The Bam Team’s 5 Favorite Shows, Albums & Songs of 2022

Best of 2022After seeing what the live music industry endured the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 was certainly a step in the right direction. For many artists and bands, this year marked the first since 2019 that they had the opportunity to step onstage — and that was a victory in and of itself.

While we aren’t completely out of the woods yet considering the coronavirus is still very much a part of our lives, there’s no signs of us returning to those dark and dire days of 2020. The shows simply must go on, and we are all better for it whether you’re a musician or just a fan.

Now as we turn to 2023 with cautious optimism, it’s time for us to share our annual “Best of” lists as we have done since this blog first began (see our 2021 picks here). We’ll be quick to admit we didn’t catch every show or hear all of the albums released in the past 12 months, but looking back on the year that was can not only be fun but also challenging with so much great music to consider.

So, without further ado, Showbams presents The Bam Team’s five favorite shows, albums and songs from 2022.

Listen to The Bam Team’s favorite songs of 2022:

Tool - Viejas Arena


Tool at Viejas Arena // Photo by Josh Herwitt

Josh Herwitt // Los Angeles

Top 5 Shows of 2022
1. My Morning Jacket at Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO – August 26th-27th
2022 will go down as easily one of my favorite years for live music. So many of the artists and bands I love toured after being forced to sit on the sidelines for at least two years, and as I look back on all of the shows I was fortunate enough to witness, it would be a shame to not mention the ones that aren’t already included here, whether it was Eddie Vedder, Baroness, Royal Blood, Interpol and The Shins at Just Like Heaven, Jack White (two nights), The Kills, Puscifer on my big day, Fleet Foxes, Big Gigantic Telefon Tel Aviv, Moderat, Khruangbin and Arctic Monkeys — plus Lorde — at the debut of Primavera Sound LA, The Mars Volta, Bonobo, Foals, Modest Mouse performing The Lonesome Crowded West from start to finish to celebrate the LP’s 25th anniversary or The Smile closing out their North America tour. But this year’s No. 1 spot once again goes to My Morning Jacket, which have become my top live band over the last decade among some very stiff competition (see the rest of the bands listed below to get a better idea). With back-to-back dates in SoCal at the Santa Barbara Bowl and Hollywood Forever (read our review here) serving as a preview for what would come the following week, the Louisville-bred rockers left no stone unturned in their return to Red Rocks. If there was ever an act to catch — not once but twice — at the legendary amphitheater after visiting it more than a dozen times in my life so far, this was the one for me and MMJ proved it over two sold-out gigs with no repeats as always.

2. The War on Drugs at Shrine Auditorium – Los Angeles, CA – February 26th
3. Pearl Jam at The Forum – Inglewood, CA – May 6th
4. Tool at Viejas Arena – San Diego, CA – January 19th
5. Nine Inch Nails at Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA – September 13th

Top 5 Albums of 2022
1. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
It wasn’t until last year during a surprise performance for the concert video “Live at Worthy Farm” when we first learned of the latest side project from Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. But after putting out six singles off their debut LP that came out back in May, it was clear the three-piece wasn’t messing around. Across all 13 tracks on A Light for Attracting Attention, it’s safe to say there isn’t one worth skipping, reaffirming why Yorke remains one of the best songwriters out there in the last 30 years. And with him and Greenwood switching off between guitar, bass and synthesizer among a bevy of other instrumentation including vocoder, piano and harp, their talents are as palpable as they have ever been before. After all, hearing Yorke croon “Don’t mess with me” toward the beginning of “The Smoke” is an edict — literal or not — many would have a tough time disputing at this point.

2. Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
3. Jack White – Fear of the Dawn
4. My Morning Jacket – MMJ Live Vol. 2: Chicago 2021
5. Bonobo – Fragments

Top 5 Songs of 2022
1. The Mars Volta – “Graveyard Love”
For fans of The Mars Volta, it has been a long wait since Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala hit the studio to record new material. Even with the project’s two constant members on good terms these days, it took more than a decade before anything would enter our earholes. But despite many of the prog-rock tendencies it demonstrated on earlier albums dating all the way back to 2003’s seminal De-Loused in the Comatorium, the duo’s seventh studio effort delves unexpectedly into new sonic territory. With a pop aesthetic running through it that surprisingly sees no song surpass the five-minute mark, The Mars Volta will undoubtedly be looked at as a departure from the days of “Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus” and “Cassandra Gemini” when Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala were captivating At the Drive-In fans as well as new listeners. Nevertheless, its second single “Graveyard Love” stands tall as some of their best work to date and reminds us that these guys haven’t lost what made them so uniquely special.

