Memorable shows in 2011
The best show I saw all year was the Cape Cod Christmas Cavalcade. As usual, Chandler Travis collected an impressive assortment of local talent. Highlights included the Swains Sisters and the Blood Siblings on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reinder,” Christine Rathbun’s monologues, Greg Greenway’s “Psycho Santa” (done to the tune of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”), Polka Dan’s Beetbox Band’s “Here Comes Santa Claus” and Chandler and Zoe Lewis’ duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
Some other great ones:
— Garland Jeffreys at the Narrows Center for Arts in Fall River
— the Drive-by Truckers at the House of Blues in Boston
— Elvis Costello at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis
— Tinariwen at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston
— Wilco at the Wang Theater in Boston
— Eddie Vedder at the Providence Performing Arts Center
— Alison Krauss at the Cape Cod Melody Tent
— the Lemonheads at the Wellfleet Beachcomber
— the Ticks, the Greenheads and Earth Junior at opening night at the Beachcomber
— the Flakes at the Woodshed in Brewster
— Daddy-O at the House of Bud’s in Hyannis
— Tripping Lily at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis
— Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium
And then there were the nighly campfire sessions by Darryl Purpose, Trace Wiren and others at the 25th anniversary reunion for the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament (in Ventura, Calif.).