Top 20 Favorite Shows of 2014

Top 20 Favorite Shows of 2014
Mark E. Ortega
Medium.com
December 27, 2014


Not counting music festivals, I managed to see exactly 100 live concerts in 2014. Previous to this year, I had seen in the ballpark of 25 concerts, I think? I couldn’t have ever expected to see this many shows, but thanks fo relocating to Los Angeles as well as picking up freelance work writing about music, I was able to make it to a shit ton of concerts. In August, I saw live music for seven straight days, something I wanted to do my whole life. I upstaged that by seeing shows 10 straight days in October, and all of a sudden in December, 100 seemed a realistic goal. I hit that mark with the Dec. 20 Saves the Day & Say Anything show at House of Blues on Sunset.

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Lorde shows tremendous growth at Greek Theatre, delivering spectacular performance

Lorde shows tremendous growth at Greek Theatre, delivering spectacular performance
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 7, 2014


A few songs in front of her headlining set at The Greek Theatre on Monday night, teenaged sensation Lorde acknowledged that the last time she played Los Angeles “proper”, she was at The Belasco and The Echoplex, just a little more than a year ago.

There was no better way to note how far she’d come in that one year. Lorde said that playing Coachella this year was a moment where she felt her band had “made it,” and headlining The Greek was another such moment in a career that will undoubtedly feature many more ups along the way. It is actually quite stunning how far she’s come even just since that Coachella set in April.

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Lorde delivers in front of biggest crowd of Coachella weekend two

Lorde delivers in front of biggest crowd of Coachella weekend two
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
April 20, 2014


Saturday evening, New Zealand pop princess Lorde brought in the biggest crowd of Coachella weekend two to that point at the Outdoor Theatre.

Lorde has come a long ways as a performer since just a year ago and delivered the goods to what seemed like 50,000 people or more.

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