The final part of /Countdown 2024 sees me looking at the best gigs of the year.

Some statistics for my gig-going in 2024. I went to 36 shows (each festival is counted by number of days – so Infest is three days, so counts for three shows), and saw 110 live sets. I saw 105 unique bands, five of them twice, at 28 venues, and my wife saw 48 of the sets with me (by some distance the most in ages, if ever). These gigs were in ten cities or towns, this year all in the UK.

A year of chaos away from music in too many ways, and it meant that I perhaps didn’t see as many shows as I’d originally intended – but I did see some great live shows along the way.

Here are the ten best shows I saw in 2023.

/KOLLAPS / Divine Shade / Plack Blague
/Infest Festival / Bradford
/24/25-Aug 2024

What could have been the final Infest in Bradford – it moves to Manchester and a week earlier in 2025 – felt a little subdued in some ways, and indeed none of the headliners did much for me at all. But there were a few bands that surprised and/or delivered what I’d hoped for.

French trio Divine Shade were the revelation for me: somewhere between The Young Gods and Killing Joke, their sleek electronic-pulsed rock was fantastic live, and with a promise of an album in 2025, I cannot wait. KOLLAPS had originally been booked for the cancelled 2020 festival, and they delivered unrivalled, scorching intensity in a show that was based around percussion, screaming and outright noise. Then there was Plack Blague, whose Queer, Leather punk-EBM was a fantastic show and enormous fun.

/Manic Street Preachers / Suede
/Cardiff Castle / Cardiff
/05-Jul-24

It might have been a bit soggy in Cardiff, but it was well worth the trip to see two bands still at the peak of their powers, but have perhaps gone in different directions. The Manics are settled these days, happily playing the hits with a smattering of newer songs, but never dropping their energy and making it the best show they can every time – and hearing Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier straight into a rousing A Design For Life (mid-set!) was an almighty thrill. Suede have been rejuvenated since their return a decade or so ago, continuing to evolve their sound (new song Antidepressants was fantastic, too), but never forgetting what got them to this place, with some marvellous songs from their back-catalogue peppering the set. Although, weirdly, this was the first time that I’d seen them over thirty years where they played no B-sides at all…

/Chelsea Wolfe
/KOKO / London NW1
/29-Oct-24

I was surprised to realise that it was nearly nine years since I had last seen Chelsea Wolfe live – having seen the first four of her London shows between 2012 and 2015. Her music has continued to evolve in that time, and having had a label change to Loma Vista after the unpleasant revelations about those running Sargeant House seems to have revitalised her. This was a show that took in mostly more recent material – with sadly nothing from the bracing Apokalypsis, although perhaps she has now totally moved on from that era – but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing with the sheer force of this show. An increased reliance on electronics meant that it was louder, denser and with amazing bass depth, but the star of the show remains Wolfe, whose striking voice cut through everything for a show that put us through the emotional wringer.

/Napalm Death / Pig Destroyer
/Electric Brixton / London SW9
/08-Mar-24

This was time to scratch an itch: I don’t really know how, but I’d never seen either band – and indeed I’d not seen supports Primitive Man (the heaviest, slowest sludge metal you will ever hear) and Wormrot (Singapore-based grindcore legends) either. Pig Destroyer came on early, and blasted through everything I’d ever have wanted to hear in forty-five minutes, a jet-engine roar of grindcore power and fury. Napalm Death then preceded to nearly wipe Brixton off the map, along the way proving they are rather more than their legendary early material – with thoughtful songs and songs that use melody and intricacy alongside the likes of You Suffer and Scum.

/Lankum
/Hackney Empire / London E8
/19-May-24

Dublin folk band Lankum were the breakout stars of 2023, and there wasn’t any way I was going to miss out on them doing all of False Lankum. You could have heard a pin drop as Go Dig My Grave began its horrific journey into tragedy, before the noise it swells into could have swallowed us whole. Live they are a ferociously tight unit, too, those years of playing in Dublin pubs and venues finally paying off, and by the time of the closing Katie Cruel, it was clear that they are taking folk music in new, unexpected – and extremely loud – directions.

