I’ve seen thousands of shows in my three-decades-plus of writing about music for the Lincoln Journal and Journal Star. So it’s extremely rare that I have a truly new experience at a concert.
I had one this year — when Rick Springfield took a seat on my knee during his Pinewood Bowl show.
I was in row 10 (generally critics get good seats at shows) for the Pat Benatar/Neil Giraldo concert that Springfield opened. And, unlike 90 percent of those around me, I sat down midway through Springfield’s set, starting to type some notes into my phone. That’s how I review most concerts these days.
In the middle of “Human Touch,†Springfield jumped off the stage and waded into the crowd. I looked up, saw him standing on a chair a couple rows in front and didn’t think much of it — nor did I get up.
Of course, he headed to my end of that row, and when he saw me sitting, he took a seat as well — on my left knee. I wrapped my arm around him (he was plenty sweaty), and he made it through most of a chorus before moving on.
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To try to relate that to the rest of the year in music in Lincoln, and nationally for that matter. Springfield’s show was one of more than two-dozen major concerts in the Capital City this year, a number that has continued to increase over the last decade.
Locally, that increase can be attributed in part to the opening of Pinewood Bowl for concerts and, five years ago, the arrival of Pinnacle Bank Arena as a major concert venue. The arena ranked 119th on Pollstar’s 2018 Top 200 World Wide Arenas in ticket sales in 2018. That’s an impressive mark.
But the number of shows — which obviously increase the number of tickets sold — have steadily climbed everywhere as the money drained out of record sales. Artists make tenths of pennies for streams of their work, rather than dollars for album and single sales and downloads. So they’re out on the road in droves to try to make a living.
Which is good for us, bringing more shows to more venues than ever in Lincoln. And people are turning up.
That includes local shows, as well, as Lincoln’s music scene continues to thrive — so much so that the city’s been encouraged to use the music scene in its promotions designed to attract new businesses and residents.
Now for the annual lists.
Concerts
Compiling a “best†concerts list is, at least for me, impossible.
A. I can’t remember all the shows I saw — it had to be somewhere in the 250 range in 2018.
B. I don’t rank them in any ongoing fashion over the course of the year. So coming up with a 12-month order ... not gonna happen.
C. Ranking the production spectacle of electronic music’s ODESZA at Pinnacle Bank Arena, Leikeli 47’s outdoor Lincoln Calling hip-hop show and Jesse Dayton and his two bandmates playing to two dozen in the Bourbon Theatre’s Rye Room is an apples-and-oranges comparison that would yield nothing of value to be ranked as “best.â€
So, as has been the case for years, I’ve come up with a list of my 25 favorite concerts of the year.
It’s topped by Pink, who delivered another astounding show at Pinnacle Bank Arena, and Bones, the female UK rock duo who blew me away at South By Southwest and were even better in the Rye Room a couple weeks later.
The rest of the list is ordered only in this sense: How quickly it popped to mind when I was making the list, and how much I remember liking it.
Pink, Pinnacle Bank Arena
Bones, Bourbon Rye Room/SXSW
Starcrawler, SXSW
Jackson Browne, Pinewood Bowl
Lorde, Pinnacle Bank Arena
Jack White, Baxter Arena
ODESZA, Pinnacle Bank Arena
U2 - CenturyLink Center
Ian Moore, Zoo Bar
The Killigans, Duffy’s Tavern
Jesse Dayton, Bourbon Rye Room
Leikeli 47, Lincoln Calling
Japanese Breakfast, Lincoln Calling
Jamey Johnson, Pinnacle Bank Arena
Twenty One Pilots, Pinnacle Bank Arena
Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo - Pinewood Bowl
Dawes, Bourbon Theatre
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Zoo Bar
Thomas Rhett, Pinnacle Bank Arena
Low Cut Connie, Bourbon Theatre
Records
There’s no way anyone or any publication, website, etc. can authoritatively come up with a “best of†2018 albums list. There are far too many albums made for even 100 people working together to listen to all of them, much less come up with a way to rank them.
So again, this is a favorites list ranked in somewhat approximate order to the number of times I listened to the album over the course of the year. There are 21 albums on the list, by 20 artists. Matthew Sweet makes it for two records.
Kacey Musgraves, “Golden Hourâ€
Jack White, “Boarding House Reachâ€
Low Cut Connie, “Dirty Pictures Part 2â€
Janelle Monae, “Dirty Computerâ€
Matthew Sweet, “Tomorrow’s Daughter†and “Wicked System of Things"
Parquet Courts, “Wide Awakeâ€
Leikeli 47, “Acrylicâ€
Robyn, “Honeyâ€
Courtney Barnett, “Tell Me How You Really Feelâ€
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, “Look Nowâ€
Pistol Annies, “Interstate Gospelâ€
John Prine, “The Tree of Forgivenessâ€
Lucy Dacus, “Historianâ€
Neko Case, “Hell Onâ€
Superchunk, “What A Time to Be Aliveâ€
Willie Nelson, Last Man Standingâ€
Starcrawler, “Starcrawlerâ€
J. D. McPherson, “Socksâ€
Lee Ann Womack, “The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Goneâ€
Car Seat Headrest, “Twin Fantasyâ€