SPIN

2010 was an epic year for live shows -- and SPIN was there to capture the best and biggest of them, from Gaga's Lollapalooza crowd dive to Gorillaz' star-studded sweep through the U.S. Click into the gallery to see photos from each concert and read our review. --By William Goodman

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Gorillaz ruled the year in live music. For their 48-date world tour in support of Plastic Beach, ex-Blur frontman Damon Albarn recruited Lou Reed, Mos Def, De La Soul, and Snoop Dogg — plus the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, who played together for the first time in more than two decades. Meanwhile, on massive screens overhead, animator and co-founder Jamie Hewlett's "four animated band members scurry around their apartment, run from the law, dodge death, and discover their third album's titular paradise," wrote SPIN's Chris Martins. "This is what happens when a Grammy-winning, multiplatinum cartoon band gets its wings."

MTS CENTRE, WINNIPEG, CANADA
JANUARY 13

It took Axl Rose and Co. 17 years to release Chinese Democracy -- so anticipation was high for their first live gigs in its support. Rose and his band of hired Guns delivered. They launched a Canadian tour (sorry, America!) with a "full-out rock'n'roll spectacle -- explosions and confetti, along with seven video screens and a massive mobile lighting rig -- that requires 15 semis of equipment and eight buses for the band and crew," wrote SPIN's Rob Williams. Over three hours, GNR played 25 songs, covering most of the new album and their greatest hits. "At 47, Rose looked and sounded as good as ever... but next time, don't wait so long."

BELL HOUSE, BROOKLYN, NY
JANUARY 19

It was her first live show, but actress, singer, and French pop royalty Charlotte Gainsbourg performed like a vet. "Set the night on fuckin' fire, Charlotte!" hollered a fan at Brooklyn's Bell House. She did just that, "delicately, sensuously, using her five-piece band as the lighter fluid," wrote SPIN's William Goodman. The songstress worked through songs off her latest album, IRM, which was written and produced by Beck, with a "restraint that lends itself to the mystery and seductive nature of her music… Not bad for a rookie."

HENRY FONDA THEATER, LOS ANGELES
JANUARY 24

When a massive earthquake leveled Haiti, Radiohead came to the rescue. Thom Yorke and Co. took a break from recording their new album to play a benefit show in Los Angeles that tipped the sonic Richter scale. They ripped through 24 songs, covering six albums in two hours, including "a brutal rocking 'The Bends' among the countless highlights," wrote SPIN's Chris Martins. They also debuted a new song, tentatively called "Lotus Flower," for an A-list crowd that included Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, and oddball comedian Aziz Ansari. But how much did they earn? As Yorke announced with an astonished, "Fuck me!" – a cool $572,754.

STUBB'S, AUSTIN, TX
MARCH 20

When alt-rock's queen bitch Courtney Love took the stage at SPIN's annual SXSW party wearing an orange sash that read "BEWARE," and kicked into her band Hole's first North American show in more than a decade, some "came expecting some sort of spectacle, maybe even a train wreck," wrote SPIN's Kevin Bronson. "They got neither." The SPIN cover girl and her new band "delivered a muscular and saw-toothed 50-minute set" full of her '90s hits like "Violet" and "Doll Parts," plus songs off their surprising new album, Nobody's Daughter. "[The show] reaffirmed her status, even at age 45, as rock provocateur. Maybe that sash should have read 'MISS BEHAVE.'"

COACHELLA
April 18

Eleven years after their disastrous set at Coachella, which ended with singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus walking off (the band soon broke up), Pavement returned to Indio for indie rock's most-salivated over reunion yet. Their set was worth the wait. "The combination of age and wisdom and plain old business acumen have had a restorative effect on Pavement: They're here to do this right this time, trying harder without looking like they're actually trying," wrote SPIN's Steve Kandell. The indie pioneers strutted through their "hits," like "Cut Your Hair" and "Gold Soundz," and thoroughly enjoyed themselves -- a big, goofy smile crept across Malkmus' face and later he offered a hearty Tiger-like fist pump. "And if you listened just hard enough, you may have detected the slightest note of wistfulness."