/Fever Ray
/Hammersmith Apollo / London W6
/02-Mar-24

I saw The Knife twice on what turned out to be their last tour, the first of which was one of the greatest, most uplifting shows of my life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was a very different experience. It was one of light and shade, the earlier material – particularly an astonishing If I Had A Heart at the end – shrouded in darkness and intimacy (some feat in a venue the size of the Apollo), while the new songs, full of wonder and curiosity about Karin Dreijer’s life changes, were enthralling and buzzed with life.

/De Staat
/Oslo / London E8
/12-Jan-24

Dutch band De Staat delved deep into their Red / Yellow / Blue project over the past few years, splitting initially their new songs into three primary colours (apparently representing states of mind: red for the dark side, yellow for lighthearted danceable songs and blue for melancholy), and then splitting their entire back-catalogue into the three colours, and touring with three nights in each city to play each colour.

I attended the Red show in January at Oslo, and it was wild. A bunch of old favourites, various of the new songs, some deep, deep cuts, and then – of course – a raucous, chaotic blast through Witch Doctor that probably could have been heard in Hammersmith. De Staat are not like other “indie rock” bands: their vision and scope is far beyond that, and I only wish time would have allowed me to have seen the Yellow and Blue shows, too!

/††† (Crosses)
/O2 Forum Kentish Town / London NW5
/24-Jun-24

A couple of years back – almost to the day – we saw a hit-packed Deftones show, and in 2024 – at last – Chino Moreno finally deigned to bring his ††† (Crosses) project to London, and amazingly, this might have been even better. A duo show, with minimal stage set-up, might not looked like much, but there was something about the depth of the sound, and the choice of songs – basically covering every track we’d want to hear, with the soaring, ripping electro-funk of †elepa†hy the staggering highlight – that made this absolutely magical.

/Janelle Monáe
/O2 Academy Brixton / London SW9
/29-Jun-24

Not for the first time, Janelle Monáe put on the best show of the year. On a warm summer night that also happened to coincide with Pride in London, this turned into a huge party, a celebration of being who you want to be, and loving who you want to love, and frankly it was fucking phenomenal. And fine as fuck. Janelle Monáe makes music that takes in R’n’B, hip-hop, afrobeat, funk and more, and having shed the sci-fi elements of her image for a sexual honesty and openness, she seems better than ever and more comfortable in her own skin. Joining this party was a goddamned privilege.

/Front 242
/Electric Ballroom / London NW1
/08-Dec-24

I first heard Front 242 over thirty-five years ago, and first hearing Headhunter was one of those lightbulb moments. Without them, I probably wouldn’t be listening to a lot of the music I have done, been involved in the scene, been to Europe and North America for festivals and gigs, and indeed wouldn’t likely have been writing about music for close on thirty years.

While it took until 2008 to see them live, I’ve made up for lost time since, having seen them in five countries – and never been disappointed. But this show, on the final tour before they retire from playing live… fucking hell. An unusually active and noisy London crowd seemed to feed the band to ever-greater heights, from an early, roof-raising Moldavia through old classics and a couple of new songs (I hope Fix It gets released at least – it’s a belter), ending the main set with an extraordinary crowd-assisted Welcome to Paradise (Crowd: “No. Sex. Before. Marriage.” – Richard 23: “You fucking hypocrites!”). Incredibly, it got even better: the thundering encore of Happiness whipped the crowd into a frenzy, before things ended, naturally, with Headhunter. The band – particularly Richard 23 – looked genuinely emotional at the end, perhaps realising what they are going to leave behind – but it cannot be said that they aren’t delivering some incredible memories to remember them by.

They may well top the list again next year – I see two of the very final three shows in Brussels in late January – but this was my final show of 2024, and was head, shoulders and most of the body (to body) above every other show I saw this year.