Like last year, I wanted to talk about my year in live music. Along with the other year end/start posts, I’m writing this in April which is super late. I’ll talk a bit more about that in the 2024 year start post so I’m just gonna focus on live music now.

2023 was a kind of crazy year. As I mentioned in the SXSW post, I saw a lot of acts there. But even so, I saw over twice as many artists than in 2022. While the playlist for 2023 has 115 songs in it, there are actually a few more that weren’t added. Some of this is due to artists not having their music on Spotify and some of it is due to ensemble work that I didn’t duplicate.

I ended up seeing sets by just over 100 distinct artists and many of those were Austin based. The year was also a much more diverse spread across genres. 2022 was diverse for sure, but it missed a lot of genres that 2023 explored either just once or more deeply.

The genre’s that I would say were most apparently new to 2023 were classical and punk. Classical music, in the general sense and not the specific era, is one of those genres I grew up with but haven’t meaningfully interacted with as a grown up. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in a previous post but I grew up playing cello and, as a result, classical music is pretty central to my musical understanding. That said, I haven’t really listened to any chamber ensembles, like Fuse, or orchestras like the Sydney Symphony orchestra since college.

If classical represents tradition and sophistication, punk represents something raw and something counter traditional. It’s interesting then that punk became a larger amount of the live music I went to see last year. I think a big part of this is from seeing Die Spitz at the end of last year. It really opened me up to it as a different experience and a vibrant community. Austin has a growing and strong punk scene. It’s largely pushed forward by younger musicians who are very much trying to figure out their sound while paying homage to older acts.

That said, while I like the energy and raucousness of punk crowds, metal’s still a bit much for me. I mentioned it a bit in a previous post, but there’s still a limit for me and that’s just how it is.

Now it’s time for some shout outs. The act I saw the most often was Urban Heat. I ended up seeing them 5 times over the course of 2023 in addition to seeing them at the end of 2022. They have such a dynamic show that I never once regretted seeing them. That said, it was a bit accidental that I ended up seeing them so many times. I saw them first in January during Free Week intentionally. Next in February I saw them because I wanted to try out the Canon Demi S before SXSW and they were just the show I ended up at. After that, I saw them during SXSW because I couldn’t get into a different show during that time slot. Then I saw them opening for Vision Video in August which was a really fun and packed show. And then I once again saw them open for a Mobley show. I was always going to go to that Mobley show but it was fun to see them one more time.

The artist I listened to the most last year was Lena Luca. I’ve talked about her and her music a few times this year and I ended up seeing her live 4 times in 2023.

The act that surprised me the most was Me Nd Adam. Honestly going into their first show in July I didn’t know who they were. I was going to go see Foxtales and KVN who were opening for them. But they were really fun and an exciting live act. So much so I went to see them again at the end of the year.

The most interesting set of shows I went to was the David Slowing show with Xuiqen, Housekeys, and Botany. I mentioned it before but the quadraphonic sound setup was such a fun and interactive space to listen to music in.

Those are all mostly Austin or close by artists so I want to make sure I spend some time focused on non Austin and international artists too.

In that vein I want to shout out Hope D who were so fun to go see live at SXSW. They have such a fun and cozy vibe and I listened to them a lot both before and afterwards.

N’famady Kouyaté and Ladaniva were probably the two acts that broadened my musical listening the most. N’famady Kouyaté through introduced me to more West African musical styles while Ladaniva did a similar thing with Armenian and a subset of French music.

Interestingly, due to how Spotify recommends stuff, Ladaniva also led me to Basque and Occitan music. While I haven’t seen any Basque or Occitan music live yet, I’d really love to. Both languages are quite interesting and distinct and it’s definitely on my list now in a way that it wouldn’t be previously.

For some reason, I felt like I went to see significantly more Austin based artists than I did. I ended up seeing somewhere around 73 sets by Austin based artists. Which ends up around a 2:1 split of Austin to non Austin. This is more than in 2022 but I thought it’d be more.

One last thing to mention about 2023 is that there are a lot more duplicates in 2023 than 2022. Part of this is because I just chose to see more music. A big part of how I learn about more musical acts is by seeing ones I know and listening to their openers or if they’re the openers by listening to who they’re opening for. Some fun examples here are Swimwear Department who opened for Big Bill. Or as I mentioned earlier, Me Nd Adam, who had Foxtales and KVN open for them.

As with in 2022, I made a playlist which can be found here. With that let’s go on to the 36.