[show_avatar email=anniemccance@gmail.com align=left avatar_size=62] Welcome to our annual Top Shows series. We asked local musicians, media folk, and our fearless readers to submit their top 3 concerts of 2011. The only requirement for these submissions was that the show must have happened in 2011. With this unifying detail you can read about the diverse shows that St. Louisans get to attend.

Dave Baker writes words, drinks craft beers, shakes hands, and smiles for IWTAS.

1. Newport Folk Festival – 7/30-7/31/2011: While this one isn’t just one show, it was hands down my favorite music experience of 2011. The festival is held at Fort Adams State Park at the mouth of Newport Harbor in Rhode Island. This Civil War era fort acts as the back drop behind the three stages while the harbor filled with moored boats provides scenery for the bands that are on stage. The vibe is completely relaxed and user friendly. I mean, the easiest way to and from the festival grounds is to take a water taxi across the harbor! Standout performances from the 2011 Newport Folk Festival for me were Brown Bird, River City Extension, and The Head and the Heart. All three of those bands rank pretty high on my “new to me” list for this past year, all thanks to their sets at Newport.

2. Samantha Crain at The Gramophone – 6/21/2011: This one was a bit of a last minute show. Announced just a few days before it would occur and on a night when there was already a bunch of other things going on. Samantha Crain was touring with a “full band” setup that they were calling The Cat Calls. The Cat Calls were Anne Lillis on drums, Penny Hill on bass, and of course Samantha Crain on guitar. They were truly a power-trio that put a new edge to the songs I already knew and loved from her 2010 release You (Understood).

3. Middle Brother at Metro (Chicago) – 3/12/2011: Another somewhat hastily planned show for me was the Middle Brother show in Chicago. A week and a half before the show, a friend and I decided to make the trip up north to catch this one since they weren’t coming to St. Louis. Middle Brother is a collaborative effort between members of Dawes, Deer Tick, and Delta Spirit. The shows backing the album allowed for sets from both Dawes and Deer Tick, before closing out the night with a full on Middle Brother set. All three bands played really strong sets to a big crowd with plenty of fist in the air moments. We were also treated to guest appearances from Jonny Corndawg throughout the night and we were lucky enough to get to celebrate his birthday backstage – cake and all! It was one of those nights when we forgot we were supposed to act our age, but the early train ride back to St. Louis the next day quickly reminded us why we can’t do it like that all the time.

HELLO ST. LOUIS!

As a member of IWTAS and a general crazyperson, I (Julie Dill) went to upwards of 70 shows in 2011. I’d say 30 of them were extraordinary, life-long memorable, still give me goosebumps to think of them, experiences. 10 of them (seriously TEN) were once-in-a-lifetime events that I will never top. And I had to narrow this shit down to 3! UGH. I got down to six and I started to feel ill. How can I not include the other-worldly communal mind meld of the Deerhunter set at LOUFEST? Or the crazy-good, most professional indie rock band in the world, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s at The Firebird? And the visceral ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu I felt as I backspaced through St. Vincent at The Old Rock House? and Beirut at The Pageant? Ben Folds and the Frickin’ St. Louis Symphony Orchestra?? What the hell is wrong with me?! But here they are, my Top 3 Shows of 2011.

3. Of Montreal at The Luminary – 7/4/2011
The fact that this show, a once in a lifetime, face melting freak occurrence, is #3 on my list, is pretty frickin’ significant.

2. William Fitzsimmons at The Firebird – 5/1/2011
I didn’t write up a review of this show, because sad bastard music is a tricky genre. William Fitzsimmons is one of those artists that, if you don’t already know who he is, you probably won’t be interested. Everyone who wanted to be there showed up and they didn’t need my recap to remember what happened. I love my intimate clubs so much, and this was the pinnacle of an intimate performance. VIDEO: Watch Tide Pulls From the Moon. The best part of this show was that William Fitzsimmons is hilarious. To offset the serious, depressing themes of his gorgeous songs, his stage banter is charming, witty and self deprecating. The other great thing is, if by some chance you didn’t know William Fitzsimmons before, he’s coming back on March 31st, at The Firebird again. Treat yoself!

1. Foals & The Naked and the Famous at The Firebird – 4/23/2011
Dude. Seriously. If you weren’t at this show, you can’t possibly wrap your mind around how off the chain it was. I was standing right in front, and when I close my eyes, I can still perfectly imagine the look on my photog partner’s face as Yannis hopped on top of the monitors and equipment cases, climbed onto the seats, then stepped right over her head onto the tables on the other side of the room. Maybe Yannis doesn’t walk on water, but he does totally walk on bar tops, seat backs, pinball machines, and tables. This was probably the single coolest show I will ever see, and I’m totally okay with that.

