The year 2023 offered St. Louisans more concerts, more venues and more festivals than ever before. As the streaming revolution obliterated revenue flow received from recorded music and the pandemic shutdowns had fans starving for live music and artists desperate to get back on stage, this year represented the concert industry roaring back to full strength. Audiences filled stadiums, arenas, theaters, clubs, bars and parks in St. Louis all year long, proving yet again that when it comes to showing up to support live music, we're a tough town to top.
A few big tours skipped us — Taylor, Springsteen, Madonna — and Guns N' Roses canceled its Busch Stadium show at the last minute, but some of the year's biggest tours made history-making stops here, even as mid-sized venues brought innovative and niche acts to town and the local scene exploded with richly talented artists making original music.
Newer venues like the Factory and the Hawthorn did robust numbers with national touring acts, while established mid-sized competitors like the Pageant and Delmar Hall held steady. Stifel filled more seats than any year since its relaunch, and the Sheldon staged terrific programs with its jazz and folk series. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre was booming all summer, thanks in part to its Lawn Pass program that allowed for entry all season for a single price, while St. Louis Music Park proved that the region also has room for a 4,500-capacity indoor/outdoor shed. City Winery opened at the Foundry with a stunningly ambitious booking scheduling and some of the year's most eclectic and memorable shows. Central Stage and the Big Top became unique destination venues in Grand Center, and Off Broadway and Old Rock House remain havens for both indie-minded touring and local musicians. A brand-new major festival, Evolution, was a major success in its inaugural year in Forest Park, taking its place alongside established fests like Open Highway (which had its biggest year yet) and Twangfest, while young festivals Music at the Intersection and Pines Fest continued to reach greater heights as exciting St. Louis traditions.
It's enough to keep a music critic busy — and by my count, I attended more than 200 shows in St. Louis in 2023. Here are my top 15 of the year.
15. Aoife O'Donovan at the Sheldon, April 15
While much of St. Louis was sheltering during tornado warnings, brainy folkgrass favorite Aoife O'Donovan brought her Aoife Sings Nebraska show to the Sheldon, performing a solo-acoustic version of Springsteen's stark 1982 classic front to back. Bruce skipped St. Louis on his current tour, but Aoife's stunning set was a soothing consolation.
14. Brothers Osborne, Confluence Music Festival in Madison, Illinois, June 4
Who woulda thunk that one of the year's most fun and diverse music festivals would have been held amid a NASCAR race at World Wide Technology Raceway? But there it was, a dazzling mix of country, rock, hip-hop and jazz when the cars weren't going vroom. Best of the bunch: a rip-snorting, guitar-slinging set by country-rockers Brother Osborne complete with a guest spot by soul-country rising star Brittney Spencer.
13. Nickel Creek at the Factory, June 11
Touring behind the trio's first album in nine years, the ambitious Celebrants, Nickel Creek played a Factory filled to the rafters with folks who had been waiting for the Creek to rise again. Mandolinist Chris Thile is modern acoustic music's most startlingly talented genius, and his collaboration with the Watkins siblings made for a career-spanning set that gave fans the hits but also continued to break fresh newgrass ground.
12. Danielle Ponder at Delmar Hall, April 3
Late-blooming pop-soul belter Danielle Ponder was the opening act for Lucius at Delmar Hall. Few in the audience were familiar with her beforehand, but that all changed when Ponder opened her mouth and delivered a sizzling, soaring set of R&B stunners from her debut album, Some of Us Are Brave. Ponder stole the show, proving that next time, she's ready for a headline showcase all her own.
11. Voodoo the Who at the Big Top, August 10
Sean Canan's rotating band of Voodoo Players played dozens of amazing shows in 2023, but I'm giving the gold medal to the Who blowout at the Big Top. It was a string summit of tribute titans as Canan squared off with Jimmy Griffin on guitars, while vocals were handled by Neil Salsich and Mark Quinn, the two best male singers in town. Add Griffin's old King of the Hill cohort George Potsos on bass and other area ringers, and you've got an exhilarating Voodoo set that reigned o'er them all.
10. Kamasi Washington at City Winery, May 5
The saxophone behemoth behind the West Coast Get Down, Kamasi Washington, reminded us that we were gathered at City Winery on the eighth birthday of The Epic, his sprawling jazz opus, and the physical power of Washington's phrasing galvanized the crowd for two sold-out shows. The eight-piece ensemble hit hard, emphasized by the delirious action of two drummers (Tony Austin and Robert Miller) and resulting in a sonic cascade of boundless beauty and inspiration. Epic? Damn right.
9. Dead & Company at Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, June 7
St. Louis has gotten three Dead & Company concerts in as many summers, and Deadheads packed Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre to let the good times roll for the last-ever Dead & Company concert in St. Louis, as the band announced it would discontinue its current lineup configuration after this tour. The ensemble saved its best St. Louis show for its last one, throwing in local nods ("Johnny B. Goode," "Big River"), big classics ("Friend of the Devil," "Shakedown Street") and a spooky, mind-blowing "Dark Star."
