5.

Like Fitz and the Tantrums but still working the smaller circuit, Jukebox the Ghost turned in a great performance to a nearly sold-out Sunday night show at the Brillobox. Fun, catchy and hooks and choruses that will be lodged in you brain for days afterwards, Jukebox is a band to watch in the next year. With a honed live show and a promise that their upcoming third release surpasses two already stellar albums, they are a band on the move and should not be missed when they play Pittsburgh again.

4.

This concert should in all honestly be a lot higher on the list, but it is a case of still trying to process the experience. There are people that to this day talk about seeing Nirvana at Graffiti or saw Pearl Jam on the first Lollapalooza. This Fitz show was seeing that small band take that giant leap into the major leagues.

Pittsburgh was privy to the beginning and the end result of a terrific summer festival circuit by Fitz and the Tantrums.

A summer tour that saw them gain mainstream press coverage and VH1 and MTV covering the band. So when they hit Pittsburgh back in November, they were on fire and Mr. Small’s was a massive of excitement and commotion.

Fitz and the Tantrums will be a name you will be hearing a lot of in the next year.

3.

Any given year, this double bill would rank at number one, but it was a case of two phenomenal shows that rolled down the pipeline with that completely blew expectations out of the water.

The Avett Brothers in their ever-growing climb to bigger fandom and venues, have amped up their live shows, which is like taking the volume from ten to eleven. Throw the gasoline that is Nicole Atkins’ live show on top of that and this show would have been number one, if not for the exceptional shows by Marah and Butch Walker.

2.

What appears to be a tie for second is actually a definitive moment followed by two brilliant follow up shows.

I don’t give a flying shit, if you are a casual fan of Marah, when word leaked over the summer that Serge Bielanko was reuniting with his brother Dave for a short tour of the states and then heading off to Spain for more dates, you were already making plans to be where ever the show was going to take place.

We in Pittsburgh have a great thing that only some of us truly appreciate, we get Marah on a regular basis. That means, if you see their name on the concert calendar you are guaranteed a helluva performance.

But the idea of Serge coming out of his self-induced family time, for a couple of shows, including Pittsburgh. This Club Cafe show was a must-see for fans of the band.

And it didn’t disappoint. “Dishwasher’s Dream,” Pizzeria,” and “The Apartment,” which have been played stateside in nearly five years were spectacular.

It was obvious the brother Bielanko were having a blast on stage too as the show went for over two hours. Made all the more important because, who knew if and when we may get Serge back again.

That in turn made the Hot Metal Christmas shows at the Kollar Club even more important as Marah was back to a power trio and the energy was still there if not amped up a bit. It is on good authority to expect new things from the band in the upcoming year and with their love of the city and the love the city have shown them, they are unofficially Pittsburghers.

1.

We all have heard the stories of those people that have had those epiphanies - that lightning bolt to the head that levels the landscape and lets them see clearly where they are and where they are going.

That the epiphany or so-called religious experience happened at a concert, now that is story we rarely hear.

So, standing mid-set through the Oct. 20 appearance of Butch Walker and the Black Widows at Club AE, the lightning bolt struck.

Tearing down all barriers and concrete dividers by just getting caught in the slipstream of the vibe from audience to the stage and back again, I experienced more pleasure and joy in that two-and-a-half hour show than I did in the entire two-and-a-half years of my last relationship.

Harsh, stark, enlightening, inspiring...

Call it what you will, but it’s the truth.

Seeing Walker give his heart and soul to the audience that night and getting as much, if not more in return was awe-inspiring. Made all the more powerful knowing from the experience of being to over 10 Butch Walker concerts, this wasn’t a cookie-cutter performance that would play out again in another town on a different night. No, this was catching the best buzz, chasing down that dragon. It was the best drug, best sex, the best life had to offer at that moment.

Walker’s love of performing, along with this being his most solid album to date, wasn’t stood up that night, with a bullshit-spitting crowd. No, it was met with a force of equal appreciation for the man and what he was doing on stage.

When Walker first took to the stage he sang “Cigarette Lighter Love Song” barely above the audience. Then for the next three songs that toured his back catalog of the Marvelous 3 and early solo stuff, the crowd sang, while he simply accompanied on guitar.

Playing nearly the entire new album, the normally four minute “Suckerpunch” turned into a 15-minute finale that saw Walker on the stage, on the bar, on the floor and in the balcony.

It mowed down all the pillars of phony poseurs from all sides of life. Watching with clarity, a person doing what they love and get that love unconditionally back led to circuits rewiring in my brain and an instant reorganizing and prioritizing the things that mattered and gave an equal response to those actions given.

That moment showed that this is what I wanted out of the world and what I wanted the world to be; love, optimism and that no matter the past, it is about taking tomorrow and doing what you want to do without worry of what anyone, but yourself and those few you truly trust believe.

It is not about caring what “they” are saying and thinking. Nor is it about what “they” have or don’t have: It is finding that thing or person and giving back what was given in equal measure without thought of oneself despite what a magazine, family member, a cadre of misinformed social rejects have to say. It is what you do and what you have to say that matters and in the end, even after years of suffering on the road and touring your life away, you find out what that even though you may think something is overrated or underrated, until you hear it and experience and just know you were part of something unique for a moment, it is all about the love you take being equal to the love you make.

“If it’s a choice between eternal hell and good tunes and eternal heaven and New Kids on the Block? I am going to be surfing on the lake of fire; rocking out... ...When did mediocrity and banality become a good image... I want someone that plays from their heart...”

Yes, those are the words of the late great comic/social satirist Bill Hicks. He made that argument back in 1991, twenty years ago.

The point is still as relevant.

If you are looking here for the safe music, stamped with society’s label of approval and others of that sort that are far, far away from the pulse, you need look elsewhere.

We, like our intended audience, seek out the music that catches our ears and makes us feel something. Sure Katy Perry is a hummable tune, but where is the character, passion and the heart?

We’ll take a pass on the vanilla stuff that the mainstream shovels down the throats of the millions.

We are proactive, instead of reactive in our listening and enjoyment of music. For those misled cynics that claim, “There is no good music out today.” There is. You, though, may have to do a little work to find it, but the rewards are definitely in your favor.

These lists are packed with music which was picked with thought, care and, actually, being at the concerts to hear it.