From Moodymann to Yo La Tengo & Far Beyond: The Showgoer On Showgoing In 2023

80 shows in 365 days. That’s a show on average every 4.5 days. From bringing in the New Year with the soulful techno stylings of brilliant Detroit DJ Moodymann at Los Angeles’ 1730 club on Jan. 1 to catching the warm noise pop of one of Yo La Tengo’s eight nights of Hanukkah shows last Sunday (Dec. 10) at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. In between, 78 shows with opening acts or side stages spanning genres and venue levels from maximalist stadium mega-shows to hole-in-the-walls, massive festivals, sheds, municipal parks and more. 2023 was a wealth of riches and for live music fanatics a marathon with worthy shows most every night of the year in most major markets. The takeaways gleaned from this over-running plate are vast, sometimes glorious, sometimes practical, but far more than not, worth every second of time, effort and expense.

It’s Also a Golden Age Qualitatively
In December Pollstar and VenuesNow quantitatively chronicled the live industry’s “Golden Age” in our Year-End issues with this year seeing a 46% increase in gross revenues on Pollstar’s Worldwide Top 100 Chart which reached $9.17 billion. Attendance, too, was up, with ticket sales increasing by 18.4% to 70 million.

The amount of shows increasing at every venue level Pollstar tracked meant that qualitatively, too, there were more incredible opportunities to see more acclaimed live performances than ever before. Yes, there were awesome and massive tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay and Drake, among others that were jaw-dropping to behold. So, too, were many, many smaller shows. Ukrainian folk quartet DakhaBrakha at the L.A.’s Ace Hotel, Bed Maker at Washington D.C.’s Rhizome, Angel Bat Dawid and Oui Ennui at L.A.’s Gold Diggers, Say She She on a Festival d’été de Québec side stage and Allison Russell’s sublime set at L.A.’s El Rey Theatre (see “Favorite Shows Of 2023: Staff Picks” for more) were all stunning. Certainly, your mileage and critical takes may vary; but the opportunity to see so much worthy performances and commune with like-minded fans and walk out with joy was a very strong possibility at every level of the business.

Spend What You Want
Average ticket prices on for Top 100 Worldwide tours in 2023 increased 23.33% from $106.07 to $130.81 — which for many mega-shows are well worth it if you can swing it. If you can’t, for a quarter or a third of the price, one can easily see smaller shows and be just as sated depending on your tastes. Check your local and national listings (on Pollstar.com, of course).

Don’t Sleep On The Legends
Easily some of the best live performances this year came from the veteran artists long in the tooth and talent who in this stage of their careers are better than ever. Elvis Costello’s residency at NYC’s Fillmore; Iggy Pop at L.A.’s Palladium; Willie Nelson’s 90th at the Hollywood Bowl; Neil Young at the Ford Theater; John Fogerty at the BeachLife Festival; Nick Cave at D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre. Also, while we’re at it, Gen X acts like Liz Phair performing 1993’s brilliant Exile in Guyville at D.C.’s Anthem was excellent. Who knows if or when any of these artists will tour again — just go if you get the chance.

Support Your Local Venue
Whether Cat Power covering Dylan’s Royal Albert Hall set at L.A.’s Troubadour, Santigold playing the new and awesome Bellwether in L.A., Ex Hex at D.C.’s Black Cat, the aforementioned DakhaBrakha at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Jeff Tweedy at the Largo, Orgone at the Teragram Ballroom, support your local stages. They are finite and glorious American resources to be treasured.

Alternative Spaces Are Cool, Too
Pussy Riot at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery’s parking lot; alternative comedy at L.A.’s Dynamite Typewriter; a blues act in the back of McCabe’s Guitar Shop; “Cabaret” at London’s Kit Kat Club; the Harry Smith (American folk music preservationist and maybe a psychedelic shaman?) exhibition at the Whitney Museum; Kyle Hall and Kenny Larkin at a Carl Craig exhibition after party at L.A.’s Geffen Contemporary at MOCA —all worthy and outside the traditional music venues.

Festivals Forays
Four first-time fests for the showgoer this year include Rolling Loud L.A. outside SoFi Stadium, which was far more fun and user friendly than expected; Governors Ball for the first time at Flushing Meadows Park, was a new perfect setting; the BeachLife Festival at Redondo Beach in L.A. was small, manageable (and we ran into CAA’s Rob Light); and Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ), is a new fave with an awesome and massive rock stage and well-programmed smaller stages (Say She She!) set amidst a gorgeous fairytale-like town.

International Is Back, Baby!
Thank goodness international markets fully-opened this year, which resulted in spontaneous, wild and wondrous shows. This included the campy joyous ABBA Voyage hologram performance in London; a Swell reunion show on a boat/venue along Paris’ Seine River; and Brooklyn’s post-punk heroes Model/Actriz playing at Lisbon’s ZDB Gallery, an incredible two-story gallery, club, venue, outdoor space in the middle of the old city.

A Production Arms Race Is On!
First, the immersive technologies at Sphere, as we have written, are incredible and the longtail of those technologies will be felt in this industry for many years to come. At the same time, tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Drake induced similar reactions with fantastical production that included, but wasn’t limited to, chrome-plated horses, office skyscrapers and/or flying spermatozoa. And, by the way, what Caroline Rose did this year with a flashlight and scrim was lo-fi wondrous in its own right. In 2023, production innovations hit a new high and the tech will become more widespread.

Crappy Weather Is Real
Call it extreme weather or climate change, whatever it is sucks and it impacted commercial air travel with flight delays and cancellations and lost luggage. Shows were canceled due to intense heat, wind, flooding or fire, even more reason to go while the going’s good. The Burning Man cement pit really happened.

Sheds Are Glorious
Willie’s 90th celebration at the Bowl, Noah Kahan and Ringo Starr at L.A.’s Greek Theater, Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, Neil Young at the Ford, all under the stars with folks around you singing along full-throated – what could possibly be better?

Making Parking Suck Less
L.A., and other U.S. car-dependent cities inevitably turns one into a traffic and parking obsessive. Meet the ParkWhiz app, which can save money and time allowing one to book parking in alternative spaces before you even leave the house. A makeshift parking lot at a junior high school near SoFi Stadium saved at least $30 for Rolling Loud and was an easy walk to the show.

Keeping It Real
There’s a lot of divisiveness today in the world, at least according to the media and social media if you can stand them. Part of what makes live so wondrous is the debunking of these assumed suppositions. Being amongst people from all walks of life and never once having a harsh or divisive word about a thing and then lighting out into the night together knowing you and those around you are all amped up from what was just heard, seen and felt together is glorious. See you in another 4.5 days.