Best Shows of 2013: Rae Spoon at the Rickshaw Theatre, October 27

A frustrating tangle of miscommunication ended in one of the most surprisingly good shows I've seen. Based on a few songs, I thought Rae Spoon was an unadventurous electronic pop artist. There are plenty of electronic sounds on Spoon's latest album, My Prairie Home, and they are pretty adventurous for Spoon, but I was bright with glee to hear a majority of songs that leaned more towards drum-and-guitar indie pop. The Kingsgate Chorus, who joined Spoon for one of the night's final songs, made me wish I had the foresight to book off work that night. I still need to watch Chelsea McMullan's documentary My Prairie Home.

Full review at Vancouver Weekly.

Best Shows of 2013: The Sonics with the Vicious Cycles at the Rickshaw Theatre, September 20

The greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time, one of my top bucket list shows, and, as I expected, one of the best shows I ever saw (#5, behind the White Stripes twice, Les Savy Fav, and Japanther). Nardwuar the Human Serviette introduced the godfathers of garage rock with as much trivia about their history with Vancouver as one would expect from the music guru, which indirectly explained why Tacoma, Washington's the Sonics chose nearby Vancouver as the site of a one-off show.

The Sonics played allllllllll of their hits, but they really couldn't have done otherwise, given that all of their songs are hits, at least to me. Besides having been able to sing every word and having rocked so hard that my glasses flew onto the floor in the front row (surprisingly no damage), the best part of the night was when the Sonics announced that they'd just finished recording a new album in Seattle and promised another show soon.

I also have to praise openers the Vicious Cycles. Their greasy punkabilly left the audience lying in oil slicks, coughing up dust. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of the Vicious Cycles before, besides one mention from a friend during Khatsalano Fest a couple of months earlier.