My 2022 in live music
My setlist.fm stats tell the story: I love live music. And after a dreary nearly three years of pandemic cancellations, live music is back! In 2022, I went to seven live shows and saw 14 artists. Before that, it had been since late 2019!
(edit: as you can see from setlist, I forgot about the December 2021 Straight No Chaser show in San Jose!)
During this interregnum, mainly after buying tickets to shows that were postponed due to the pandemic, we moved from the Bay Area to Spokane, Washington. Attending most of these shows meant flying back to Northern California for a day or two or six.
The B-52s with The Tubes
August 22, McCaw Hall, Seattle
A quick one-night trip to Seattle for the B-52s' “Final Tour Ever of Planet Earth,” with opener and classic-alternative staple The Tubes.
Lady Gaga: The Chromatica Ball
September 8, Oracle Park, San Francisco
This was the first of three trips to the Bay Area within four weeks to see five shows with a total of ten bands! To be fair, most of these had been planned pre-pandemic—well before the move to Spokane—and had coincidentally all been rescheduled close to each other.
Roxy Music with St. Vincent
September 26, Chase Center, San Francisco
This was Roxy Music’s 50th Anniversary Tour, and though they didn’t specifically announce it, it was likely their farewell tour. It was also Bryan Ferry’s 77th birthday!
This next batch of three shows took place over one epic seven-day trip! We didn’t plan it that way, of course — the New Order/Pet Shop Boys had already been rescheduled twice — but it worked out well. I also ran my 111th half marathon while we were in the Bay Area (but that’s another post).
Metric with Secret Machines
October 7, The Fillmore, San Francisco
Metric announced the 2022 Doomscroller tour while we were on a ship, and I had to use touchy shipboard Internet to buy tickets. But there was no chance I would miss seeing my favorite band perform for the first time since March 2019.
Florence + The Machine with Wet Leg
October 9, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
New Order / Pet Shop Boys with Paul Oakenfold: The Unity Tour
October 12, Chase Center, San Francisco
We were back at Chase Center just two weeks after Roxy Music to see this epic dual-headliner show, which was originally scheduled for October 2020 — we bought the tickets in October 2019! — and postponed first to 2021 and then finally to 2022.
Phantogram with GLU
November 12, Knitting Factory, Spokane
Our first show in our new hometown!
Thanks for following along as I recapped a fantastic year (well, three months) of live music. Coming up in 2023, I plan to see:
- Depeche Mode (Las Vegas, March 30)
- They Might Be Giants (Oakland, April 16)
- Crowded House (Seattle, May 3)
- Taylor Swift (Seattle, July 22)
- Paramore (Seattle, July 24)
I’ll also be looking out for great shows here in Spokane.
