Top Concerts of 2021
St. Vincent
Sept. 11, 2021 @ Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival
By Dave Miller
I remember the last concert I attended before the Covid-19 shutdown. A friend and I debated on the phone about whether it was safe to see the Blackfoot Gypsies at FitzGerald's as news of the virus was starting to break. He didn't go. I did. Little did we know what was ahead for the world.
Fourteen long months later, as the shutdown was thawing, we ventured out to our first concert since the virus hit. Coincidently, it was to see the same band at the same place. A lot had changed, including the band's name. After some club owners became reluctant to book the band because of its name, the Blackfoot Gypsies became Dee Oh Gee. It felt strange to be at a show again. It felt strange being among other people again. The May concert was held outside on a patio FitzGerald's converted into a concert space. The crowd was tentative, wearing masks and minding social distance, but excited, too. Once the music started, it all started to come back what it felt like experiencing live music. By the band's second set some distancing broke down, dancers appeared in front of the stage and others moved closer to the band as if by magnetic pull. The thing that sticks out most from that evening was how every single server's tray that passed in front of us was filled with drinks. People were thirsty to have fun again.
Of course, the virus has stayed with us in varying forms and degrees, presenting safety challenges for live music, especially at indoor venues. Like tens of thousands of others, I took advantage of Chicago's festivals, seeing more than half of the 47 full sets I saw this year during back-to-back weekends at the Pitchfork Music Festival and Riot Fest. Concertgoers weren't the only ones happy to be at a show. Clearly, musicians were, too. It was remarkable to witness one artist after another experience the joy of performing for people again, many for the first time in more than a year. A lot of emotion and gratefulness poured from stages. It was a unique experience to see concerts in 2021.
As I write this, I'm unfortunately missing a show that I wanted to see, but I don't feel like it's the best idea to be in a packed small club during this latest Covid outbreak even though I'm double vaxxed and boosted. I don't know if that's smart or an overreaction. In any case, if I don't attend another concert for awhile, I'll be thinking about the ones I attended this year. Here are the best concerts I saw in 2021 around Chicago:
1. St. Vincent, Sept. 11 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - Annie Clark does it all in a head-spinning show. A sly fake entrance. Bowie. Prince. Marilyn Monroe. A clever shot at Pitchfork's review of her album. Flipping patriarchy on its head. Mind-melting guitar. Rock as art. Art as rock. A revolving stage. Dance party. Wow!
2. Phoebe Bridgers, Sept. 10 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - Bridgers knocks it out of Union Park like a 21st Century Joni Mitchell. She owns Pitchfork. A big crowd listens with rapt attention. It's so quiet at times you can hear horns beep on Ashland Avenue. And Bridgers wears the skeleton costume, which is perfect for the surreal, chilling closer: "I Know the End" with the background screen showing a house burning to the ground as the singer repeats "The end is here." It hits right between the eyes. The kids know what time it is.
3. Patti Smith, Sept. 16 at Douglass Park, Riot Fest - Punk's godmother and her simpatico band come out firing from the start, opening with "People Have the Power." She blazes to the end with a monster version of "Horses" bleeding into "Gloria," acknowledging the pandemic in her fervent improvisation before quickly shifting to the even bigger environmental crisis: "Johnny looks out and sees the debris of the world. He sees how mankind has raped and pillaged the Great Mother. He cries, 'Nature, how can we serve thee?'"
4. Dee Oh Gee, Aug. 12 at FitzGerald's - On the same night Tim Anderson hits a walk-off homer for the White Sox in the Fields of Dreams game, Dee Oh Gee conjures up its feel-good mojo to deliver a magical performance of its own when everything it does works and builds to a levitating climax. "This feels like a dream," frontman Matthew Paige says from the stage. It's the kind of performance you secretly hope for each time you step into a venue.
5. Body Count, Sept. 19 at Douglass Park, Riot Fest - Ice-T and the rest of Body Count attack with a hardcore 1-2 punch of rap and metal from the West Coast. A menacing Ice-T means business, and makes sure everyone knows he doesn't like cops despite playing one on "Law & Order." He chides the Cook County justice system, too.
6. Noga Erez, Oct. 13 at at Thalia Hall - The Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based performer delivers a knockout performance with her bangin' beats, bold lyrics and captivating movement. She knows how to put on a good time, but she can be serious at the same time. "We don't need bombs, we got fire kites," Erez spits out repeatedly.
7. Kelly Lee Owens, Sept. 10 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - Making beautiful electronic music that reveals her soul, Owens also knows how to build to tension-releasing bangers. The result makes bodies move across the field, kicking dirt in the air to create a hazy atmosphere of dreamy dance pop as the sun drops.
8. Ela Minus, Sept. 10 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - Her set of entrancing electronic music and lyrics of personal resistance captivates. In case you were swept up by her mesmerizing sound and missed the message, Minus raises a black "RESIST" flag in front of her before departing with mission accomplished.
9. Gogol Bordello, Sept. 18 at Douglass Park, Riot Fest - Even more kinetic than usual, the gypsy punks explode through their set like a shaken beer can popped open. The life-affirming performance testifies to the power of live music.
10. Les Savy Fav, Sept. 18 at Douglass Park, Riot Fest - Tim Harrington deserves a category of his own. The big-bellied madman galivants around the stage and in the crowd shirtless and later in his underwear, looking for whatever trouble he can find moment to moment. Among his non-stop hijinks, he takes a guy's mohawk down his throat, rides a fan like a horse down the pit partition, and steals a table from the back soundboard and uses it to surf the crowd back to the stage.
Honorable mention (in order): Special Interest, Sept. 12 at Pitchfork; Kim Gordon, Sept. 11 at Pitchfork; The Weather Station, Sept. 12 at Pitchfork; Facs, Sept. 19 at Riot Fest; Boybrain, July 17 at Liar's Club; Devo, Sept. 19 at Riot Fest; Best Coast, Sept. 18, at Riot Fest; K. Flay, Sept. 19 at Riot Fest; Morrissey, Sept. 16 at Riot Fest; The Gories, Sept. 19 at Riot Fest.