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MOST "RAWK" MOMENT
Who says rock is dead? We saw enough real (and faux) posturing this year to last a lifetime.
1. An Albatross 
15 April 2005: Ottobar — Baltimore
Head tossing recklessly, the band's singer backstroked across the audience. Catching a glint of solid steel, he reached over his head, firmly grasping the edges one of the club's vertical support beams. In one fluid motion his legs flipped above his head, locking around it. Muscles straining, his inverted body scrambled, upside down, to the ceiling. Still hanging, he turned his head and leveled a delirious banshee cry at the audience below. (AP)
The Subways
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2. The Subways
27 October 2005: Brookes University — Oxford, England
Multiple and repeated stage dives off a 15-foot high speaker stack by singer/guitarist Billy Lunn. "I can't imagine a better death than at a gig," he tells me afterwards in the calmest voice imaginable. Utterly mental. (RC)
3. Motley Crue
3 March 2005: Madison Square Garden — New York
Mid-set, everyone's favorite drummer stood up behind his kit, proclaimed, "It's not like you haven't seen it before!," and then hiked down his shorts and introduced Lil' Tommy to the packed Garden party. The display conclusively proved that the Crue's most famous member does not play an instrument and that Mr. Lee does indeed rawk out with his cock out. (AW)
4. Guitar Wolf
18 March 2005: La Zona Rosa — Austin
In the midst of an unannounced set full of drinking, running, posturing, and more noise than the rest of SXSW put together, Guitar Wolf pulled up a fan to play guitar. The fan promptly went into hero mode, wailing, tapping, and falling down. (JCL)
5. DKT-MC5
29 July 2005: North Six — Brooklyn, NY
The voice of the BellRays, Lisa Kekaula, channeled the spirit of Rob Tyner and blew away the crowd with her rawkin' renditions of MC5 classics. Bluesy and ballsy, with a commanding stage presence, no singer but Kekaula could have done such an impressive job kicking out the jams. (AW)
THE ANTI-ROCK
Like a plague, that which does not rock rains down upon that which does.
The Killers
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1. The Killers
4 February 2005: Cambridge Corn Exchange — Cambridge, England
After a rousing opening number, Brandon Flowers complains that some water and beer has landed on his keyboard and, rather than doing it himself, summons a roadie to wipe it down. As said roadie wipes, the keys are pressed, producing random squawks. "Mute it!" yells Flowers at the engineer. (RC)
2. Austin City Limits
25 September 2005: Austin
Instead of the usual endless crowd, there were large stretches of empty space. Within 30 seconds I understood. As I learned on the evening news later, it was about 108 degrees at the time with a heat index of 115. Like sugar ants gathering around every available sweet spot on a table, thousands of fans were squeezed into ever square inch of available shade. (TB)
3. Ryan Adams
20 May 2005: Electric Factory — Philadelphia
After storming off stage, tanking the last half of his set, storming off a second time, yelling at an audience member, and berating one of the venue's sound engineers, Ryan Adams played an encore to a half-empty venue with all of the house lights up. After completing the song, he threw his guitar down, spit wine (he was drinking from the bottle) into the microphone and poured the rest out on his guitar. (DB)
4. Raz Mesinai
3 December 2005: Tonic — New York
After a year struggling to raise enough money to keep their lease, Tonic must not have had quite enough left to pay the gas company. My beer bottle actually got colder in the open. But who needs heat when you're sitting in a near-empty room listening to avant garde musicians pluck piano strings and scrape sticks along pieces of broken glass? Chilling, indeed. (PJ)
5. Tom Vek
15 April 2005: ICA — London
For a man who claims not to be overtly influenced by Talking Heads, TV's running around the band EXACTLY like David Byrne does in Stop Making Sense is a total giveaway. (RC)
Next page: Call and Response / Band Interupted
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