "(718)" - 2 Skinnee J's, 08.24, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
In (718). Haven't jumped in the air at a concert in God knows how long.

7. "What Makes a Good Man?" - The Heavy, 08.30, Irving Plaza, New York, NY
Backup singers sent this one to near heavenly proportions.

6. "Root Down" - Animal Liberation Orchestra, 05.09, Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
Just days after Adam Yauch's passing, ALO busted out this funky gem, which included "Maria" in its center.

5. "No One's Gonna Love You" - Band of Horses, 09.18, House of Vans, Brooklyn, NY
One of my favorite songs ever in such an intimate venue.  Literally got chills.

4. "Walk Like a Giant" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse, 09.29, Central Park Great Lawn (Global Festival), New York, NY
Crashing footsteps of a giant at the end were so fucking ballsy.

3. "Shake Up the Place" - 10 Ft. Ganja Plant, 04.20, The Middle East, Cambridge, MA
Sublime harmonies.  The smile on Kevin Kinsella's face has been burned into my mind forever.

2. "Try" - Everyone Orchestra, 10.27, Sullivan Hall, New York, NY
Grand Ole Opry-style chorus combined with Zach Gill's hilarious musings on his attic.  Should always be performed this way.

1. "Down with Disease" - Phish, 12.30, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Sweetest jam of the whole NYE run.  Spaced through different movements until it came to a driving funk conclusion.  I'll be listening to this for years.

Antibalas and Ted Leo Take the World Financial Center to Africa

When I found out a few months ago that Antibalas would be doing a free concert at the WFC Winter Garden, I immediately put it on my calendar.  When I found out a week ago that Ted Leo would be opening, I was even more pumped.  Two politically charged bands playing a free show at the World Financial Center this close to the election?  I'm there.  I'd somehow forgotten that the show was going to be taped for public radio, so things didn't get as political, but it was still way more exciting than any of the debates.

Ted Leo, backed by a band of two of his Pharmacists, Chris Wilson and James Canty, along with Canty's Ideal Forms' bandmate Robert Austin, performed three interpretations of songs by Hugh Masekela, the South African trumpeter perhaps best remembered for his 1968 number one hit "Grazing in the Grass."  Opening with "Mace & Grenades," the sound hit us like a shock wave, with the volume louder than anyone had expected.  The drums careened off the walls and ceiling of the 120-ft. atrium, creating soul-shaking reverberations intensified by additional echos from Leo's guitar run through an Echoplex tape delay.  John Schaefer of WNYC's Soundcheck and New Sounds came onstage to conduct an interview with Ted about why he chose a tribute to Masekela.  (If there was ever a person whose singing voice differed from their speaking voice, it's Leo, the nasal tenor in his songs replaced with a bass tailor-made for voiceovers.)  "I think it would be silly of us to try and replicate Hugh Masekela," Leo justified his decision in putting his own spin on the tunes.  He then told of how he saw Masekela perform outside on the plaza at the WFC mere weeks before the attacks of September 11th.  The experience coupled with his brother doing DJ sets at Windows on the World had an effect on Leo: "I started like enjoying this area of Manhattan for once," and he was visibly choked up telling the story.  Leo and band followed with "Riot," the instrumental b-side to the previous song.  With its cascading guitar riffs interlaced between Leo and Canty, it was probably my favorite of the evening.  They finished with "If There's Anybody Out There," the most TL/Rx-sounding of the bunch.  Ted Leo will be touring solo with Aimee Mann starting tomorrow at the Birchmere in Alexandria, and you can read my review of another of his downtown shows here.

I saw Antibalas open for Sharon Jones in the summer, and like many have before me, incorrectly identified them as the pit band for the musical Fela!  While several of he members were instrumental in the development of the show, only three played in the orchestra.  "I think it's very important for us to make that distinction whenever we can," said trumpet-player Jordan McLean, who looks like Jack Skellington wearing an Adrien Brody mask.  Martin Perna, baritone sax, founded the Afrobeat band 15 years ago this December, and they've been continuing Fela's legacy and reinvigorating the genre ever since.  When asked about how the pieces in an Afrobeat composition all fit together, he responded, "It's sort of like a sports team.  The goalie's going to stay in the goal.  He's not going to come out and score a basket."  Okay, so maybe he's not the greatest at making sports analogies, but he can play the hell out of a saxophone.  The group started with new tune "Gold Rush," commenting that it seemed an auspicious place to be performing a song with such a title.  They followed with the ebullient "Him Belly No Go Sweet," Ticklah playing a Nord keyboard instead of his normal Farfisa organ.  With a click of the drumsticks, they cruised right into the cowbell-heavy "Dirty Money," which came to its close with Amayo suggesting, "Let matriarchy take over... in a subtle way."  That was the end of the broadcast (You'll be able to hear the performances on Soundcheck sometime in the near future.), but the band came out once more for a 10-minute "Rat Catcher."  The crowd leapt to their feet and started a dance party in the aisles.  "Let's sing together while this place is bubbling," Amayo urged, and we joined in on the call-and-response.  It wasn't quite the "Filibuster XXX" I had hoped for, but I'll be damned if it wasn't fun.

TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS – 10.23.12 – WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER WINTER GARDEN (18 minutes)

SET –

Mace & Grenades / (Interview) / Riot / If There’s Anybody Out There

ANTIBALAS – 10.23.12 – WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER WINTER GARDEN (46 minutes)

SET –

(Interview) / Gold Rush / Him Belly No Go Sweet > Dirty Money

ENCORE –

The Rat Catcher

Sharon Jones and the Daptone Family Come Home

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings treated a hometown Brooklyn crowd to funky free show at Williamsburg Park on Saturday night.  Afrobeat-revivalists Antibalas and the Latin funk of the Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow were perfect appetizers to the main course: different flavors, but complementary.

I showed up about a half-hour before doors to take my spot in a line of maybe a thousand people.  My friend and I grabbed a nice spot in the center and sat upon a cloud that felt a lot like concrete.  A minute after 6pm, the Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow took the stage.  Led by the Dap-Kings' baritone sax player, Cochemea Gastelum, and filled out with various members of both the Dap-Kings and Antibalas, the Electric Sound crafted some Latin jazz-inspired grooves that travelled easily on the summer breeze.  The band played 44 minutes of what Gastelum repeatedly stressed was original music.  Someone must've gotten on his case about being too derivative.  Having very limited knowledge of Latin jazz, I didn't hear anything I'd heard before, but oh well.

Keeping the majority of instruments onstage, there was a quick turnover before Antibalas.  Opening with "Dirty Money," the single off their brand new self-titled album, the band laid down a churning chowder of Nigerian funk for face-painted singer Amayo to shout his cautionary lyrics over.  With a 7-piece horn section that included the Daptone Horns, they followed with two more new tracks, "The Rat Catcher" and "Him Belly No Go Sweet," before launching into one of the best live Marley covers I've ever heard, "Rat Race."  Antibalas stripped the song of its reggae properties, and like Marcus Garvey, took it back to Africa for a fiery Afrobeat version.  Serving as the pit band for Fela!, the members of Antibalas are no strangers to the music of Fela Kuti, and excited the crowd with their take on "Opposite People," a song not in the musical.  Amayo remarked that real Afrobeat to him "makes me want to rip my clothes off, get naked, and dance."  While both he and the crowd remained clothed, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was real Afrobeat.  They dedicated the show to Pussy Riot and another pussy, a recently departed cat named Igor.

While the concert could've ended there and still impressed everyone, the sparkly letters on the backdrop that had been taunting us all night, "SJDK," foretold of a headliner that always commands the crowd's full attention: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.  The suited members, many of whom had been seen earlier in the evening, took their places and started pumping out the shuffling introduction music as Binky Griptite stepped up to the microphone.  After leading the group through Dyke & the Blazers' "Broadway Combination," Binky welcomed the Dap-Ettes, Saundra Williams and Starr Duncan, who flaunted their vocal talents with covers of "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" and "Stop."  Based on range alone, either woman could front the Dap-Kings, but only one woman has the attitude necessary to get what she wants from the boiling funk of her band and the audience, and that woman is Sharon Jones.

Jones tried to sneak onto the stage from the right side, and even though she's small, her canary yellow dress ("I call this dress Vitamin C.") gave her away.  But of course, it's all part of the show that is a Sharon Jones concert.  I've seen Sharon Jones three times now (All for free I might add.), and while I knew the show would be a fun time, I was worried that it would fall into scripted territory too easily.  But releasing Soul Time!, a collection of rarities, earlier this year, refreshed the setlist, as well as the addition of three new songs to be featured on an upcoming album.  Sure, the requisite dance lesson in "When I Come Home" was there, but Jones skipped the usual pull-a-good-looking guy-from-the-crowd-to-sing-to-on-"My Man is a Mean Man"-bit in favor of coaxing solos out of each bandmember.  With both the touring and session bands onstage, it took a while to get through the extended Dap-King family, but it never got boring.

Some slight missteps were a not-so-memorable cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and new song "Calamity," which steals its phrasing from "I Will Survive."  However, an awesomely drawn-out rendition of "100 Days, 100 Nights" made up for it and stole the show, Jones admitting, "I don't wanna go.  That's why I'm trying to stall on this song a bit."  But the curfew prevailed, and Binky Griptite began his outro, Sharon dancing her way offstage.

With musicians shared between groups and their relatives watching just offstage (including little ones in hearing protector earmuffs), it was clear that Daptone isn't just a label, but a family.  The multiethnic bands of Daptone Records, with members of varying age, prove that music can unite people.  The multiethnic audience, with members of varying age, proved that.

ANTIBALAS – 08.18.12 – WILLIAMSBURG PARK (1 hour, 16 minutes)

SET –

Dirty Money / The Rat Catcher / Him Belly No Go Sweet / Rat Race / Battle of the Species > Beaten Metal > Battle of the Species / Opposite People / Dreaming* / Sáré Kon Kon

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS – 08.18.12 – WILLIAMSBURG PARK (1 hour, 26 minutes)

SET –

Introduction > Broadway Combination / You Can Run But You Can’t Hide > Stop > Introduction > I’ll Still Be True / You’ll Be Lonely / When I Come Home / The Game Gets Old / Retreat / I Heard It Through the Grapevine / Longer & Stronger / He Said I Can / My Man is a Mean Man > I Learned the Hard Way / Calamity / 100 Days, 100 Nights