[show_avatar email=anniemccance@gmail.com align=left avatar_size=62] We asked a few of our friends in and around St. Louis music to share with us their favorite shows from 2010. The only requirement was that they give us their top 3 concerts – it didn’t have to be a local band or even performed in St. Louis. We received such good responses that we had to split up the post into two. Check back later TOMORROW MORNING to read the second half.

On Monday, we’d like to run a post with our readers’ Top 3 concerts! If you would like to make a submission, please email me at annie@iwenttoashow.com and include a short biography and picture.

Louis Kwok runs the concert photography-focused blog musicVSman. He wishes he could make some philosophical remark about its existence, but it’s basically an excuse for him to go see more shows.

3. Janelle Monae / Of Montreal @ The Pageant (10/21): I’m kind of cheating, but the performances were so intertwined that the sets became one grand experience. Sexy nuns, funky pirates, killer fish robots, a shower of feathers to end the show – you know, the usual for an Of Montreal show.

2. Black Lips @ The Firebird (4/7): Possibly the craziest show I’ve ever seen. Funny thing is that I still can’t name any of their songs, but I can tell you which band member vomits, which one hung from the ceiling while still playing guitar, which one used a broken bottle to play slide guitar and which one played the guitar with his junk.

1. Breathe Owl Breathe @ Off Broadway (10/7): A near perfect mix of whimsy, weirdness and heart. On paper, songs about dog walking, being pen pals with a dragon and mustaches sound ridiculous, but the Michigan trio played with a sincerity that made their folky pop completely infectious.

Anna Moffatt is a St. Louis native, a member of The Dive Poets and a graduate student of Music Therapy at Maryville University. You can often catch her wearing cowboy boots and refusing to let dudes carry her amp for her.

1. The Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Sheldon

2. Big Smith at Off Broadway

3. Jeff Tweedy at LouFest

I like any concert that gets me tapping my toes and swinging my hips. The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Big Smith both get the entire audience to groove along with them. The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ show may have been the only one I’ve been to where the entire audience begged for banjo over guitar. Add to that level of enthusiasm incredible stage presence and musicianship, and you have the perfect recipe for an unforgettable performance.

My name is Ryan Albritton and I love music, love hearing it, love playing it, love recording it. My partner, Ryan Lewis and I own R&R Music Labs and started STL LOUD, the local EP project.

1. Roger Water’s The Wall– A natural contender for best show. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it was amazing.

2. The AUCW 2010 shows- yes, all three. It qualifies as one event, right? These performances were exceptional, and the whole thing was a blast! Good job to all of the local bands who participated!

3. The Halloween Hootenanny at Off Broadway– The Monad’s last show and they went out on a high note! Crazy costumes, beach balls, dancing and sweat = amazing night!

I’m Sarah Ross, the drummer for two local bands, the Paper Dolls and Jump Starts. Determining my three favorite shows of 2010 was a little tricky, as this year has been especially jam-packed. While I missed many great performances, certain ones I did catch really stuck with me. In no particular order:

Cake, 12/15/10, at the Pageant. Lead singer John McCrea has an easy going charisma; lyrics seem to roll right off his tongue. Him using a classical guitar for some songs added a cool mariachi feel. Multi-instrumentalist Vince Damiani played flawlessly and made seamless transitions between instruments. The entire band is solid and comfortable enough not to use a set list, but rather to go with the flow and play what feels right. During a newer song, “Sick of You”, McCrea split the crowd in two, giving each half of the room a different vocal part. Cake had the us in the palm of their hands and most definitely did not need an opening act.

Street Dogs with Continental, Flatfoot 56, and Devil’s Brigade, 9/26/10, at the Firebird.
It’s not often I find myself in a mosh pit, but on this particular occasion, I couldn’t help myself! A fantastic array of high octane punk rock, each band had its own sound and stage presence, building climatically over the course of the evening. Continental started the night, and featured original Dropkick Murphys member Rick Barton. Flatfoot 56 gave such a high energy performance that I was inspired to spend my last 10 bucks on their CD Black Thorn. Gotta love those bagpipes! Devil’s Brigade (a side project of Rancid’s bassist Matt Freeman) brought rockabilly to the table with Freeman’s upright bass and gravelly vocals. Street Dogs’ Mike McColgan (former leader of Dropkick Murphys) is such a sincere bastard that you can’t help but join him in his fist-pumping fun. These guys could win over any reluctant attendee with thoughtful lyrics, crowd involvement, and high energy performances.

