Top concerts 2010

2. Alex Chilton tribute, March 20 at Antone’s in Austin, Texas: Alex Chilton’s death as the South by Southwest Music Conference opened cast a pall over this 24th annual gathering of the music tribes. The late-night, conference-closing slot was originally set for Chilton’s Big Star, the Memphis band that made three albums in the '70s, then faded into obscurity, only to endure as a guiding light for countless guitar-based pop and rock bands in subsequent decades. The performance instead turns into a wake and a tribute. The remaining members of Big Star -- founding drummer Jody Stephens and bassist Andy Hummel (who would die a few months later), and  Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, who joined in the band's '90s comeback incarnation -- carry on in Chilton's name with a host of guest stars, including M. Ward, Evan Dando, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, and Chris Stamey. It’s a night of glorious songs performed with bittersweet conviction.

3. Erykah Badu and Janelle Monae, June 2 at Chicago Theatre: Erykah Badu conducts her band on the fly and lets spontaniety rule in a performance that  feels exotic, earthy, regal and irreverent all at once. Badu’s also a savvy tastemaker, as evidenced by her choice for an opening act. Janelle Monae makes an indelible impression, whether she’s slamming out the “do the tightrope” funk, strutting with new-wave guitars or standing on a barstool and belting out Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.”

4. Grinderman, Nov. 22 at the Riviera: Waving a Bible in one hand and Beelzebub’s scepter in the other (metaphorically, of course), Nick Cave and his noise-punk band work the tension between good and good, old-fashioned evil until it pops. These boys have been on the planet for more than half-a-century each, and they’re on intimate terms with sin and redemption, melody and noise, art and chaos. They make mid-life crisis sound like World War III.

5. Titus Andronicus and LCD Soundsystem, July 17 at Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park: Titus Andronicus singer Patrick Stickles has a simple request at the outset of his band’s set. “Let’s make this the greatest day of our lives,” he says, then turns his complaints, disappointments and paranoia – “Your life is over,” “You will always be a loser,” “The enemy is everywhere” – into triumphant celebrations. LCD is in victory-lap mode as James Murphy’s merry band caps the middle night of the three-day Pitchfork festival. The immortal “All My Friends” never sounded better than it does beneath a summer moon against the city skyline, 20,000 fans singing along.

6. Lady Gaga, Jan. 8 at the Rosemont Theatre: The singer born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta owned pop music the last two years because she grasped that in this over-stimulated, attention-deficit era, each song, each gesture, each sashay in front of thousands of cellphone cameras needs to be an event or it won’t resonate – and this concert is no different. More so than her headlining extravaganza at Lollapalooza later in the year, this three-night stand is a focused affair that balances spectacle with genuine piano-playing and singing talent. Gaga has a terrific voice to go with a visual flair that is far more surreal and subversive than typical pop-diva eye candy.

7. Sleep, Sept. 9 at Logan Square Auditorium: The reunion of this revered stoner-rock trio exceeds the hype, with a set as ominous and inexorable as a molton-lava flow. Doom-saturated riffs and brick-layer drums celebrating a certain sacred leaf descend like a heavy blanket on an overflow crowd. Sleep begs the question, Can music be heavy and yet somehow mellow at the same time? 

8. Besnard Lakes, May 24 at Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park: On a beautiful, almost tropical night, the Montreal quartet provides the soundtrack with skyscraping guitars, hymn-like vocal harmonies and patiently developed songs with big emotional payoffs.

9. Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Aug. 20 at UIC Pavilion: Three bands that helped reinvent metal in the ‘80s demonstrate they haven’t backed off a bit from their fearsome origins. Even with Tom Arraya cutting way down on the headbanging after a recent neck injury, Slayer still blasts like a blowtorch. Perhaps because they lack the notoriety of the two headliners, Northern California veterans Testament play like hungry upstarts, devil’s horns all around.

10. Rosanne Cash, Jan. 29 at Harris Theatre: The sublime singer, a terrific songwriter in her own right, devotes most of the evening to songs her father cherished, country classics that served as her introduction to a deeper, darker world of music when she was a teenager. Accompanied only by her husband, guitarist John Leventhal, Cash cuts right to the heart of these songs – from “Long Black Veil” to Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe” -- without wasting a note.

greg@gregkot.com