Best of 2008: Mark Van Fleet, Assistant Registrar

Live Music of 2008:

I had a longer list and was going to try and put it in some kind of order, but then I realized that I saw some performances this year that were so excellent, groundbreaking, surprising, etc. that they defied ranking. In other words, they were basically “perfect”. I also realized that some of the great bands I saw play merely good shows should not be included, and I narrowed it down to the following (in chronological order):

Pink Reason at Beachland Ballroom (Cleveland OH) 01/26/08
Kites/Kevin Shields/Justice Yeldham at Churchhill's Pub as part of the Intl Noise Conference (Miami Florida) 02/14-16/08
Holographic Dog Disease at Skylab (Columbus OH) 02/20/08
Laundry Room Squelchers/Psychedelic Horseshit/Out There Dudes at Skylab as part of the Columbus iteration of the Intl Noise Conference (Columbus OH) 04/20/08


Anna Ranger at Rumba Café (Columbus OH) ??/??/08
TV Ghost at Bernies Distillery (Columbus OH) 06/14/08
Nelson Slater's Bored Teen War Team at Skylab (Columbus OH) 06/28/08
Panicsville at Skylab (Columbus OH) 06/18/08
Hair Police at Skylab (Columbus OH) 07/27/08
Little Claw at Carabar (Columbus OH) 09/13/08
Jandek (w/ Ryan Jewell, C. Spencer Yeh, and Derek Dicenzo) at Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus OH) 10/10/08
Ludo Mich / Koonda Holla at Bokal Royal (Brussels Belgium) 11/02/08
Indian Jewelry at Cave 12 (Geneva Switzerland) 11/09/08
Adam "Smitty" Smith/ Russian Tsarlag at Skylab (Columbus OH) 11/22/08
Aaron Dilloway at Modern Formations (Pittsburgh PA) 12/13/08

One last comment about venues: I'm not really surprised at how many of the shows above were at Skylab this year, but I am surprised that none of them were at Café Bourbon St (or for that matter, any of the other DIY venues here in town). The many shows I saw at Bourbon St in 2008 were almost always good, and I am surprised myself to note that none of them made this list.