#1 - Arcade Fire Summerstate

#2 - Moe. and Friends Tsunami Benefit - w/ Trey Anastasio, Sam Bush, John Medeski, Ray Pazkowski, Jennifer Hartswick

^^^ clearly I meant 'summerstaGe' :)

BEST SHOWS of 2005

1. Sigur Ros - Beacon Theatre - 09/13/05
These guys are already amazing but the visuals were a perfect compliment to their music. Best show I've ever seen at Beacon Theatre (well excluding Conan's 10th Anniversary Special). Comparable to Radiohead at Madison Square Garden.

2. Bloc Party - Bowery Ballroom - 04/08/05
These guys were blog-worthy at the atime but not MTV huge yet (well on the verge maybe) so it was a perfect blend of drunk Wall Street types with "I don't give a fuck" hipsters. Good to see them at my favorite venue before they toured at my two least favorite - Webster Hall and Roseland.

3. Stars - Southpaw - 04/30/05
Saw them at Mercury Lounge without knowing much of their music so this time around I had all their albums on heavy rotation on my iPod which made their live show to me so much better. The lead singer, Torq, always has tons of energy and in my opinion, there is not a more entertaining female on stage than their guitarist/singer, Amy.

4. Last 15 minutes of The Arcade Fire - Central Park Summerstage - 09/15/05
The crowd finally decided to get into this show when Bowie came on. Even though the first 45 minutes was pretty bad, Bowie and the Arcade Fire performing "Wake Up" together has to be my favorite concert moment this year.

5. The Arcade Fire - Irving Plaza - 02/02/05
Missed them at CMJ so this was the first time I got a chance to see them. The crowd was moving all night and the David Byrne duet was amazing since they played by favorite Talking Heads song.

WORST SHOWS of 2005

1. First 45 minutes of the Arcade Fire - Central Park Summerstage - 09/15/05
People tell me that the crowd was into it but definitely I didn't see any of that. When the lead singer calls the crowd "peaceful" it is definitely not a good sign. It seemed like no one knew their songs except Rebellion. The encore was great though.

Here were the shows I nominated for the best:
1) Arcade Fire @ Irving Plaza
2) Mission of Burma @ Bowery Ballroom
3) Decemberists @ Warsaw

And the worst:
1) Rilo Kiley @ Webster Hall

What about you, BV?

It hurts my brain just thinking about it, but I'll definitely post a list in December.

Yeah, I bet. You've probably been to over 400 shows this year, judging by the blog.

Top 3

1. Thunderbirds are Now! in the stinky Old Office at the Knitting Factory in May. These guys just killed and continue to do so. Can't wait to see them again in November.

2. Bloc Party at the Bowery Ballroom (the second night). Would agree with Bao that this was the perfect time to catch these guys, although the show at Motherfucker was pretty fantastic in a Red Bull kinda way.

3. Ghostland Observatory at the Knitting Factory. It was a white-on-white 'where the fuck did THAT come from'. First time in a while I've gone to see a band I hardly know 3 times in the space of 4 days.

Honourable mention for The Arcade Fire just about everywhere, but especially the Irving Plaza show. Also an honourable mention for dozens of other shows that were amazing this year. Just thinking about them makes me smile.

Worst show:
Razorlight at the Bowery Ballroom. If I could think of some way to formulate a joke involving the perenially shirtless Johnny Borrell and The Emperor's New Clothes, I would. But I can't think of anything right now. Your time is up. Now fuck off.

I saw the Arcade Fire at Webster Hall the night before that Irving Plaza show. Did David Byrne really come out for a song?? Maybe I should have gone to the Irving Plaza gig instead!

The one at Webster Hall was good, but I enjoyed the Summerstage show much better. I think that they played better and the sound was fantastic.