Pretty Little Empire CD Release with Bo & the Locomotives and Art Majors, 11/27/10, at the Firebird.
I might be biased about this one (I’m in a side project with PLE’s front man Justin Johnson).That said, this show was amazing, not only because of the quality of music that each band brought, but because of the serious love in the room. It was a showcase for really nice and talented local musicians who have equally nice and supportive fans. While recording and promoting their newest album, Reasons and Rooms, Pretty Little Empire has reached out to many, including local and touring bands, and forming friendships/networks that do not always come easily for other bands. Talking to any of PLE’s members, it is apparent how dedicated, earnest, and genuine this quartet is, the release show was the culmination of their hard work and friendly nature. Well over 200 friends, family, fans, and other local bands supported a group that rocked harder than I’ve ever seen before. On top of all this, I was introduced to Art Majors and Bo & the Locomotive, two solid bands I definitely look forward to seeing again.

Chris Bay The next time you’re at an under-attended weeknight show at Off Broadway, look for the tall, lanky guy with glasses at the back of the room, leaning against the wall and drinking whisky. His name is Chris, and he’s a friendly guy. If you tell him about some of your favorite music he’ll happily make you a mixtape in return. In addition to his manic addiction to vinyl and live shows, he also hosts Gold Soundz on KDHX and helps organize Twangfest.

Deer Tick, Titus Andronicus, Theodore, Pokey LaFarge – The Wedge – Sunday, March 14 This kind of show happens only a few times in your lifetime, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky you hear about it the night after from friends and neighbors. It’s the kind of show that in five years more people will claim to have been at than actually were. I’ll save you a complete recount of the still hard-to-believe-it-actually-went-down-that-way evening, especially since the RFT did a good job of it. Suffice it to say that this might be my favorite show of the past century. We sweated, danced, screamed along to “Authority Song” and “Maybelline”, made new friends, and got really drunk. I have met several people this year that were at the show and once this fact surfaced there was an instant bond. We both know what happened that night, and that there’s no way anyone who wasn’t there will ever truly appreciate it. It was the kind of show you dreamt about when you were younger and you started to doubt actually could happen as you put on a few years. I’m here to tell you, folks, it’s out there. Keep going to see live music, and you’ll find it.

The Low Anthem – Missouri Theater (Columbia, MO) – Tuesday, March 2
The Low Anthem was the opener that night, but nobody told them that. Most people were there to see The Avett Brothers and seemed anxious to get on with the show. There were lots of female freshman and sophomores from Mizzou, who had presumably been swept away by I and Love and You and the Brothers’ handsome charm. Despite this impatient energy, The Low Anthem pacified us all with the most quietly stirring performance that I saw all year. This was the first time I would see them live after being hypnotized by their epically beautiful album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. We got an arresting, emotionally raw performance that struck the rest of the audience just as strongly as it did me. The set ended with an old Gary Davis song, “Sally, Where’d You Get Your Liquor From?” that had been prefaced with instructions for audience participation. We would each call our neighbor on speaker phone and hold our cell phone up to that of our neighbor, with the ear piece of one aligned with the microphone of the other. The band held the final ambient chord, beginning a wave of feedback that grew as the sound traveled from stage to phone(s). The wave swelled to overtake the sound coming from the stage, at which point the band stopped and let the note drift from the air above down to our joy-stricken faces.

Will Johnson and Anders Parker – House Concert (South St. Louis) – Wendesday, April 21
Will Johnson is best known as the frontman of the Denton, TX band Centro-matic but his solo work and side projects are just as good, and sometimes better. Mr. Johnson is criminally underrated; hailing from Kennett, MO, he may be the best songwriter our state has ever produced. This show happened in a home in south city that was formerly a butcher shop. It was a small, intimate affair with only about 30 friends in attendance. The showmen took turns delivering sweet folk tunes and did a few songs together, including some that had been written the night before with Jay Farrar as part of the same Woody Guthrie project that spawned Wilco and Billy Bragg’s Mermaid Avenue. Johnson and Parker made it clear that they’re exactly what they appear to be on stage: honest, hard-working, beautiful people. It’s musicians like this, who’ve played for decades and still delive well-crafted songs that give me hope in the midst of over-hyped, flavor-of-the-month buzz bands. If you’re unfamiliar with Johnson, please give this video a few minutes of your time.