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ
MAY 1-2

And the award for the most eclectic bill, combined with worst location, goes to… Bamboozle! Paramore, Ke$ha, Against Me!, Drake, Taylor Momsen's Pretty Reckless, MGMT, Weezer, and others invaded a stretch of concrete between a highway and the half-demolished Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, for a two-day party. The weekend's biggest surprise? Momsen. "While she might not be able to pick the Dead Weather's Alison Mosshart out of a lineup, and was bottle feeding when Hole's Live Through This came out, Momsen's songs are pretty kickass, and the girl can really wail, singing with a remarkably raspy, world-weary howl that's worth taking seriously," wrote SPIN's Peter Gaston.

MANCHESTER, TN
JUNE 9-13

Since playing a sidestage at Bonnaroo in 2004, Tennessee's native sons have become rock royalty with a Top 10 album (Only by the Night) and Grammy-winning single "Use Somebody." Fittingly, for their triumphant 2010 homecoming, the Followills celebrated with a "colossal spectacle," wrote SPIN's Charles Aaron. "The band entered to thunderous choral music while plumes of black smoke emanated from all over the venue, backed by a dazzling, skyscraper-size matrix of lights." But the theatrics didn't overshadow the tunes: "The real highlight was a clutch of new, as-yet-untitled songs that boasted a rootsier, possibly even more ambitious aesthetic."

More Bonnaroo 2010 on SPIN.com:
Conan O'Brien Heats Up Bonnaroo >>
Stevie Wonder Plays the Classics -- and Talks Politics >>
Edward Sharpe Draws Huge Crowd at Bonnaroo >>

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC
JULY 4

The opening date of Rihanna's North American "Last Girl on Earth" tour, featuring openers Ke$ha and Travie McCoy, "was nothing less than a full-on, wickedly entertaining spectacle," wrote SPIN's Mike Usinger. Rihanna rode the giant gun of a life-size army tank, gyrating until the inevitable explosion; she drove a '57 Cadillac that looked salvaged from a Havana junkyard; she reclined on a giant sled made of chrome-dipped mannequin parts; and she even displayed some crazy drum-solo skills. "As far as the screaming throngs were concerned, this was a night where she could do no wrong."

HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM, LOS ANGELES
JULY 23

At their first hometown concert in more than a decade, the hard hitting Los Angeles rap-rock outfit did what they do best: Fight the power. Singer Zack De La Rocha called Arizona's controversial SB-1070 immigration law "racist" and "divisive." On "Guerilla Radio," his lyrics took on new meaning. "What better time than here," he pleaded. "What better time than now." "De La Rocha's and the band's conviction was so authentic, so impassioned, and the audience's response so vocal, it gave hope to those who believe music can make a difference in politics," wrote SPIN's Charlie Amter.

RALEIGH AMPHITHEATRE, RALEIGH, NC
JULY 26

When Paramore, fronted by the feisty Hayley Williams, kicked off the two-month Honda Civic Tour with support from Canadian sister act Tegan and Sara, the Tennessee pop-punks reminded us why they "ascended from the Warped Tour stage to become one of the country's biggest musical draws," wrote SPIN's Grayson Currin. During "Born for This," the second song of their hits-filled, 90-minute set, Williams "leapt up on a monitor, red hair flying, and sang, 'Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure?' In unison, the 5,000-strong crowd answered: 'We were born for this!'" Paramore certainly were, too.

NEW YORK CITY
JULY 26-30

SPIN celebrated its 25th anniversary in grand style—with five nights of concerts from the artists integral to the magazine's history: Smashing Pumpkins, Flaming Lips, the National, Black Keys, and Spiritualized. The Pumpkins, touring for the first time with their new lineup, kicked off the party with a 135-minute set that delivered on Billy Corgan's promise to "kick your ass harder than anybody else." The Lips provided a confetti-filled reminder of why they remain "one of rock's most thrilling, most inventive—most euphoric—live acts." Black Keys gave a sinister "lesson on the enduring power of the blues." The National's shaman-like leader Matt Berninger entranced with crowd with his "breathtaking confidence." Spiritualized closed the week with an orchestra, horns, and choir performance of their landmark release, 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, which SPIN music editor Charles Aaron described as bordering on an "extended meditation."

