2010: Year in Review

So, time to look back at 2010. Another year with a ton of concerts, though I couldn’t keep the same pace as 2009. Perhaps a big part of the reason that I spent 8 months of the year commuting down to Houston, Texas during the week. Despite its size, the number of bands that came to Houston left much to be desired, as did the particular bands that came. I missed out on many bands this year because I simply wasn’t in the right town. Many of them actually came to Austin and some to Dallas, but they often skipped Houston, the fourth largest city in the country – go figure.

Despite the difficulties in finding shows, I still attended 19 concerts and festivals, including 16 individual shows and 3 festivals, averaging an event a little over every 19 days. 7 of these shows were sold out. Despite spending so many nights out of town, I still saw more shows in the DC area than anywhere else (11), with over half (6) at the 9:30 Club (3) and Merriweather Post Pavilion (3). I also saw shows in 6 other cities, including 3 shows in Houston. I saw more shows on Saturdays than any other (7), but Thursdays (5) were a close second. I didn’t see any shows on a Monday. October was the leading month (4), most likely because I went on a binge after returning to DC full time after being gone for a while. There were even several months (January, April, July, and December) when I didn’t’ get to a show at all.

Including all the bands that I specifically remember seeing at festivals for at least a few songs (more than just walking by), I saw a total of 48 bands this year, of which 37 were bands that I’d never seen before, while the remaining 11 were old favorites. This excludes opening acts that I don’t remember the billing. I also saw several bands twice, including Dave Matthews Band, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, LCD Soundsystem, Mayer Hawthorne & the County, and Rodrigo y Gabriella (only band in which neither event was a festival)

Concerts are always more fun with friends, and I was able to convince someone to come with me to every concert. Jeff Schiz and my sister Katie attended more with me than any others at 6 shows each. Ali and Lauren (4 each), Erica and Benny (3 each), and Eric, Joey, and Seth (2 each) were the only others registering more than one. However, I went to all the shows in Houston (3) by myself, an unusual occurrence for me.

The year was a lot easier on the wallet as well with only $830 in tickets.