8. Jason Isbell at Open Highway Music Festival at Chesterfield Amphitheater, June 17
This year, the two-night Open Highway Music Festival felt like the full expression of what it was always meant to be, climaxing on the second night with a scorching set by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Isbell was in fighting form, clearly having a blast as he touched on every phase of his career, from heartbreaking ballads to guitar-charged rockers. It was a killer cap to one of St. Louis's coolest festivals. Isbell agreed. "This place is gorgeous," he said from the stage.
7. Herbie Hancock at Music at the Intersection in Grand Center, September 10
Any time you get a jazz giant like trumpeter Terence Blanchard as an unbilled sideman, you know you're in the presence of jazz greatness. But Herbie Hancock, looking and moving like a man much younger than his 83 years, was the mesmerizing star, phenomenal on piano and keytar and hitting a number of classics, including "Footprints," "Actual Proof," "Secret Sauce" and "Chameleon" during a set for the ages. It was just one of a brain-boggling number of sets that made Music for the Intersection 2023 an incredible weekend in Grand Center.
6. Dave Grelle's Playadors at Off Broadway, November 17
Much of the year's best music was homegrown, peaking with the astonishing showcase of local talent put on by Dave Grelle's Playadors at Off Broadway. Keyboard wizard and composer Grelle led a giant all-star ensemble that included guitar legend Dee Dee James, drummer Kevin Bowers, bassist Jordan Brewer, a bunch of Funky Butt horns, the city's best singers (Anita Jackson, Joanna Serenko, Emily Wallace, Neil Salsich) and more, tearing the hell out of everything from Grelle originals to Taylor Swift covers to Jimmy Griffin singing Joe Walsh. Don't miss the next one.
5. Bob Dylan at Stifel Theater, October 4
Relying heavily on songs from 2020's Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan, sitting at a center-stage piano, played the earnest crooner, the romantic, the joker, the weary immortalist crossing the rubicon, one step from the great beyond. Who knows if the 82-year-old Bob Dylan will pass this way again, and that was reason enough to be in the same space as him in October, contemplating as much of the legend as it's possible to take in. But Dylan wasn't much interested in our nostalgia. He was too busy keeping the path open, pouring new cups and passing them along.
4. SZA at Enterprise Center, October 11
With breathtaking visuals and powerhouse performances, SZA raised the bar for arena shows with a two-hour cruise of extravagant theatrical production, elaborate set pieces and soaring songs for a young crowd going bonkers for the duration. On her recordings, SZA often sings in cursive, but she pushed her larynx hard into powerful tonality all night, which was necessary to overcome 20,000 other voices singing with her. It was a generous celebration from a superstar who proved to be a musical powerhouse and a show-woman full of surprises.
3. Metallica at the Dome at America's Center, November 3 & 5
Is Metallica the biggest band in the world? It sure felt like it when the metal giant and its fans stormed St. Louis. Metallica pulled off an unprecedented feat, ruling the Dome at America's Center twice for a no-repeat weekend, a colossal career-spanning two-night blowout downtown. The band was in lean, mean fighting form, rocking in the round on 32 lighting-riding classics, as new songs from this year's excellent 72 Seasons found their way among seminal tunes that have soundtracked the lives of the thousands of jubilant headbangers in attendance.
2. Brandi Carlile at Evolution Music Festival in Forest Park, August 27
The Evolution Festival was a big winner in its first year, as fans showed up in big numbers for two days of bands and bourbon. The musical and emotional peak came with Brandi Carlile's Sunday-night set. It was a dream setlist for Brandiacs, featuring her biggest, Joni-est, most harmony-rich songs, from "The Eye" to "The Story" to weep-inducing covers of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "We Are the Champions." No one was digging it more than Brandi, who openly pleaded to be invited back to Evolution next year.
1. Beyoncé at the Dome at America's Center, August 21
The Queen's extrasensory extravaganza transmogrified St. Louis with a thrilling, towering concert masterpiece from one of the all-time greats. Such aural and visual maximalism represents concert technology dialed all the way up to never-before-reached heights, along with a Pride parade of disco-alien cowboys who were there to stick with Beyoncé through thique and thin. Moreover, Bey sang the whole show live at the peak of her powers, providing St. Louis with an utterly joyous celebration of the right here, right now. This is what a Renaissance looks like.
Honorable mentions:
King of the Hill (Diamond Music Hall, February 4), John Mayer (Enterprise Center, March 29), Tommy Stinson (Grass Is Greener House Concert, April 12), New Pornographers (Sheldon, April 27), John Mellencamp (Stifel, April 21), Janet Jackson (Enterprise Center, April 30), Seal (Stifel, May 26), Valerie June (City Winery, May 31), Robbie Fulks (Off Broadway, June 8), Tyler Childers (Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, June 9), Robert Plant/Alison Krauss (Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, June 25), Natalie Merchant (Stifel, June 22), Voodoo Tina Turner (Broadway Oyster Bar, July 12), His Lordship (Red Flag, September 8), Eric Clapton (Enterprise Center, September 12), KISS (Enterprise Center, October 25), My Morning Jacket (Stifel, November 7), Voodoo Last Waltz (Delmar Hall, November 25)
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