As I mentioned in my post about the Waco Brothers, I ended up seeing 100 concerts and 305 musical performances (including festival shows and opening acts) in 2006. That’s a lot to sift through, and the vast majority of those shows were enjoyable to one extent or another.
My favorites were:
1. Sleater-Kinney, March 14 at Guerrero Produce Warehouse, Austin (SXSW Film Festival closing night party) (original review / photos)
2. Tom Waits, Aug. 11 at Detroit Opera House (original review)
3. The Wrens, April 29 at Schubas (original review / photos)
4. Radiohead, June 19 at the Auditorium Theatre (original review)
5. M. Ward with Oakley Hall, Sept. 8 at Metro (original review / photos)
6. Art Brut, March 15 at SXSW (original review / photos)
7. Okkervil River, Oct. 8 at Schubas (original review / photos)
8. Randy Newman, Nov. 3 at Orchestra Hall (original review)
9. My Brightest Diamond with Pedestrian and Via Tania, Nov. 11 at Schubas (original review / photos)
10. TV on the Radio with Grizzly Bear, Oct. 9 at Metro (original review / photos)
And in honor of Sleater-Kinney finishing No. 1 on my list for their blistering, intense performance that night, I am posting many, many more of the photos I shot that night. I was positioned almost perfectly at the front of the stage (perfect except that it was hard to get shots of drummer Janet Weiss), I had my new camera in hand, the music was mind-blowing, and the sights of these three ladies rocking out were fabulous. Click here to see my new gallery of 123 photos from the Sleater-Kinney … or, if you want to see all of the photos in sequence, click here for a Flash slideshow. Personally, I think the slideshow version is much cooler. Make sure to crank up “The Woods” while you’re watching. It lasts about two minutes. I did very little editing on these photos – no cropping at all, just a little brightening on a few of the images.