My top 15 music events of the year

A journey through parks, tunnels, and fried concert halls.

This year, I went to so much live music I got jaded. Around May, I realized I was starting to lose my desire to go out and spend hours in smelly venues. I felt like I was trapped in a cycle of seeing the same artists—rappers and DJs whose performances once felt rare to me because they came right after a year-plus of deadening pandemic inertia, but not anymore. I became more selective. I started seeking out weirder shows: harsh noise sets in random apartments, pitch-black raves in the middle of the forest. I spent more time getting up to random shenanigans—going camping, walking 34 miles in a single day (shoutout the Great Saunter). Still, I found myself drawn back to the fogged-up, bass-blasted dungeons of the city. In total, I went to 53 shows this year. I said I’d buy earplugs in January and I still haven’t… my hearing is in shambles. I started the year having fallen out of love with clubbing, but by the end I realized I just needed to give myself a break and expand my show-going horizons.

Here are my top 15 shows of the year

15. Evanora Unlimited, Lucy, Taraneh @ The Meadows. Rain pissed down as we arrived at a venue called The Meadows: not a lush green field, as you might imagine, but a dark, shabby spot at the industrial end of East Williamsburg. We heated up listening to Taraneh perform “Pretty,” a sullen, witchy guitar tune. Then Evanora’s walloping digital hardcore ignited a moshpit. The dancing heated me up so much it neutralized the effects of the rain on the way home.

14. DJ Swisha, Nia Archives @ Elsewhere. I was startled to see so many New Yorkers show up for this British drum’n’bass wunderkind. The NYU transplants went berserk when she dropped “Baiaña.” Since this show in April I’ve grown less attached to her music; hearing it fly out of the speakers of an Erewhon-core mall in Culver City might have contaminated it for me, the raw allure of a jungle revival becoming corporate-sponsored etc... Still, at the April show, I was so giddy I may have well as been chanting “Rule Britannia!”

13. Black Midi, Etran de L'Aïr @ Asbury Hall. Buffalo. Never been a huge black midi fan but I can’t resist a road trip, especially to visit my friend in Skaneateles, perhaps the greatest town name ever. Inside this gigantic former church, I got some of the cheapest concert beer of my life and nearly had my teeth knocked in by nerds with no moshing etiquette. Hopping to black midi’s sudden climaxes and comedowns felt like sticking my finger in an electrical outlet, or downing 1,000mg of caffeine and then puking it up. My chest nearly exploded. 

12. Dazegxd, Oceane @ Hart Bar. I live blocks away from Hart Bar but it somehow took me a year to realize they have live music in the basement. Sometimes when I get decently trashed, and I’m feeling especially alive, I get the itch to run. So it was this night. I challenged Jameson to a sprint. My shoes were a size too big and after dashing almost the whole length, I slipped forward and ripped up my side. After disinfecting my injuries, I returned to enjoy some tastefully fried sets from Oceane and Dazegxd. 

11. Hi-C, xaviersobased, Lazy God, Lil Yawh @ Baby’s All Right. I’d been listening to Hi-C’s cyber-chaos for so many years it was disorienting seeing a fleshly human perform it in person; I was half-hoping he’d pull a Two Shell and send in a decoy or make them project a computer sprite instead. Detached from the digital abyss and coming out of physical speakers, his echoing neon synths and panoply of glittery sound effects didn’t really smack as hard. But the communal feeling of the show made up for it. A horde of diehards in baggy pants and graphic tees howled requests for his deepest cuts and swooned in drunken delight whenever his best song intros unfurled.

10. Mike and crew @ Young World Fest. The only daytime show on the list, although there was barely any sun, just a rainy sky with thunderous tremors and lightning that threatened to cancel the show. It was the most people I’d ever seen packed into the field at Herbert Von King Park. I didn’t stay for the entire time but I caught Mike, 454, Niontay, and a brief Earl Sweatshirt cameo. Buzzing off free Yerba Mate, I roamed back and forth taking in all the bearded bloggers, screen printing tents, parents pushing strollers, and groups of students curled on blankets playing Uno. Everyone popped out. Young World is a wonderful community institution. 

9. Umru, Petal Supply & more @ The End. RIP Rash, RIP Heaven Or Las Vegas, hello The End? This was the rebirth of the venue formerly known as Heaven—its tight, jungly corridors and obstructive walls had been torn down and replaced with an expanse of white concrete. The big room would’ve felt liberating but it was choked up with theatrical smoke and a throng of colorful hyperpop kids. I couldn’t tell you about any of the actual music but the night had that classic “hyperpop show” essence typical of all the Umru Rash events I went to before the arson attack. I remember randomly being introduced to a digicore musician who seemed hammered beyond belief and spent 30 mins reiterating to me how much he loved his mother.

8. Kate Slaughter @ Cat Farm. On the coldest night of the year, there’s nothing I’d rather do than get sweaty with my friends hardstyle-bouncing in a stuffy Bushwick apartment. Shivering from the sub-zero temps, we squeezed down an unassuming gray corridor into a bright living room filled with a couple dozen people, including someone I knew from my small elementary school in the East Village and hadn’t seen in ages. With all the plush coats, scarves, and overgarments strewn everywhere it could’ve been an Alaskan modeling shoot. Kate Slaughter’s set got me so toasty I didn’t need my coat when we stepped out back for a smoke. 