2. The Smile – “Thin Thing”
3. Jack White – “Eosophobia”
4. Interpol – “Toni”
5. Moderat – “EASY PREY”


Pilot to Gunner - Hail Hallucinator

Andrew Pohl // San Francisco

Top 5 Shows of 2022
1. Yard Act at Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA – April 21st
Funny story about this show … I had been hearing a lot of buzz about Yard Act, and I had only listened to one song played a few times on KEXP, which I really dug. I had been on the Rickshaw Stop’s email list, and the venue ran a contest for free tickets. I happened to win so I took a chance and opted to see Yard Act’s show that same week. Wanting to familiarize myself with their material more, I immediately dove head first into their album and was totally hooked, so I felt really good about this turn of events. I hadn’t been to a gig at Rickshaw Stop in many years and was eager to visit again, so it felt great to be back in a packed room again for an intimate evening of punk rock. The opening act Buzzed Light Beer fell a bit flat in my humble opinion, but once Yard Act took the stage, the room started buzzing with life. Lead singer James Smith’s command of the crowd is very nonchalant, but he also knows he has you hanging on every word. The set was fun and well-executed, and the UK quartet was clearly on its “A” game after a lengthy run of shows and in between weekend performances at Coachella. Much to the chagrin of those in attendance, Smith kept referring to the audience as “San Diego” (LOL), though he did tell us that he had some mushrooms the night before, so … you know. To round things out, Smith offered to do a magic trick during the last song of Yard Act’s set before their encore and coaxed fans to hand over any loose bills they had, which he pocketed and took backstage. As it turns out, he actually gifted the money to the bar staff, which I felt was a nice touch and very much on-brand.

2. THE FEST 20 – Gainesville, FL – October 28th–30th
3. Coheed & Cambria at Greek Theatre Berkeley – Berkeley, CA – August 14th
4. Bauhaus at The Masonic – San Francisco, CA – May 22nd
5. The Velvet Teen at Arlene Francis Center – Santa Rosa, CA – June 17th

Top 5 Albums of 2022
1. Pilot to Gunner – Hail Hallucinator
Brooklyn indie rockers Pilot to Gunner hadn’t put out an album for a decade, and to be honest, I hadn’t really paid much attention to them prior to Hail Hallucinator. The name was always out there and I had friends who were really into them, but I never got around to checking out their music for one reason or another. And not unlike many other bands that came before them (i.e. Seaweed, Far, The Murder City Devils), I am bummed that I was so late to the party. They are absolutely fantastic, and this record was easily my most listened-to during 2022. From start to finish, the 10-track LP hit all the marks for me in terms of stellar songwriting, original-sounding guitar work that still feels familiar and vocals carrying the torch of the early 2000’s indie/emo revival sound ala Hey Mercedes and Jimmy Eat World all while not completely aping either group. “Drop the Sun”, “We’re Blasting to Masses”, “Total Rager” and “Escape Season” are among its best tracks, but I simply love all of them from beginning to end.

2. Thee Sacred Souls – Thee Sacred Souls
3. Yard Act – The Overload
4. Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems
5. High Vis – Blending

Top 5 Songs of 2022
1. 3rd Secret – “I Choose Me”
The supergroup 3rd Secret surprised the music world when their debut self-titled LP arrived in mid-April. Comprised of members from Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hater and Giants in the Trees, the album is a tour de force brought to you by grunge and alt-rock royalty. Its lead single “I Choose Me” turns things up and right out of the gate you can’t help but feel a little washed over with nostalgia from guitarist Kim Thayil’s signature riffage in addition to the thundering cadence courtesy of bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Matt Cameron. What makes the song — and the album — stand out to me, however, is the work of co-vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson. The pair deliver gorgeous singing atop the otherwise gritty instrumentation, harkening back to what made so many 90’s albums awesome with a beautiful balance of dark and light. I kept coming back to this song a lot throughout the year, and it made me really reflect on just how incredible the music that came out of the Pacific Northwest was when I was growing up. To hear this collection of musicians conjuring up those aural ghosts through a contemporary filter was not only refreshing, but also something that I was really looking for in 2022.