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY
AUGUST 4

When the Montreal collective celebrated the early-August release of their third album, The Suburbs, with a pair of gigs at New York City's Madison Square Garden, there was one lingering question: How would the fiercely independent band fare in the mecca of arena rock? Very, very well. The shows quickly sold out, and when the band hit the stage, "any doubts that Arcade Fire were not born for this disappeared," wrote SPIN's Steve Kandell wrote of the 17-song set. "From the onstage frenzy of watching seven (at least) members rapturously attack, then swap, instruments to the barely-containable songs themselves, they were bigger than any room they'd play."

GRANT PARK, CHICAGO
AUGUST 5-7

As far as big-ticket reunions and headline-worthy sets are concerned, Lollapalooza 2010 conquered the Summer Festival game. First, there was the Strokes' much-ballyhooed return after a four-year absence to headline the fest's opening night with a no-filler 16-song that reminded us, as SPIN's Steve Kandell wrote,that "the Strokes were, and are, a pretty simple and effective and successful rock band, an increasingly rare commodity." Next came Lady Gaga's "Monster Ball" show, which SPIN's William Goodman wrote was punctuated by the pop singer's freaky attitude and statement of, "Chicago, I have a ginormous dick!" And lastly was grunge icons Soundgarden's reunion, of which Kandellwrote: [The band] have always been good at big -- even their ballads are apocalyptic epics perfectly unsuited to lighter-waving."

KUTSHER'S COUNTRY CLUB, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 3-5

Where can you drink with Kim Gordon, chat with Iggy Pop, and play cards with Steve Albini, plus see sets from the leaders of noise- and indie-rock like Sonic Youth? All Tomorrow's Parties festival, the American spinoff of the 10-year-old UK fest, held at a former country club in Upstate, NY. This year's event was curated by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers, Coffee and Cigarettes), "and the ensuing party was an alt-rock free-for-all," wrote SPIN's William Goodman. The highlight? There were many, but Sonic Youth killed it: "'Apparently they age like fine wine!' exclaimed one concertgoer. He was right. The New York vets -- now all pushing 60 -- showed the young'uns how it was done during their 90-minute-plus set."

YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK CITY
SEPTEMBER 13

Jay-Z and Eminem's "Home and Home" concert series saw the top-of-the-heap rappers perform at their hometown baseball stadiums, and when the duo landed at the House That Derek Jeter built in the Bronx, Hova hit a grand slam. With a gang of guests, including Kanye West, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, and Coldplay's Chris Martin, the show was a "triumphal spectacle in front of 50,000-plus," wrote SPIN's Charles Aaron. There were colossal stage sets, mesmerizingly arty videos, a vast array of backing musicians, and fireworks (shot out of the bleachers). It was a "historic event," said Hova, perhaps "the illest one ever." Indeed.

9:30 CLUB, WASHINGTON, DC
SEPTEMBER 13

On the opening night of their tour, Of Montreal pulled out all the stops -- the band played their hits, old and new, as silver-clad angels and towering fish-headed ETs with spindly metal legs stalked the stage. But it wasn't enough to top their handpicked opener, Atlanta's fiery songstress Janelle Monae, who stole the show. "As fiercely eclectic as the headliner, the pompadoured singer moved from space-funk to lounge jazz to Princely soul-rock, rarely stumbling," wrote SPIN's Michael Byrne. "She commanded the first show on a tour that will surely end with her as a headliner."

CHARTER ONE PAVILION, CHICAGO
SEPTEMBER 16

It was a three-headed monster of rock, but "at first glance, the opening night of the Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon tour proceeded in reverse order of relevance," wrote SPIN's Kyle Ryan. Mastodon were riding high on their acclaimed Crack the Skye; Deftones were attempting to recapture their former glory with Diamond Eyes; and Alice in Chains had reunited three years after the death of vocalist Layne Staley — and a decade after their last studio album -- with a… new singer. A recipe for disaster? Think again. "The reconfigured Alice in Chains have proven shockingly vital… [and they] didn't look like a band coasting on their legacy."

