Listing the best KC concerts from 2000-onward I am furious to have missed

Radiohead in KC. // Photo by April Fleming, Illustration by Cassondra Jones

Ahead of Swans’ show at recordBar back in May, I’d been thinking a lot about what it would’ve been like to be there the night they last played Kansas City at The Beaumont, back in 2012.

I have this idea in my head that if I had gone to that show, things would have turned out a bit differently for my life. Which brings to mind any other long-lost shows that could’ve had the same effect. Hence the idea for this piece.

My two rules?

1. It must be a post-2000 show

2. I can not have seen the band in person before

I have, slowly but surely, been checking bucket list groups off my list (lots from 2023), but here are ten that have sadly slipped through the cracks (some, not for long.)

10. Say Anything (October 2004, El Torreon)

Long-lost pop-punk band Say Anything played Uptown Theater last month for their 20-year anniversary of Is a Real Boy—and the lads are soon set to release their first new record in five years—but I do not think the June night will be able to replicate the charisma and pure artistry of this small fall show.

I’m sure this selection has a lot to do with the aforementioned sophomore record, which was leaps and bounds above their debut, Baseball, but local venue El Torreon is a mythological name for me and probably several others navigating the area in this current decade. The upstairs ballroom is currently undergoing renovations with a plan to reopen in the near future, but photos I’ve seen are easy enough for me to imagine a horde of bodies roaming around to “Alive with the Glory of Love” and “Woe.” Max Bemis and crew returned in March 2006 for a sequel (I sadly cannot find the setlists to either night) before they followed up with another landmark record In Defense of the Genre in ‘07.

9. Manchester Orchestra/The Front Bottoms (December 2018, Uptown Theater)

My brother and I were set to go see Manchester Orchestra and Foxing play the Uptown in 2022 before a massive snow storm paraded on the scene the night before. But the show still went on. Our plans to see both of these modern indie-rock legends unfortunately did not move forward. And while I was able to catch Foxing play The Bottleneck last year with The Hotelier, I have still yet to see Manchester, even with plentiful opportunities.

There was the Crossroads show the year prior (also with Foxing) and even Boulevardia in June ‘18. But there’s certainly something memorable about these December outings. It is few and far between that you will let the night be forgotten because of a possible ‘four shows in eight days’ type of event. I have also seen Foxing, which cancels out that Crossroads night as a choice. A Black Mile to the Surface is the group’s finest achievement, and while personal favorite “Lead, SD” was not played that winter night, the band did find time for seven of the 11 cuts from a record that has aged like fine wine.

Although I am not a The Front Bottoms regular, I have known several who are, which definitely would’ve put me in the exciting camp to prepare for the main event.

8. Against Me!/Hop Along (September 2013, The Riot Room)

Yet again, another venue I never got the chance to go to. The small and popular venue in the Westport entertainment district closed down due to pandemic difficulties, only to be destroyed in a collision between a fire truck and an SUV shortly after. So unlike El Torreon, there is sadly no hope for a return.

Hop Along has released four records, all to consensus critical acclaim. But for me, it’s Get Disowned that takes the cake. So although playing a headlining set five years later for their most recent success, Bark Your Head Off, Dog, this opening gig for Against Me! is the more intriguing sell for me. No setlist detected, but with only two albums out to this point (and Freshman Year turning eight years old), I guess the ten-song sophomore triumph was heavily favored.

And say what you want about the decline of punk group Against Me!, but the yet-to-be-released Transgender Dysphoria Blues took over the night with six cuts, the group’s finest success of the 2010s, along with six tracks from their first two classic albums in the early 2000s.

7. Alex G (October 2017, The Bottleneck)

I was this close to seeing Giannascoli perform while promoting House of Sugar in 2021, but I passed on the opportunity. Certainly a bucket list show, the indie folk genius has released 10 LPs in 13 years and helped tons of famous musicians with studio work in the process, such as Frank Ocean’s Blonde.

The songwriter has played in Kansas three times, but canceling out an opening set for Dr. Dog at The Truman in ‘18, it was between this and the House of Sugar set. And my love runs deeper for Rocket.

“Bobby,” “Witch,” and the completely out-of-place “Brick.” There are gold mines to be found on a record that seems to be lost in time (many prefer Trick and God Save the Animals as their favorite G album) and imagining the live renditions is even more intriguing to relistening to the record. Hovvdy and Crumb were also there that night, so I do not know who was the cream of the crop seven years back, but the night would’ve been memorable any way you want to look at it.

6. The Weakerthans/The Promise Ring (April 2002, The Bottleneck)

Many find 2003’s Reconstruction Site to be the crowning achievement for mid-2000s indie rockers The Weakerthans, but for me, it’s Left and Leaving.

The four-piece Canadian band visited Lawrence three times during its seemingly short 18-year tenure, twice to The Bottleneck and once at The Granada, and each representing their second, third, and fourth album releases. If you’ve read some of my material in recent months, you know I have a thing for The Bottleneck, so there should be no surprise that I have three inclusions here.

