Ok so weve done the best albums of the year so far list, how bout best sets of the year (so far).

My top 5 goes...

 1- Rage @ lolla
2- Aesop Rock w/Rob sonic @ sound academy
3- The Deathset @ bovine sex club
4- Gogol Bordello @ lolla
5- The Black Angels @ Lees Palace

honorable mention to the Oholics @ Silver Dollar... and Black Lips @ lolla

I think Soulwax was the best I saw this year.

Wow.

I just realized that i haven't been to any shows this year.

/cry

Hmmm...

ok

1.  Radiohead @ West Palm Beach

2. Rage @ Lollapalooza

3. Mum + The Postmarks @ Orlando

4. Battles @ Lollapalooza

5. Hmmm... Probably... Jose Gonzalez @ Miami

soulwax @ irving plaza

ezekiel healy @ some dude's house in brooklyn

hot 97 summer jam

88 drums

um, those were all within the past three months.  asking me to remember anything before that is just too much. man, always been so bad with the wrap-ups. i'll go home and check ticket stubs. oh wait, they don't give those out anymore.

Mark Kozelek at Highline.  Sorrier venues are no match for his voice.

Frightened Rabbit and Oxford Collapse @ Southpaw and M83 @ Bowery would round up the top 3. 

1) Tara Jane O'Neil at Needles and Pens, SF : she only played 3 songs, of which one was a cover of Cher's "Believe," and also made a go at a Michael Hurley song, which she forgot halfway through. I wondered why shows like that do not exist more. Still do wonder.

2) Excepter/Indian Jewelry at Hemlock, SF : No reason Excepter's next record should not be a continuous, 60-minute jam like it was here. No hits! IJ played w/ strobe and have a voodoo drum machine that makes holes in your bones.

3) Dominique Leone at Oakopolis Gallery, Oakland : Only 10 people fit in the actual room where the show was, and the rest spilled out on the stairs. It was constructed like a radio program, complete with a pulp narrative and wacky SFX, but also included a jury-rigged homebrew tape delay (made up of three mutilated walkmen). Another "no hits" performance, w/ all new material and an obvious classical background. This is one place music can got to not die.

The Pogues @ Roseland, NYC

New Model Army @ Maxwells, NJ

Less Than Jake/ Goldfinger @ Roseland, NYC

Pennywise/Authority Zero/Strung Out @ Irving Plaza, NYC

DeVotchKa @ Terminal 5, NYC

Flogging Molly @ The Chance, Poughkeepsie NY

Mighty Mighty Bosstones/Dropkick Murphys @ Starland Ballroom (performance wise. venue was a nightmare)