SUPERPAGES.COM CENTER, DALLAS, TX
SEPTEMBER 24

Twenty years after launching the first "Clash of the Titans" tour in Dallas, thrash-metal's reigning kings returned to Texas to kick off Version 2.0.Have the years healed the rift between Slayer and Megadeth? They sure have. The band sat down for a joint interview before the show, then took the stage to prove who reigned supreme. The victor? "Megadeth and Anthrax were second- and third-fiddle to the almighty Slayer," wrote SPIN's Pete Freedman. "Credit guitarist Kerry King for bringing the heat. He stalked about the stage in front of 12 Marshall triple-stacks, performing his virtuosic, jaw-dropping riffs with stunning accuracy."

PALMS, LAS VEGAS
OCTOBER 1-3

Instead of celebrating their 20th anniversary, like fellow indie labels Sub Pop and Merge, New York City powerhouse Matador honored the year they turned the legal drinking age with a blowout party in -- where else? -- Las Vegas. The entertainment: Sets from Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Spoon, plus newcomers Harlem, Fucked Up, and Girls. (Read about the best moments here!) But the royal flush was one of the first performances from the reunited 1992-1996 incarnation of Guided By Voices, led by the prolific Robert Pollard. "Closing out the fiesta with bandmates he hasn't shared a stage with since 1996 may not be Uncle Bob's idea of productive time," wrote SPIN's Steve Kandell, "but for a crowd numbed from some 52 hours of thinking about how fat they've gotten, this was the fireworks at the end of a perfect party."

SHOWBOX THEATRE, SEATTLE, WA
OCTOBER 13

One of the most controversial and perplexing newcomers of 2010 was South African rap outfit Die Antwoord, a favorite ofM.I.A. who connected with their viral video for "Enter the Ninja." The opening date of their headlining tour was "typical for a band that at every turn leaves audiences scratching their heads -- they played second, on a three-band bill, opening for Deadmau5," wrote SPIN's Charles Cross. "Whether Die Antwoord are fronting a long con -- think Joaquin Phoenix -- or fronting a new aesthetic is a mystery. Their name may mean 'the answer' in Afrikans, but that's hardly a clue whether the joke is on them, or on us. In Seattle, it might have been a little of both."

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, LOS ANGELES
OCTOBER 15

Brooklyn's LCD Soundsystem broke out big with their excellent third album, This Is Happening. And their booty-shaking live performances only added to the excitement.For their fall trek, James Murphy and Co. brought along two of their favorite acts: Hot Chip and Sleigh Bells. All three provided a "killer 90-minute blowout… that turned this upscale Los Angeles venue into a sweaty loft party with room for 18,000 or so shimmying Southern Californians," wrote SPIN's Mikael Wood. "'This is probably the most excited we've ever been,' Murphy told the audience at the beginning of the show, and though that was probably just the frontman's beloved champagne-and-whiskey talking, he and his crew of cool kids almost made you believe it."

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY
OCTOBER 20

Sure, the French pop outfit dropped a hit album, 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, won a Grammy, earned the rare honor of playing three songs during a visit to Saturday Night Live, and rocked massive crowds at music festivals worldwide. "But at the MSG show -- the band's first headlining gig at the storied venue -- the big question was if the boys were ready to transform, even if just for a night, into arena rockers," wrote SPIN's David Marchese. "It didn't take long to find out." Phoenix played their hits and offered a special surprise: fellow Frenchmen Daft Punk. "On this night, Phoenix was at home on one of music's biggest stages."

TERMINAL 5, NEW YORK CITY
OCTOBER 18-23

Before the Louisville roots rockers settled into to record their back-to-basics sixth studio album, expected in 2011, they got reacquainted with their past, playing their five albums, in chronological order, over as many nights at NYC's Terminal 5. SPIN reviewed each show, and by their closing performance of 2008's breakthrough Evil Urges, "My Morning Jacket exhibited just how drastically they've changed over their 12-year-long career," wrote SPIN's William Goodman. They started as longhaired Southerners with an affinity for long jams with gothic textures and closed as progressive rockers not confined by any label, genre, or style. Their final set posed a question: What's next?