These guys left us four-for-four, with final album Reunion Tour releasing in 2007 to critical acclaim. They were definitely a ‘had to be there’ type group, one that has lost some of that steam in recent years while on hiatus. No setlist detected from the spring ‘02 night, but I’m sure it was Left-heavy. Influential emo collective The Promise Ring included on the bill is an extra plus, even if their recently released Wood/Water confirmed their steady decline since the ‘96 debut.

Radiohead in KC. // Photo by April Fleming (The Pitch)

5. Radiohead (April 2017, Sprint Center)

Easy pick, and this certainly could’ve been my number one. Radiohead is my second favorite band, (number one being The National, who I have seen in-person) plus the album cycle comes from A Moon Shaped Pool—a record I herald as the alt rock greats’ second best work.

The 25-song set featured 11 cuts from Moon and 2007’s In Rainbows, including personal favorite “Identikit.” The first encore (there were three) featured “Burn the Witch,” “Reckoner,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” and “Nude.” The five-piece debuted “Where I End and You Begin” from Hail to the Thief for the first time since 2008.

This one hurts. Luckily, the entire thing is on YouTube. I’m not sure they’ll ever come here again (or record another record). Yorke and Greenwood’s side project, The Smile, played The Midland last summer—a show I was fortunate enough to attend. It wasn’t Radiohead, but two of my heroes were just a short distance away from me. That may be as close as I get.

Titus Andronicus at Riot Room 2011. // Photo by April Fleming (The Pitch)

4. Titus Andronicus (July 2011, The Riot Room)

New Jersey punk band Titus Andronicus has lost their touch in recent years. Back-to-back releases A Productive Cough and An Obelisk furthered a regression found in their third and fourth albums, which continued with the ‘22 release The Will to Live. Thankfully, old and frustrated fans still have The Monitor. Weeks after the release of that 2010 record, Rolling Stone named Titus one of the seven best new bands of the year. And although things did not turn out the way most thought from then on, the over-the-top, on-the-nose heavy-handedness of their first two albums is enough to cement a legacy.

They visited Lawrence four times, but Kansas City just once—a Friday night at The Riot Room. The 13-track set featured every cut from Monitor aside from “Titus Andronicus Forever” and “Theme from ‘Cheers,’” even hammering home closer “The Battle of Hampton Roads” towards the end. If vocalist Patrick Stickles has something up his sleeve, we will all listen—a testament to the place and time of the turn of the 2000s. This would have been a special night.

3. dredg (September 2002 (twice) @ The Bottleneck, November 2002, El Torreon)

A bit of a cheat, but mind blowing stuff here. The heyday of dredg came between 1999-2005—an era that passed me by while I was enjoying my mindless childhood. But even though their time came before mine, I still have the privilege of enjoying bits and pieces from Leitmotif, El Cielo and Catch Without Arms in times of need.

The alt-rock band from California was deceased from 2014-’18, coming back to tease audiences of new music for the last six years (something that has recently been building some steam). I have no idea why they played the KC area three times in less than three months or what the two shows at The Bottleneck consisted of (no setlists found), but this was surely a moment in time, especially after a monstrous release in the group’s magnum opus, El Cielo.

The 10-song Friday night set at El Torreon consisted of nine tracks from Cielo, plus “Yatahaze.”

2. Swans/Xiu Xiu (September 2012, Beaumont Club)

Couldn’t bring myself to let this top the list, given the intro would have certainly been too on-the-nose, but I do often wonder how my life could be different if I frequented shows in 2012, and my 16-year-old self appreciated modern experimental music.

The setlist is one thing, but what I anticipated the most in their show at recordBar was how much these gentlemen improvise in the moment, or at least seem to be. I had heard their established tracks are almost unrecognizable in live form, so while the thought of hearing “The Seer” and “The Apostate” excited me, I was sure they would ebb, flow, and mutate into something else entirely. I heard neither.

The big question mark regards the new songs. They have been playing five throughout most of their tour dates this year, but there were seemingly only three present on that Thursday night in May. Who knows what a song is to them, though?

1. Big Thief (September 2021, Liberty Hall)

Speaking of hearing classics before they were released, between Big Thief and her solo work, Adrianne Lenker has been hard at work since 2014, releasing nine records in the process. This fall night—a show that was rescheduled after an entire tour cancellation in 2020—featured a wide collection of almost everything she has to offer, while showcasing the album by which people will remember Big Thief for years to come, albeit just five months before its release. Yes, “Simulation Swarm,” “Change,” “Spud Infinity,” the works. Six of the 19 cuts came from the unreleased Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You—a modern-day folk classic.

Lenker came out swinging with a solo song right off the bat in “ingydar,” only to finish the night with another in “Terminal Paradise.” Their previous tour in 2017 at The Bottleneck was three album cycles ago, with the clan only two records in. With plenty more material to choose from and wow audiences with, this screams, “You had to be there.” To make everything more frustrating for me, September 12—the night of the show—is my birthday, and this would have been my 25th. I passed on an invitation.