7. Machine Girl, 100 gecs @ Brooklyn Mirage. In a year of largely avoiding mainstream venues and performers (I often joked that my ceiling for tickets was $25), it felt surprisingly joyous to be in this swollen sea of scallywags in wizard garb and 3DS-toting e-girls and he/theys. The arena bombast of 100 gecs’ new album perfectly fit the large Mirage venue, and when they played earlier music it felt a bit like listening to classic ringtones from our collective childhood. A woman near me went so hard during “money machine” that she lost a shoe. I briefly aided in the search but when she asked if she could have one of my shoes I had to decline.

6. quinn, Nettspend, NOVAGANG @ Market Hotel. I had no idea who Nettspend was. I remember Billie Bugara turning to me and going, “He’s about to blow up huge.” I was honestly bamboozled when this young white kid had the most electric set of the night, stepping around the stage and gesticulating lazily with what seemed like the population of a small village spasming wildly around him. It definitely felt like the birth of something; it spawned one of the best dance clips of the year, and the next week he was being quote-tweeted and discussed all over my timeline. The entire show was thrilling, even if Market Hotel is a little washed. After listening to and writing about quinn for years it was sweet to finally catch a performance. 

5. MGNA Crrrta, kmoe and more @ Catch One for Subculture LA. Of all the shows I’ve seen in LA, this was easily the best. I’m trained on the NYC hyperpop nights staged in cramped, humid oubliettes like H0l0 and Rash, so I didn’t expect the sprawling complex of Catch One: we weaved between what felt like a labyrinthine campus, swerving from a drag show to a Skrillex tribute session to live performances. My friend beefed with an obnoxious parking valet squad; I discovered how to properly use earplugs; MGNA Crrrta’s shimmering set made me feel like I was at a gloriously chaotic high school party. I didn’t know LA had energy like this.

4. Yung Lean @ Knockdown Center. It’s an odd blessing that Yung Lean has renewed relevance because a dorky soundbite from his first big song, released a decade ago, went mega-viral on mainstream TikTok. I was worried the show would be drowning in yuppies but also morbidly curious about how they’d react when he pulled from deeper in his catalog. The worst behavior I saw was a fan who chucked his phone at the stage hoping Lean would grab it and start recording—but the guy pelted it with such abysmal aim that Lean never saw it and he began panicking about losing his phone. Lean’s only 27 but the show felt somewhat like a career retrospective or a swan show: he dredged up songs from every era and did two encores. I began so far back I couldn’t see him, but by the end I snaked right up to where I could make out the sweat on his cheeks. (This was technically last year, but it happened after my 2022 list published.)

3. Slot @ A tunnel. A deliciously delirious night. I had spent the whole late-summer day baking at Rockaway Beach and being buffeted by tall waves, so my body and brain were already short-circuited by the time I hit this show. I heard about it through a professor friend who had one of the organizers as a student. It was deep in Bushwick in a tunnel system that was apparently used for the Succession scene where Tom is being taken for his prenuptial party. “Stay off the middle track because it’s probably still active” was one of the warnings we got. We explored the pitch-black tunnel as the DJs’ twitchy electronica sparked off the dank walls.

2. Helltekk @ A park. I’ve been enjoying Helltekk’s coordinates-only shows in random spots. The directions scan a bit like some Alice and Wonderland shit: cross under the bridge, ascend the shadowy steps, walk along the disused railroad tracks until you see the treasure chest of golden poppers. I don’t remember the individual DJs; it was a deranged parade of ravey remixes, Jersey club, and happy hardcore. I was so incapacitated I accidentally walked through a bed of thorns on my way to pee. I initially only registered the spikes in my legs as little pricks but then I started bleeding a lot. I had to call it early. I went to another Helltekk show at this spot that was promising but didn’t offer the same first-time exhilaration (they also kept pausing the music to yell at FIT kids for banging the table).

1. All the parties my friends played music at. This is a bit of a cheat, but I love my friends and their demented live sets. There were so many performances that transfixed: DJ Ducky’s (Jameson) chthonic Myrtle Mystery Harvest Moon Festival set; Mano playing at the lovely Finals “Stakes Is Low” events (along with Alphonse, Swoozy, Hua, Arielle, Andrew); DJ Dr Halloween (Mason) going crazy in some random Bushwick basement and also at his rooftop party, dropping bangers like the AI Drake song and using “Born Slippy” as a recurring motif; a rare Lee set back in May. I’m biased but I really enjoyed the sets at Mano and my birthday bash: the madman Jameson mixed xaviersobased’s “fix my mind” into a dizzying Castlevania OST and Anusha and Merc kept things running despite the threat of an abrasive Karen trying to shut everything down. Legitimate musicians are cool but it hits different when you can see your friends looking geeked when they pull off a genius transition, and you can scream when they play an esoteric song you’ve obsessed over together.

Honorable Mentions

TisaKorean, Matt Ox, Evilgiane @ Bowery Ballroom

Ctrlfr33k and more @ Trans-Pecos

Umru, A.G. Cook, Doss @ PC Music boat

OLTH, TAGABOW, RXK Nephew @ Baby’s All Right

Babyxsosa @ Baby’s All Right

L’Rain @ Mexican Summer Office

Biggest Letdown

Swagchella