Photo of Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age by Laura Jerele. Click here to check out the full photo gallery!
This fall was b-a-n-a-n-a-s for live music in St. Louis! Yes, I was feeling a little ragged by the end of October, and I’m tired just looking back at it. But when it rains it pours, and we soak it up like the touring desert that we are to float us through the dry spells. This year we saw a glorious deluge of talent at venues large and small. Here are the highlights of my year in concerts, in order of my overworked calendar:
1. Black Midi – Red Flag – 06.28.23
Biggest surprise of the year was the size of the crowd at this show. “Do we need to get tickets? Do we even know anyone else who’s going?” Silly me. Good thing I learned my ticket-buying lesson a long time ago, because this was the most packed show I’ve ever seen at Red Flag. Alternating singers took turns switching between Fugazi-style minimalist verse and prose, their British accents falling more heavily on the ranting than singing side, while the drummer fired off across the set like popcorn.
2. Chepang – The Sinkhole – 08.10.23
Sometimes you just really need some heartfelt guttural screaming in a cement-floored room. This Nepalese-American artist collective from Brooklyn graced us with their version of “immigrindcore,” determined to make us all feel human again. Two singers tag-teamed and teamed-up on shout-snarls. Folks young & old took turns slam-dancing across the floor. We ended with a hand-drum sing-along—humanity restored.
3. Janelle Monáe – Stifel Theatre – 09.13.23
The second time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the superhuman that is Janelle Monáe was yet another transportive experience. She showed us the range of personas in her current worldview, from hedonistic god/dess to subaltern hero/ine, with costume and set changes and a stage full of dancers and musicians. The crowd turned out in a flamboyant celebration of self-expression and mutual support, and for a moment, the extradimensional being that is Monáe danced amongst us.
4. Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real – Delmar Hall – 09.20.23
I don’t know if all Lukas Nelson’s shows feel like magic, but this one did, and I suspect it’s just his personality. It was the kind of night that leaves a mark—your face hurts from smiling too hard and you’ve got a new resolve to be a better human. Lukas Nelson kept his father’s legacy alive and fresh with classic, good-time, clever country lyrics and rebellious hippie sensibilities. It was a warm bear hug of a show, ending with a soul-stirring version of “Turn Off the TV and Build a Garden.”
5. Queens of the Stone Age – St. Louis Music Park – 09.23.23
That rare situation where the two opening acts are so stellar, I would happily purchase tickets to see each act separately. A stacked bill such as this one meant arriving at 6:00pm to catch the first opener, and it wasn’t easy, but we were treated to the sleek and sinuous Jehnny Beth followed by The Viagra Boys, perfectly snide as heck. Queens of the Stone Age tied it all together with their well-polished and distinctly condescending swagger.
6. Paul Cauthen – The Hawthorn – 09.27.23
After missing my chance not once but twice, I finally caught this outlaw country gem at a newer downtown venue. I don’t personally know a lot of Paul Cauthen fans, so I have no idea where all that crowd came from, but a sea of cowboy hats and rhinestone jeans turned out to bask in the glory of Big Velvet himself. He ran the gamut of biting and tender, pompous and self-deprecating, partying and reflecting, all one-hundred percent himself with a fantastic backing band and a growl like no other. What a talent. What a showman.
7. Chat Pile – Off Broadway – 10.1.23
This felt like a good old-fashioned DIY grunge rock show: decidedly unglamorous, mumbling anticapitalist rants through shaggy hair, melodic and gritty and emotional. I was transported back to the earnest humility of the mid-90s, surrounded by folks who remember when as well as folks who wished they were there, unselfconsciously moved by the music.
8. The Mars Volta – The Factory – 10.3.23
It had been 15 years since I first saw, and finally understood, The Mars Volta. The frenetic energy onstage helped me carve a place in my heart for Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s piercing voice and microphone kicks. I would’ve welcomed more selections from their most recent, 2022 self-titled album, which I adore, but it was clearly a thoughtful setlist with long-time die-hard fans in mind, pulling from their first album and skipping over Noctourniquet entirely. Cedric and Omar were on fire, as magnetic as ever.
9. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Old Rock House – 10.14.23
I feel very fortunate that we got a stop on this band’s tour, all the way from Australia. I’ve watched their KEXP performances several times, and the live in-person version more than met expectations. They worked their tightly-orchestrated, adrenaline-fueled, psychedelic rock music into buckets of sweat. Most all the conversations I overheard knew nothing about the band’s music—just murmurings in the King Gizzard channels—but by the end of the evening they held their ground with new fans, independent of scenesters.
10. Frog Brigade – The Factory 10.17.23
Les Claypool is an exceptional musician who attracts similarly exceptional artists to make exceptional sounds. This particular lineup included Sean Lennon on guitar, Skerik on saxophone, Mike Dillon on vibraphone, and Roger Waters’ son, Harry Waters, on keyboards to cover the entire Pink Floyd album, Animals. Everyone on the roster seems to live their A game, and this night was no exception.
11. Gaslight Squares – Cherokee Street Jazz Crawl – 11.4.23
This was a quintessential St. Louis moment. After marching down the street behind the Saint Boogie Brass Band, we settled into bar stools at Yaqui’s counter to the tune of the Gaslight Squares playing on the sidewalk outside, in suits and bowties, with folding chairs and an upright piano right there on the pavement. The closed-off street between Yaqui’s and Earthbound Beer became a dance floor where expert-level lindy hoppers, easy-waltzing couples, and ecstatic bouncing kiddos intermingled to the swing jazz sounds of a bygone-era river town. Poetry in motion. | Courtney Dowdall
