The Year in Live Music
I have a small group of friends that meets monthly to review everything we've heard, seen, and read over the course of 2025. Inspired by Steven Soderbergh's Seen Read list.
This is what I could recall from whiddling down a spreadsheet of all the music performances I could identify (does drag count? performance art with pre-recorded backing tracks? for these purposes, no). Comedy was also not really in here. That's for another list.
Two months left to see who else makes my year-end list!
NUMBER OF ACTS SEEN up to Oct 28, 2025
144
out of 73 Shows
ACTS I SAW MORE THAN ONCE IN 2025 (Alphabetical)
Fat Lady Sang (3)
Ghoul and the Gang (2)
Pauline Lay/Dominique Matelson/MA Tiesenga (2)
Muscle Beach (2)
Pauline Lay (2)
Spring Breeding (2)
Victoria Shen (2)
HIGHEST-RATED-SETS
Jan 4 Death Sentence: Panda! at The Smell
Jan 4 Mika Miko at The Smell
Jan 22 Body Double at Rickshaw Stop
Jan 22 Cel Genesis at Rickshaw Stop
Feb 1 Jim E Brown at Coaxial
March 4 To The Fullest: The Music of Julius Eastman and Arthur Russell, Wild Up at Walt Disney Concert Hall
March 6 Spring Breeding at Escondite
March 23 Guck at Non Plus Ultra
April 1 Beak> at Zebulon
April 7 Victoria Shen, Maria Chavez, Mariam Rezaei at 2220 Arts + Archives
May 5 Swing Kids at Lodge Room
May 10 Deerhoof at Lodge Room
May 10 Muscle Beach at Lodge Room
May 18 Loolowningen at 2220 Arts + Archives
June 27 Sea Moss at Frogtown house show
June 27 Spring Breeding at Frogtown house show
July 5 Bill Orcutt at Lodge Room
July 5 Tropical Fuck Storm at Lodge Room
Aug 4 Victoria Shen at Canary Test
Sept 20 Gumby's Junk at Orange County Center for Contemporary Art
Oct 17 Ches Smith's Clone Row at 2220 Arts + Archives
Oct 18 Tortoise at The Broad
GREAT FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Jan 22 Cel Genesis at Rickshaw Stop
March 6 Fat Lady Sang at Escondite
March 23 Kim Fuck at Non Plus Ultra
April 6 Cat Mahatta at Cafe 2001
April 25 Knucklebunder at Fat City
April 25 Trough at Fat City
May 18 Loolowningen at 2220 Arts + Archives
May 24 Habak at The Bellwether
June 27 Sea Moss at Frogtown house show
Aug 1 Ologist at The Smell
Aug 2 Phobophyptyx at Unfair Oaks
Sept 9 Cleo Reed at Zebulon
Sept 20 Gumby's Junk at Orange County Center for Contemporary Art
Oct 4 Shelley Burgon/Rob Magill/Marshall Trammell Trio at Trade School
Oct 22 Simon Ray at The Sardine
MOST FREQUENTED VENUES
2220 Arts + Archives (8)
Zebulon (8)
Lodge Room (3)
The Smell (3)
Cafe 2001 (3)