Most Popular

We didn’t pick these, you did. Our monthly NYC Live music calendar is always the most popular post here at any given time; our Best 100 Songs of 2010, 100 Best Albums of 2010,  Best 100 Songs of 2009 list and Top 100 Songs of 2008 list close behind. Following them are ourTop 666 Songs of Alltime list, our Top 50 Albums of 2009 and our Top 50 Albums of 2008. Beyond those, here are the ten most popular reviews to date:

1. Chicha Libre at Barbes, 9/29/07. North America’s premier Peruvian-style chicha band put on a slinky, psychedelic, deliciously surfy show.

2. Steel Pulse at Rockefeller Park, NYC 7/16/08. Classic roots reggae from an outfit still vital 35 years after they started.

3. Straight Drive at Banjo Jim’s, NYC 2/9/08. Bluegrass from the golden-voiced Jen Larson and her spectacularly good group.

 

4. Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider. Silent City cd review – the Iranian kamancheh player/composer’s extraordinary collaboration with the innovative, equally brilliant New York string quartet.

 

5. Mark Sinnis, Sputnik and Spanking Charlene live 9/16/07. Nashville gothic, sultry pop and fiery, rootsy, female-fronted punk rock. We put the phrase “American Idol” in the title to see if it would generate traffic and…sadly, we were right.

 

6. Hippiefest at Asser Levy Park, Brooklyn NY 7/26/07. A mixed bag: Melanie, Country Joe McDonald and what’s left of the Zombies.

 

7. Jay Bennett - Whatever Happened, I Apologize. The former Wilco multi-instrumentalist’s final, harrowing 2009 album, which he generously agreed to give away as a free download.

 

8. Ian Hunter at Rockefeller Park, 6/24/09. Hard to believe that this guy was seventy years old when he played this show – he just keeps getting better and better. Transcending a dodgy sound mix, he and his Rant Band reminded Manhattan what rock really means.

 

9. Legendary organist Joyce Jones being her characteristically counterintuitive self at Trinity Church, 7/24/08. 

 

10. The Brooklyn What at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 8/22/08. A characteristically fun, furious, entertaining show by New York’s most relevant rock band in their first full year together, just when they were picking up real momentum.