I was driving home from a Neon Indian show in Buffalo last week (shown above, I may or may not have contributed to that video footage). The show didn't start until 10:30pm, so this was post 2 a.m., everyone else was asleep and I had a chance to just drive and reflect on the show.
"Neon Indian was surprisingly good. Best show I saw this semester? Has to be up there. Although, YACHT [11] was really good too. Can't ignore Phantogram [12] back in February either. And next month..."
It hit me - next month. The Flaming Lips pass through the area. OK Go hits Ithaca too. Both The Hold Steady and Sleigh Bells precede all that here in Syracuse (not to mention Miike Snow / Theophilus London still to come in March).
That all comes before Drake / N.E.R.D. own the SU campus for a day and every other college in the area holds their own year-end shows (featuring acts like Passion Pit, Dan Deacon, Dirty Projectors, Yeasayer and Drake again). This doesn't account for some of the offbeat acts passing through (Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down) or the gigantic shows nearby that require a little roadtrip preplanning (scroll down to see what nearby Canadian cities offer in March/April).
It begs the question, despite all the murmurs of a lackluster scene and too few quality bookings, has 2010 crept up and surprised all of us? Is this shaping up to be the best post-Spring Break collection of live shows for CNY in some time?
I didn't bother to do any strenuous data collection since it is currently Spring Break. However, over the past few years I've kept a small list serv among friends of acts that pass through the area (compiled through sites from specific venues and schools, Skipster [13], Ticketmaster [14], Tourfilter [15], DSP [13], Pollstar [16], etc.). Check out how this year compares to the same time frame last year:
2009
March
Tokyo Police Club- 3/21, 3/25, 3/27 - Canada
Ben Folds - 3/23 - Rochester *later booked for SU's Block Party with Guster
Ra Ra Riot - 3/27, 3/28 - Rochester / Wescott Theater
The Hold Steady - 3/31, 4/1 - Albany / Buffalo
April
Girl Talk - 4/5 - Cornell
Cold War Kids - 4/6 - Rochester
Mates of State / Black Kids - 04/10 - Toronto
Margot & The Nuclear So-Sos - 4/17 - Buffalo
Dave Brubeck - 4/25 - Buffalo
Peter Bjorn and John - 4/25, 4/26, 4/27 - Toronto / Quebec / Montreal
Presidents of the United States - 4/22 - Syracuse
May
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - 5/14 - Verona
2009 Summary: Certainly some can't miss shows nearby (Girl Talk, Ra Ra Riot, Ben Folds), but lacking in quantity of shows. Also, any act with mainstream name cache required a bit of a roadtrip and some serious planning (Peter, Bjorn and John for instance) and there wasn't a lot of genre diversity going on outside of some major jazz/swing groups (notable lack of big hip-hop, mainstream pop or R&B acts).
2010
March
Wynton Marsalis [17] - 3/22 - Rochester
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings [18] - 3/26 - Lake Placid
Henry Rollins [19] - 3/27 - Wescott Theater
Passion Pit [20] - 3/28 - Buffalo
Spoon/Deerhunter - 3/29 - Toronto
Vampire Weekend - 3/30 - Toronto
Miike Snow / Theophilus London - 3/30 - Syracuse
Wilco [21] - 3/31 - Scranton
April
Dum Dum Girls [22] - 4/4 - Buffalo
Sleigh Bells [23] - 4/8 - Syracuse
Tokyo Police Club - 4/7, 4/8, 4/9 - Near Ontario
The Hold Steady [24] - 4/9, 4/10 - Jermyn, Pa. / Wescott Theater
Matt & Kim - 4/10 - Hamilton College
Snoop Dogg [25] - 4/10 - Rochester
Air Supply [26] - 4/16 - Syracuse
Michael McDonald [27] - 4/16 - Buffalo
Flaming Lips [28] - 4/18 - Cornell
Thao and The Stay Down Get Down [29] - 4/18 - Northhampton
Shawn Colvin [30] - 4/18 - Ithaca [31]
Apples in Stereo [31] - 4/24 - Ithaca
OK Go - 4/25 - Ithaca
Drake [32] / N.E.R.D. - 4/30 - Syracuse
May
Dan Deacon / Dirty Projectors / Passion Pit - 5/7 - Hamilton College
Yeasayer - 5/7 - Ithaca College
Drake - 5/7 - Cornell
2010 Summary: Take that in for a second. Tell me there isn't a scene to appreciate in CNY (and keep in mind acts that have come through earlier in the year too - John Legend, Alicia Keys, St. Vincent, Metric, Girl Talk, The Cool Kids). My 2009 e-mail for March through May had 12 concerts total. This year, the last two weeks of March 2010 have eight alone.
Highlights include indie mainstays like The Flaming Lips, recent darlings like Passion Pit or the Dirty Projectors, old but hip pop acts like Michael McDonald and some of the bigger names in mainstream hip-hop like Snoop or Drake. Add to that some of the cool offbeat opportunities (Henry Rollins for crying out loud!) and the fact some of the desirable acts from 2009 are coming through the area again (Tokyo Police Club, The Hold Steady). It's not even close - you're much better off being a music fan at SU in 2010 than 2009.
Don't listen to any of the complainers out there, it seems they just aren't looking hard enough. Use your down time during Spring Break to plan out a few shows to go to for the rest of the semester, map out some upcoming album release dates [33] while you're at it, and let Spring 2010 be the monster music semester it's meant to be.
