- Tim and Max are right about that Tune-Yards show. I was a fan before that show, but now I’m a believer. Moving around in The Basement is a nightmare when that place is at capacity, but all the sweaty claustrophobia was pushed to the back of my mind once the set started.

- Swans at Variety Playhouse. I had seen the first hour of their set a week earlier at Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, so I knew they were going to open with a nearly 45 minute droning instrumental piece. I was ready for that. But I wasn’t totally ready for the nearly two hours that followed. The show was so loud and the music so intense that I left feeling physically beaten, but in a good way, like after a long workout. There was also the sense that I was leaving some kind of religious service. Their new material is excellent, but the highlight was an unhinged Michael Gira violently making his way through classic cut “I Crawled.”

- Adam and Christina raise a good point about local bands that consistently put on great live shows. It’s easy to take consistency for granted because it’s harder to single out any one show. Of the local bands I saw multiple times in 2011, I’d say the best were Jungol, Small Reactions, A. Grimes, and This Piano Plays Itself, who were playing some really impressive new material before they called it quits.

slowriter.bandcamp.com

Smother’s been one of my favorite releases of the year, but unfortunately they didn’t have a Nashville stop on this tour.