MARQUEE THEATRE, PHOENIX, AZ
NOVEMBER 4-6

Alt-rock supergroup A Perfect Circle reformed after a six-year hiatus to perform each of their three albums -- Mer de Noms, Thirteenth Step, and eMOTIVe -- over as many nights on a brief five-city tour. At the opening date in Phoenix, singer Maynard James Keenan and Co. sounded perfect, "almost no deviation from the recorded version," wrote SPIN's Jonathan McNamara. But the band left fans with a new question to ponder: Will there be a full-on resurrection? "Don't get me wrong," Keenan said crowd. "I'm glad to see you, but this is about us reconnecting with each other." We'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed.

FILLMORE, MIAMI BEACH
NOVEMBER 5

The Swede pop princess lit up the dance floor in 2010, and when she launched her U.S. tour in Miami she treated her "hardcore fans to a hurricane performance," wrote SPIN's Thomas Francis. Robyn strutted through tracks off her breakout album Body Talk, and "dressed in a cut-off hockey sweatshirt and stretch pants, she might have been leading a group exercise class -- a damned good one considering the way her beats caused the most lethargic audience member to move."

SLIM'S, SAN FRANCISCO
NOVEMBER 16

He co-wrote or produced Flo Rida's "Right Round," B.o.B's "Nothin' on You," Travie McCoy's "Billionaire," and Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You," but could Bruno Mars hold his own as a solo artist? According to SPIN contributor Barry Walters: "Hell yes!" And at the kickoff of Mars' solo tour, "he revealed that the most apt word for the year's breakout R&B singer-songwriter is wholesome." He was "utterly at home onstage" playing tracks off his debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and even gave his ukulele to a young fan at the end of the show.

HOUSE OF BLUES, LOS ANGELES
NOVEMBER 22

The emo and pop-punk heroes returned in 2010 with a new album -- and a new image as a comic-book-style gang called the Killjoys. At their album release party, Gerard Way and Co. "used their recent metamorphosis… to trick out L.A.'s House of Blues as a skewed MCR-branded carnival, complete with midway games and costumed video villains wandering the parking lot," wrote SPIN's Whitney Pastorek. "MCR arrived as a muscular act exploring the risky intersection of '70s glam, '80s new wave, and the mook rock of their native New Jersey, proving that it is in fact possible to generate a compelling sound out of musical genres that wouldn't be caught dead together in the same bar."

BOWERY BALLROOM, NEW YORK CITY
NOVEMBER 24

It was one of the most anticipated returns of 2010. Kanye West, who tarnished his image with Taylor Swift-gate, disappeared into his Hawaii studio to craft SPIN's Album of the Year. He welcomed its arrival with a cameo-studded track-by-track tour de force featuring Swizz Beatz, Pusha T, John Legend, Rick Ross, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. "For over an hour and a half, West commanded the 550-person capacity room, from the opening benediction of 'Dark Fantasy' through an extended freak-out coda on 'Lost in the World,' and hitting all MBDTF stops in between," wrote SPIN's Steve Kandell. But 'Ye didn't stop. He ranted about Swift, Hurricane Katrina, George Bush, the Today show, and on and on and on. "West's music has to work extra hard to be heard over his own racket, which is as much strategy as sabotage.... And it's a pretty spectacular thing to witness from 20 feet away."

GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE, LOS ANGELES
NOVEMBER 26-27

Weezer's 1994 debut, aka "The Blue Album," and their 1996 follow-up, Pinkerton, are two of the influential records of the past 20 years. And in late November, fans' dreams came true with the launch of the band's Memories Tour, in which Rivers Cuomo and Co. played both LPs, over two nights, in their entirety. "[The show] felt like an audio/visual scrapbook that Weezer were just as giddy about sharing as the capacity crowd s at Los Angeles' Gibson Amphitheatre were about receiving," wrote SPIN's Kevin Bronson. "The shows were undeniably a triumph for band that blasted into the mainstream as endearingly clumsy outsiders who started 'In the Garage' amid their games and KISS posters and rode their neuroses all the way to rock-radio stardom."