Top 5 Concerts of 2019

This year didn’t disappoint. Most genres were covered, the top two being Classical and Extreme Metal. I could check off some items of my bucket list, l finally saw The Cure, Tom Zé and Vijay Iyer. I also was able to cover the Fuji Rock Festival this year and even though I didn’t go to venues I usually go to every year, like Blue Note, Club Quattro and WWW, I visited several live houses in the Tokyo area. The blog also expanded to cover musicals, stand up comedy, theater and movies. All in all it was a fruitful year for the Tokyo Concert Experience.

Bubbling under the top 5 were shows like Voivod and Giovanni Guidi from back in January. The amazing double bill of Neurosis and Converge in February. One of Sylvain Cambreling’s farewell concerts conducting the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra and their performance of Scielci’s and Grisey’s works. The unique sensorial experience that was Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Fever Room at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater. Neal Brennan’s stand up set in September and West Side Story from the same month. 

The main -and basically only- criteria for making this top five list out of the close to seventy live sets I saw this year, was that they felt transcendent. Shows that made me reflect about things beyond just music, that would produce the type of reaction that’s difficult to put into words of being conscious of experiencing a moment in time that will remain imprinted in one’s memory for a long time.

5. François-Frédéric Guy at Musashino Shimin Bunka Kaikan Hall.

Specifically the second concert on December 7th, in which he played Beethoven’s last three sonatas. Those last notes that linger at the end of the very last Sonata 32 still resonated during my walk to the station as the cap to a journey through the staggering body of work represented by these piano pieces. This melancholic expression of hope was beautifully rendered by François-Frédéric Guy’s Beethoven expertise.

4. Suffocation at Duo Music Exchange.

It might sound like an oxymoron, but this brutal death metal show was moving. It was a celebration of Frank Mullen’s contributions to the genre and billed as his last show in Japan. The band delivered some of the best songs out of their catalogue and closed with some of their earlier cuts. All these factors contributed to an atmosphere that enhanced the communal aspects of the ideal metal show.

3. Igor Levit at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall.

This night Bach’s Goldberg Variations reached every single person in that room through a magnificent performance by Igor Levit. This 275 years old composition performance was electrifying from beginning to end. Not only we witnessed a piece that is essential to history, we witnessed a performance that made it more relevant than ever. This was another show that highlighted the feeling of being in the presence of a major artist at his peak.

2. Janelle Monáe at Fuji Rock Festival.

The last sentence of the previous paragraph also applies to this amazing set. There were other worthy ones at Fuji Rock, like Shibusashirazu Orchestra’s and The Cure’s, who would have made this list if it were not for the disappointment of Simon Gallup’s absence. Monáe played a one hour set in the middle of the afternoon on the first day that ended up being one of my favorite concerts of the year. She was to me the definition of a headliner, a whole-package type of entertainer with an amazing catalogue of beautifully crafted pop, delivering a politically relevant message. She was the definition of artistic excellence present at this year’s Fuji Rock Festival.

1. Emperor at Tsutaya O-East.

I feel like Janelle Monáe  being a current artist, belongs to the number one spot, but I’m not going to lie, Emperor concert was one for the ages. Yes, it’s a band reunion with no future creative goals other than performing previous material live, but what an amazing kind of material it is. I think that if Ihsahn’s output would’ve been released under the Emperor banner, the band would’ve been more current than ever. Under its lead vocalist name its evolution has continued. This Emperor show proved why they’re arguably the best extreme metal band ever. Did i mentioned that Deafheaven opened this show?

The following is a list of my favorite shows of the decade. You can check the full list of shows I went to here.

1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at Le Zenith, Paris 10/04/17
2. Caetano Veloso at NHK Osaka Hall, Osaka 10/05/16
3. The Pogues at L’Olympia, Paris 09/11/12
4. King Crimson at L’Olympia, Paris 09/22/15
5. Aphex Twin at Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba Ski Resort 07/29/17 
6. The Stooges at L’Olympia, Paris 07/07/10
7. Sufjan Stevens at Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona 05/27/11
8. Prince at Roskilde Festival, Denmark 07/04/10
9. Slayer at Studio Coast, Tokyo 10/08/15
10. Lauryn Hill at L’Olympia, Paris 04/16/12
  
Thank you for reading. Please follow me on Twitter for updates at @ConcertTokyo. You can also click the Like button and get notifications at The Tokyo Concert Experience on Facebook.