PopMatters Picks: The Best (and Worst) in Show 2007

07 January 2008

Part 1: Best and Worst Openers

By PopMatters Staff

Remember when the White Stripes opened for Sleater-Kinney? How about when the Shins opened for Modest Mouse? Door times are for the birds, but sometimes it does pay to show up early.

Part 2: Rawk and Anti-Rock

By PopMatters Staff

Anyone can lay down a rocking riff, but it takes a real fiend to unleash the fire burning below. Dust off your devil horns, because these muthas didn’t just rawk our socks; they set those little bastards on fire.

Part 3: Hecklers and Other Interruptions

By PopMatters Staff

Hecklers, bless their souls, push performers to say things that no person should ever say out loud. Here we honor the best on both sides of this eternal dance of the foul-mouthed.

Part 4: Best Moves

By PopMatters Staff

From the shimmy shake to the backwards bicycle kick, great musicians own a room using way more than words. And, sometimes, all it takes is style...

Part 5: Best and Worst Dressed

By PopMatters Staff

The only thing worse than letting your mom dress you is letting your publicist do it. "Fashion faux pas" doesn't even begin to describe these dandies.

Edited By: Megan Milks and Andrew Phillips

Writers: Brent Baldwin, Chris Catania, Nick Gunn, Ryan S. Henriquez, Matt Mazur, Kevin Pearson, Zach Schonfeld, Shain Shapiro, Steve Stirling, and Adam Williams

In the past 12 months, we, the PopMatters Events staff, have gone to house shows, club shows, theater shows, arena shows—slackjawed, we’ve sat through historic collaborative events, mind-bending art-school productions, and embarrassing awards-show travesties alike. As usual, some were flat-out wastes of time, especially later, when we then had to spend precious hours painfully excreting the cogent-est of copy explaining exactly why so-and-so stunk (I dunno, maybe because it just friggin’ did!!). Of course, many performances were heart-pounding, soul-stirring memorials to what music can be, should be, and, in some cases, actually is.

Groundbreaking music or no, a show is still a show, and the show must go on. From our experience, it looks like mirrorballs, a multitude of geometrically arranged drum sets, and flying high heels are some of the best ways to leave your mark. With that in mind, we now present to you our Best (and Worst) in Show of 2007…