2015 was a dazzler for live music

From Madonna to Muse, 2015 offered varied palate of shows

The year 2015 proved to be one of the most musically varied in Portland concert and club history, with numerous local, regional, national and international acts putting on memorable shows, ranging from blues and bluegrass to jazz and jam music.

Overall, there were so many great shows this year you could have caught one every night of each week had you been so inclined and didn’t mind spending the year hungover.

The Moda Center hosted such singers as Kelly Clarkson and Madonna along with rock stalwarts Foo Fighters and Muse. Country legend Garth Brooks put on a series of shows in the arena as well.

Madonna wins the award for most over-the-top show, when she came here in October, as she continued her quest to combine disciplined choreography, circus-like theatrics and corrupt Catholicism that never quite gets her the formal Vatican excommunication she so desperately craves.

“It’s lonely at the top,” she told the almost cult-like crowd, who cheered her every move. “But it ain’t crowded.” In perfect diva-like fashion, she did not walk off the stage but was rather lifted into the air and wafted into the heavens after singing “Holiday.”

However, for the best show with pure and raw rock ‘n’ roll energy, it’s a draw between Dave Grohl, who braved a broken leg to put on a frantic Foo Fighters set in September at Moda, and UK rockers Muse, whose highly structured yet wildly guitar-centric show in December put them in the ranks of the all-time great arena

rockers.

Meanwhile, on the large club level, we got to see the Replacements finally put on a relatively sober sold-out yet nonetheless rockin’ show at the Crystal Ballroom as well as see Belfast punk pioneers Stiff Little Fingers bring politically charged rock to the Hawthorne Theatre. Meanwhile, Jimmy Mak’s hosted 1970s hitmaker Freda Payne during the Portland Jazz Festival, while the now-closed Alhambra Theater brought Maria Muldaur of “Midnight at the Oasis” fame back for a nostalgic mixed media show.

Local bands including Divers, Summer Cannibals and Device Grips also made waves, putting on riveting shows at the Panic Room, Pickathon and Farm Fest respectively.

Here’s a series of snapshots of memorable shows:

Festive occasions

In late February, the Portland Jazz Festival featured a number of interesting artists, including New York City native Bebel Gilberto, who draws on her Brazilian heritage to create a jazz style flavored with electronica. She put on a warm-hearted show at the Newmark Theatre. Meanwhile, Payne, who had a hit in 1970 with “Band of Gold,” proved she was no one-hit wonder, with powerful and musically challenging sets that brought down the house at Jimmy Mak’s.

In April, Brooks came to town for a series of shows at Moda Center, along with his wife, Trisha Yearwood. His set was a sing-along of biblical proportions, punctuated with crowd camera shots of folks kissing, hugging, laughing, holding up posters with photos of family members serving overseas or emblazoned with requests for Brooks to autograph them.

The musical highlight of every July in Portland is the Waterfront Blues Festival, which took place July 2-5. Highlights of this year’s festival included a burn-down-the-house set by Devon Allman, guitar-playing son of Gregg, who himself finally made it to the festival after having to cancel in 2014, as well as a friendly, funny workshop about playing harmonica by Rick Estrin that ended just as the fireworks filled the skies overhead July 4. Other performances worth seeing included the upbeat set by Charmaine Neville of the famous New Orleans musical family, Macy Gray’s sultry soulful set and Portland’s own burgeoning gospel queen Liz Vice.

A smaller but nonetheless equally interesting July festival, PDX Pop Now!, always features a musically eclectic array of acts, from rock to jazz to strange sounding groups with no discernible roots in anything other than chaos. The Autonomics proved they were a power-pop-rock band to contend with, and what can we say about uber intelligent pop rockers Modern Kin other than you must go see them, as they were a highlight of this all-ages festival that takes place beneath the Hawthorne Bridge.

Later in the month, the Northwest String Summit, at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, brought in fans of the Yonder Mountain String Band and other bluegrass acts. Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers put on a particularly energetic set, as did Crow and the Canyon. Then, as August began, the indie roots festival Pickathon in Happy Valley was center stage. It featured such acts as African-American folklorist Don Lemon of the Carolina Chocolate Drops weaving history into every song, as well as Portland rockers Summer Cannibals delivering a sweltering midsummer set that proved once again why they’re one of our town’s best bands.

The Aug. 8 Farm Fest in Damascus drew small numbers but every act played its heart out, including the funky groovy Device Grips and the strong-but-sweet-voiced singer Moorea Masa, who you may have seen with Ural Thomas and the Pain.

Balcony seats

Portland boasts a number of large clubs as well as theaters that allow it to bring in mid-size acts, and this year proved to be one of the better in terms of quality performance.

South Africa’s Jeremy Loops pretty much stunned everyone at the Hawthorne Theatre’s lounge in April when he opened his set by creating layers of harmonica riffs one over the other and refusing to stop jamming until everyone got off their duffs and danced. It was a perfect marriage of an acoustic instrument with modern technology and proved why Loops continues to be one of the best live acts on the planet.

The Aladdin Theater hosted great shows by such acts as longtime UK blues stalwarts Savoy Brown in March as well as Western swing kings Asleep at the Wheel in late August. Meanwhile, the Alberta Rose Theatre hosted funk-blues-soul singer Judith Hill earlier this month on a Monday night for a killer performance the kind of which may make her a superstar someday.

Meanwhile, local bands that did good include Divers, who combine punk, New Wave, hardcore and classic rock in a manner that makes you wonder why more bands don’t. A most anthemic band, sort of like Bruce Springsteen might have sounded had he been born to crunch rather than to run, Divers is one of those bands that saves rock ‘n’ roll whenever it plays.

On a final note, Christine and the Queens, featuring award-winning French dance-pop singer Héloïse Letissier, proved to be one of the best finds of 2015. With an understated sense of fashion and a modest yet friendly demeanor, Letissier quickly won over the crowd that came to the Roseland Theater for Marina and The Diamonds in October. Letissier is one of those rare performers whose laidback style actually makes her seem more powerful on stage, and her song “Tilted” proves you can make high-quality dance music that doesn’t insult one’s intelligence in the slightest.