Top Concerts of 2022
Kacey Musgraves
Jan. 19, 2022 @ United Center
By Dave Miller
Concerts got back into the groove in 2022. Mask mandates faded, venues fully reopened, bands hit the road en masse and concertgoers returned in force. Things felt almost normal. at least while the music played, as bottled-up demand and renewed appreciation for live music played out in venues each night. It wasn't an accident I wound up seeing more shows than ever this year, a little more than 100 full sets.
Concerts provided an escape again, but they also presented a forum for some to address big problems such as Russia's attack on Ukraine and the Supreme Court's attack on women's right to choose. Newsflash: Women are pissed. "Women aren't cattle!" Camp Cope's Georgia McDonald seethed at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Boybrain played with hangers dangling from its mic stands at Cobra Lounge, then wore sports jerseys with team name "Abortions" emblazoned across the chest at Liar's Club. Anyone who attended concerts on a regular basis shouldn't have been surprised by November's election results. You could feel the anger in the air.
The mere act of attending concerts proved challenging for some. Covid's forced timeout apparently made the learning curve steeper for the inexperienced. Young concertgoers dropped like flies at Pitchfork in July at Union Park, prompting performers to repeatedly stop the show until the stricken received medical attention. Decent weather narrowed the issue to people not handling what they ingested. And then at Riot Fest in September, a huge crowd that came to see My Chemical Romance had trouble physically navigating an all-day wait in the hot sun that was exacerbated by waves of pushing toward the stage when the the band finally appeared.
Not to single out the young, some older concertgoers who should know better returned to shows seemingly intent on continuing their pre-Covid conversations. At her late show in October at Beat Kitchen, Dessa took a break from singing to read a poem from her book, but was drowned out by stageside talkers. When her request for quiet was ignored, she broke back into song and sang crouched right in front of the talkers. When even that didn't stop their conversation, Dessa stole a women's purse to the complete oblivion of the woman. Later, when one of offenders asked Dessa to wait so he could say something to her, the singer replied sharply off mic, "No, you wait. This is my show." Hurray for Dessa!
It was also the year ticket prices jumped the shark as they climbed to absurd levels on Ticketmaster. At least Taylor Swift scolded the monopoly afterward. It didn't seem to bother Bruce Springsteen. Has anyone burned decades of goodwill toward fans like the Boss did with his sudden ridiculous ticket prices and tone-deaf defense of them?
But it wasn't only greed raising ticket prices. The cost to tour rose dramatically in the face of inflation as acts competed for the same roadies, tech people, staging, equipment, trucks and drivers, etc. In what could be a canary in the coal mine for the music industry's continuing crumbling economics, some acts halted their tours because they were losing money. Lorde wrote to her fans that even a sold-out show can lose money now.
Nevertheless, concerts continue to offer a chance to experience something that goes beyond money. There's nothing like seeing a great concert. It's what we missed so much during the lockdown. Musicians obviously missed performing, too. These last couple years have been a golden time to see great performances. I saw an unusually high number of them this past year. Here are the best I witnessed around Chicago in 2022:
1. Kacey Musgraves, Jan. 19 at United Center - Everything about the show from performance to production sparkles as Musgraves hits all the right notes. She has balls, too, playing nine songs from her divorce-themed album, Star-Crossed. A highlight is a cover of "Gracias a la vida," the last song on the album and the one that closes the main set. Musgraves slowly makes her way up the backdrop's high, candle-lit stairs as confetti falls on her. She dramatically finishes the song at the top and then...falls straight backwards out of sight. The whole show has cool touches. Concertgoers receive Bluetooth-like bracelets which glow at different points in the show. The first confetti drop comes just three songs in. A setlist slot is designated for Kacey-aoke. She unrolls a decidedly non-tech scroll and the choice is Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," which sounds so good that Musgraves compliments the pick mid-song. Stunning lasers appear late, projecting lava lamp-like images in the air, better than anything I've seen from Roger Waters. Musgraves is very comfortable talking to the crowd, comfortable enough to throw in a "golden shower" in "Golden Hour." The vibe has been strong in this one dating back to her first album and years later this is a payoff performance.
2. Sofia Kourtesis, July 7 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - The Peruvian-born, Berlin-based artist informs the crowd that something bad happened to her and that she almost didn't make it to Pitchfork. Then she proceeds with a transformative electronic set that builds into a cathartic crescendo, her emotions cutting through the technology and rising to spiritual deliverance. "All we've got is one another," she sings repeatedly through tears in the finale, which sees her lay across the front of the stage before kneeling in prayer. Amen, sister.
3. Courtney Barnett, Aug. 16 at The Salt Shed - After playing a commanding show behind her Things Take Time, Take Time album in January at the Chicago Theatre -- only to see the tour end shortly afterward when she catches Covid, Barnett returns ready to rock even harder with her "Here and Now Tour," the concept being she curates multiple opening acts in each city. The three openers delight, then Barnett delivers cleanup-worthy, powerful expressiveness that moves all over the stage. She's got it all -- songwriting, guitar, expressive singing and performance. Best rocker of her generation?