Jess Luther writes words, takes photos, shakes hands, and smiles for IWTAS.

1. tUnE-yArDs at Off Broadway – 11/8/2011
Believe the hype. Merrill Garbus might be the most talented, most arresting working musician of the moment. She came onstage in striped socked feet and a disbelieving, head-shaking grin – the type you exchange with the planner of your birthday party right after everyone yells, ‘SURPRISE!’ “All this? For me?” And the splayfooted Garbus smiled, knowing it was and should be all for her. Then…she tore us apart. Vocal range, vocal control, command of her band, those guttural screams. And beats, beats, beats.

tUnE-yArDs’ 2011 release w h o k i l l was originally titled women who kill [sic]. I remember an interview where she said that leaving out the gender part made the album title more accessible and less isolating. So it was frustrating to hear Garbus being touted arduously as an unbelievable female musician, throngs of bespectacled, testicled, vinyl-worshipping nerds showering her with affectionate praise and subsequently questioning their place in the universe. One of my favorite Riverfront Times writers even had an existential crisis; it was awesome. “But she’s a GIRL!” they whispered to themselves over lukewarm cups of fair-trade coffee. But therein lies the point. tUnE-yArDs had to be, has to be, a woman. It’s what our national music scene needs right now. [Cut to an image of Katy Perry’s cupcake bra…That’s a thing, right?]

After the show the crowd went outside and got drunk on Off Broadway’s patio. We were panting and ecstatic. Everything was beautiful and nothing was Bon Iver.

2. Mountain Man at Off Broadway – 7/21/2011
One of the members of folk trio Mountain Man was having a birthday the night of their most recent St. Louis show. Her father had contacted Steve Pohlman, the venue owner, prior to the concert and had arranged for a cake to be purchased and presented by Steve to the young musician while on stage. Everyone cried or whatever (maybe it was just me and the birthday girl). From my initial review:

This is where we’d do well to remember that artists, of whom we take photographs, from whom we purchase records and t-shirts, and about whom we write and talk often mercilessly, have dads who email other dads when their kids are adventuring in a foreign land (Missouri) and are worried that their twenty-somethingith birthdays will go unacknowledged.

3. Old Lights at LouFest – 8/28/2011
Four Local Boys and Two Local Girls Made Good. It was early Sunday afternoon. I had moderate dehydration, a severe farmer’s burn, and $18.73 in my checking account. Friends and strangers were sitting on the Forest Park grass, happily and wearily bobbing their heads. Guitar strings broke and the band laughed and David Beeman knelt with his guitar at the front of the stage as a camera crew zoomed in. “How can I live this waaaay?” he sang. And we all answered: Just like this, right here, forever.

Annie McCance is the resident designer on the IWTAS team. She loves interacting with the creatives of the STL music community.

1. I Went To A Showcase at Off Broadway – 5/14/2011
Have you ever gone to a show and wondered about all the work that goes into running it? I used to. This spring, our little blog got the big opportunity to host a concert featuring some of our personal favorite local bands. The actual show ended up being a blur – I spent most of the time coordinating with the venue, bands, fans, and taco truck (and drinking lots of coffee). Our goal with IWTAShowcase was simply to expose music fans in St. Louis (some fans even traveled from Kansas City) to bands they might not have seen play live before. The amount of fun had by musicians and concertgoers alike was the realization of that goal.

2. Thao & Mirah at Off Broadway – 6/15/2011
I’m beginning to think that the best shows in St. Louis fall on Sunday through Wednesday. At least that’s when some of my favorite bands can make it to town. A packed house that wasn’t sold out. A happy, jumping, joyful, yet respectful crowd. Two gracious and receptive, famous-in-their-own right artists with a great backing band. This was the type of show I’d go to again and again. This was the type of show I won’t forget.

3. Arcade Fire at Scottrade – 4/21/2011
I don’t remember the last concert I went to that was in an arena, or actually, even required ticketed seating. Nonetheless, there I was, holding a $10 Bud Light three-fourths of the way back on the floor at Scottrade, watching the Grammy-winning Arcade Fire. I’m a local coffee house person, and I was at a Starbucks show. And you know what? It rocked. Hearing cuts from The Suburbs played live made real an album that was sincerely important to me in 2011.

Annie created an infographic to visualize our 4-part Top Shows of 2011 series. You’ll find that the data is grouped by 4 elements: artist/band that performed, venue, day of the week, and the season in which the concert took place. We hope the infographic provides a fun shapshot that encapsulates the opinions of our selected contributors to the series. We can’t wait to [continue] seeing you all at shows in 2012!