Julie Dill reviews shows, albums, books, and questionable life choices for IWTAS, St. Louis Magazine and her Gateway Groupies tumblr. Her reviews under 140 characters can be found on Twitter.

Sufjan Stevens, October, The Uptown Theater, Kansas City, MO If you haven’t read my insane review of this concert (and the album it was supporting) then I don’t know you, or you’re really good at tuning me out. I haven’t shut up about it since October, and I probably won’t any time soon.

Deer Tick, August, Off Broadway
St. Louis band Fattback was supposed to open for Deer Tick but less than a week before the concert, Dave Hagerty was killed in a car accident. Deer Tick opted to do the show as a memorial to raise money for expenses. The surviving members of the band were in back, everyone was anxious and sad, and John McCauley put on the most emotional, raucous, and violent show I’ve ever seen. It was freaking RAD. You haven’t lived until you see a man beat a drum kit with a saxophone, tear a PBR tallboy in half with his teeth, and punch his guitar until his knuckles were bloody. [video]

Jónsi, November, The Pageant
Solo project of jón þór birgisson of Icelandic art-rock experimental band Sigur Rós, Jónsi is the most visually arresting live performance you will ever see. The stunning animations that accompany the breathtaking music reduced the audience to a silent, slackjawed, teary mess. That was definitely true for me. I spent the entire show crying like a little girl with a skinned knee and shit. Don’t hesitate to pick up the DVD version of this tour. It is indescribably beautiful and I pitied Annie Z. for having to write about the show. I couldn’t do it, and I tried several times. http://flic.kr/p/8QoCdA

Dave Baker is just a guy who enjoys live music and tries to remember enough about the night before to write about it.

Mumford & Sons This one sold out way ahead of the show date and it really seemed to catch a lot of people off guard. The buzz inside Off Broadway before their set was something I hadn’t experienced at a show in a long time. There was a lot of anticipation and when the band took the stage, the crowd couldn’t stand still. People jumped up and down, threw their hands in the air, and yelled the lyrics right along with the band. One of the things I loved about this show was the respect the crowd had for the music. They knew the music, that is, they knew when to be quiet and they knew when to let loose.

Black Keys
This was another sold out show in June, a month that brought a ton of great music to St. Louis. The band was touring their newest album, Brothers, which would later end up on several “Best of 2010” lists. It’s a great album with a little more funk to it compared to earlier Black Keys releases. I was curious to see how they would pull it off, considering they’ve traditionally toured as a two piece. They not only pulled it off (though they did bring extra musicians to fill out the sound), a lot of the songs actually sounded better live. The Black Keys is all about raw energy during live performances, and that’s why this show was especially memorable.

RFT Music Showcase
While this one is more of a festival rather than a show, it was one of my most favorite music experiences of 2010. Bouncing from bar to bar to see local bands put it all out there in short bursts of sets was a ton of fun. Starting the day out with the Rum Drum Ramblers, tossing around hundreds of beach balls with The Monads, getting shitty with The Doc Ellis Band, and closing it out with Theodore…how can that NOT be a favorite?!

LCD Soundsystem – Coachella
I know you asked for three, but I have to do four. The show LCD Soundsystem put on at Coachella this year was an eye opening experience. They played the main stage at this huge, 70,000+ people festival and absolutely nailed it. Bands can have trouble connecting to such a large crowd, especially a large crowd that has tons of other music options just a few steps away. This was not a problem for LCD. The crowd was locked in, getting down, and hanging on every piece of wisdom and nonsense that came out of James Murphy’s mouth. The band was in party mode, walking around taking chugs of champagne from the bottle. It was just one of those situations where there’s a shared feeling of “FUCK YEAH!!” among tens of thousands. A familiar feeling at smaller shows, but something easily lost in a huge setting.