Friday night at SXSW I decided to go and stay the whole night at the Mohawk before going over to The Driskill for Darling West. I have actually never been to the Mohawk before, and with both father and son Earle, Steve and Justin Townes, it was an easy choice. (Photo above: Robert Ellis)
Every year for some years Willie Nelson has had his own festival at his ranch, Luck, called Luck Reunion. This year was my first, and what a day it was. Sunny weather, lats of great bands, friendly people, and if you wanted to, you could but some of Willie’s Reserve for your own pleasure. (Photo above: Willie Nelson)
The first time I saw Steve Earle, was in 1999 when he visited Rockefeller in Oslo with The Del McCoury band. The year after he was the keynote speaker at the SXSW, delivering a strong speech against capital punishment. Later I saw him at Rockefeller again in 2004, and at the Austin City Limits festival in 2005, and then at Bergen Fest in 2013. It is always difficult to point out which one was the best concert, but I might fall down on the Del McCoury concert plus the one last night at Rockefeller.
2013 has been a good year for live music. At least it has been great for me. I have been to fourteen festivals, I have seen somewhere between 150 and 200 concerts this year, and I have enjoyed most of them. For some of them I have seen only part of it, but many I have seen the whole concert. Here are 15 of my best 30 concert experiences this year. (Picture above: the audience at Kvelertak’s concert at the Slottsfjell festival)
Steve Earle has had a long and sometimes bumpy career, but he has made more than twenty good CDs since his debut in 1986, and there is nothing that indicates that he will stop releasing new, good CDs in the future. Wednesday night he played a concert in Oslo and Thursday he played at Bergen Fest where I saw him.
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