Ten Favorite Sets of 2013 - Part One

Ten Favorite Sets of 2013 - Part One
Mark E. Ortega
December 18, 2013

In 2013, I had the opportunity and privilege to attend over a dozen concerts, including a two-day inaugural Las Vegas music festival where I saw about two dozen acts. It's the most amount of live music I've ever experienced in one calendar year and it gave me enough of a sample size to decide what my favorites were. With that in mind, I compiled a list of my ten favorite sets of 2013, starting with a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut but were still worthy to discuss. The honorable mentions is where we will begin, and in separate posts, I'll go over the top ten in the coming days.




Dawes - October 27 at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas



Dawes, of Los Angeles, Calif., is a band I had not heard a single song about prior to seeing on day two of the inaugural Life is Beautiful Festival in October in downtown Las Vegas. I had been recommended by a friend to check them out after she saw them at Outside Lands in San Francisco. They played a bit earlier in the day, so I was still nursing a recovery from the shenanigans of day one. Dawes definitely put a little kick in my step as I was pleasantly surprised by how great they sounded. They've got a great sound and are worth checking out. I played them in a pool hall recently on the jukebox, and one person was convinced it was Tom Petty. I do think they sound better live than on studio albums, but they're good either way. Here's my favorite song from their set that day, "Fire Away".

Cults - October 26 at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas




I must admit that I was at the way, way back of Cults and was at the height of my lack of sobriety when they played, but damn if it wasn't some of the most fun I had that weekend. I was surprised at how well vocalist Maddie Vollin's voice carried considering how far back we were. I ended up seeing Cults a month later in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre and they underwhelmed me a bit. They're a great festival band because their catalog is limited but full of two-minute long songs, so you feel you get a fair variety in a limited time slot. They setup as a nice appetizer for the main course of day one, which is the next set below.

Kings of Leon - October 26 at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas



I had to skip Crystal Castles to see Kings of Leon but they were largely the band I wanted to see most at the Life is Beautiful Festival this year. I would have preferred to have seen them when they were touring in support of their last album, Come Around Sundown, as I thought it was their best work. I hadn't heard any of the new album until that night and liked what I heard but would've liked to hear a couple more of the older tunes. They cranked through a lot of them in a 21-song set, and the crowd was really into it. They weren't as good live as I'd hope they'd be but it was still a very enjoyable set, just missing out on the top ten. I hoped for more with them headlining the first day, but I thought they performed pretty well. Plus, who knows how much longer they will be together, anyways?

I'll count down my ten favorite sets before the year is out!