4. The Linda Lindas, July 16 at Union Park, Pitchfork Music Festival - Red Rover, Red Rover, let The Linda Lindas take over. Just 11, 14, 15 and 17, the California girls leave Pitchfork buzzing with tight punk songs about cats, feeling weird and a racist, sexy boy, along with a closing cover of "Rebel Girl." These girls have been practicing. It's a rare perfect set. The performance is so pure it reduces at least one concertgoer to tears.
5. Alejandro Escovedo, July 3, at FitzGerald's, American Music Festival - The go-for-the-throat performance marks only the second time Escovedo plays in front of people in three years. He returns to the roadhouse with a new crew of four musicians, all younger than him by decades. He and the band come out rocking hard from the start. Escovedo radiates a love of music and expresses his love for Chicago, FitzGerald's and attendees, emotionally saying how grateful he is for the "community." He pulls no punches, delivering the "America's beautiful, America's ill" line in "Teenage Luggage" with the biggest emphasis of the night.
6. Patti Smith, May 4 at Metro - The punk poet leaves one friend speechless and another says "Gloria" may have been the best performance she's seen from anyone. Smith comes out for Metro's 40th anniversary show in a shaman zone. She later says it's the first show in her 15 or so post-Covid where she's overheated. That's how hard she's working. She takes her time between songs and is more chatty than usual, but then dives into the next number and catches fire song after song after song. The "People Have the Power" encore is speeded up a bit and receives a sparse, drum-only close. She carries a Ukrainian flag and sends the encore out to women, girls, Ukraine, and young Russians who are powerless to stop the evil happening in their country much like we haven't been able to stop the evil in our country in the last five years. She really leans into "the armies ceased advancing" line as if trying to will them to stop. Smith's performance provides shelter from the storm and rekindles hope.
7. Gogol Bordello, Sept. 17, at Douglass Park, Riot Fest - After Eugene Hutz honors his Ukraine earlier in the afternoon with a song followed by a performance by a local Ukrainian youth dance troupe, the frontman returns with his gypsy gang to bring further glory to his country with an emotionally-charged show. Gogol Bordello closes the set by taking the music higher with an epic performance for Ukraine of "Undestructible'," which sees Hutz and his bass drummer crowd-surfing on her drum.
8. Noga Erez, June 22 at Lincoln Hall - The Israeli-born, electro-pop singer and songwriter spits out a lyrical punch. She hasn't played many shows in the United States, but this is the third in Chicago in the last year in support of her bouncing sophomore album, Kids. This show is even better than her knockout performance at Thalia Hall. The drama and confidence are higher and the songs play bigger. To see her is to become a convert. The couple to my left has been at each of her Chicago shows. The three teen girls to my right had just seen her for the first time at a festival in Indianapolis and had to see this show, too. An Art Institute student who saw her for the first time at Thalia Hall returned to catch this one like me. A guy from New York flew in just for this show. We all know Noga's got the beats.
9. DeeOhGee, Dec. 31 at FitzGerald's Sidebar - The hillbilly rock-and-rollers conjure up music's past and distill it into a 100-proof shot of positivity for the future. DeeOhGee lifts a sold-out crowd into the New Year with two sets and an encore of raucous, righteous jams, bringing it home with Matthew Paige doing everything legal that can be done with a guitar. With former owner Bill FitzGerald and current one Will Duncan bearing witness, the feel-good group graduates to the venerable venue's class of favorite performers next to such names as Joe Ely, Dave Alvin, Cathy Richardson and Alejandro Escovedo.
10. Tiger Sex, June 25 at Cobra Lounge, Motoblot - The do-it-yourself punk trio from Cincinnati roars like the motorcycles lined down Fulton Street at the outdoor festival. Led by wild frontwoman Kelly Chelston and cut-and-slash guitarist Kei HaTan, the band puts the pedal to the metal in a flash. It's not long before Chelston is writhing on stage, climbing cabinets and pouring PBR out of her dirty, white Converse high-top into fans' mouths. The set's careening end sees fans pulled onstage and Miss Motoblot called into action to dance. That's entertainment.
Honorable mention (in order): Dawn Richard, July 15 at Pitchfork; The Who, Oct. 12 at United Center; Japanese Breakfast, July 16 at Pitchfork Music Festival; Roger Waters, July 26 at United Center; Foxy Shazam, Sept. 16 at Riot Fest; Sharon Van Etten, Aug. 10 at The Salt Shed; The Joy Formidable, Sept. 17 at Riot Fest; War on Women, Sept. 17 at Riot Fest; Dessa, Oct. 26 at Beat Kitchen; Quasi, July 23 at Wicker Park Fest; The Handcuffs, July 23 at Liar's Club; Skating Polly, Sept. 17 at Riot Fest; Aroof Aftab, July 15 at Pitchfork Music Festival; Cate Le Bon, July 17 at Pitchfork Music Festival; Mitski, July 16 at Pitchfork Music Festival; Boybrain, June 25 at Motoblot; Girl Named Nino, March 3 at Double Door; CJ Chenier & The Red Hot Lousiana Band, July 3 at American Music Festival; Bob Vylan, Sept. 16 at Riot Fest; Angel Olsen, Aug. 10 at The Salt Shed; Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts, Dec. 3 at FitzGerald's.