2. Yard Act – “The Overload”
3. Thee Sacred Souls – “Can I Call You Rose?”
4. Cave In – “New Reality”
5. High Vis – “0151”


Animal Collective - Greek Theatre


Animal Collective at Greek Theatre // Photo by Rochelle Shipman

Rochelle Shipman // Los Angeles

Top 5 Shows of 2022
1. PUP at The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – April 21st
Two years and one full length after this show was originally supposed to occur, LA finally got to see PUP perform on their “Thank Fucking God” tour. Worth the wait would be a major understatement here as the Canadian punks transported us back to pre-pandemic times like nothing had ever happened — we were touching, we were screaming, we were moshing again! The night had such an innocent air to it. Despite the delay, 2019’s Morbid Stuff felt fresher than ever (and it still does).

2. Yaya Bey at Cafe Erzulie – Brooklyn, NY – June 16th
3. Animal Collective at Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – May 20th
4. Vince Staples at The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – August 23rd
5. Bright Eyes at Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA – June 23rd

Top 5 Albums of 2022
1. Lando Chill – if im being honest
The multi-hyphenate who’s based out of LA quietly dropped this mixtape early in the year, and it stood strong in my top spot from the start. With a sharp wit and silky delivery, Chill tears through pages of his diary without cutting a single corner. Thank God for vulnerability.

2. Smino – Luv 4 Rent
3. Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry
4. Yaya Bey – Remember Your North Star
5. Open Mike Eagle – Component System with the Auto Reverse

Top 5 Songs of 2022
1. Steve Lacy – “Bad Habit”
An earworm for the ages! This impossibly catchy tune took over TikTok and catapulted Mr. Lacy into the spotlight that he was born to occupy, whether he was ready for it or not. The cherry on top of his banner year was the singer-songwriter’s old iPhone (aka his instrument) landing on display in the Smithsonian.

2. Lando Chill – “guess”
3. Leggy – “Lipstick on the Mic”
4. Pusha T – “Brambleton”
5. Channel Tres – “Acid in My Blood”

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New music or not, Nine Inch Nails are still commanding sold-out crowds at the Santa Barbara Bowl & beyond in 2022

Nine Inch NailsBy Josh Herwitt //

Nine Inch Nails with Yves Tumor //
Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
September 13th, 2022 //

If there was ever a time in his long and illustrious career when Trent Reznor had seemingly little left to prove, it would be now.

After all, the 57-year-old Nine Inch Nails mastermind who formed the project more than three decades ago while working as an assistant engineer and janitor at Right Track Studios in Cleveland has racked up nearly every accolade for his music, from Grammys and Oscars to Emmys and even a CMA Award, with only a Tony standing in his way of EGOT status.

But aside from the latest two installments of the soundtrack-oriented Ghosts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has already been a few years since NIN released new material after the six-track Bad Witch arrived in 2018 and the now-Hall of Fame band embarked upon its “Cold and Black and Infinite” tour across North America that concluded with Reznor and company playing a whopping six nights at the Hollywood Palladium with anything in the NIN catalog on the table thanks to a more stripped-down stage production of mostly smoke and lights the industrial-rock act is still currently showcasing.

So when NIN announced in February a limited number of dates for 2022, there was a sense among fans — or at least this one right here — that new music would be imminent at some point this year. Reznor, in fact, had actually hinted at the 2021 Academy Awards that there was more to come from NIN, though we have yet to hear any since then.

Nine Inch Nails

That certainly hasn’t mattered when it comes to NIN’s ticket sales, however. Outside of a few festival appearances that includes a headlining performance at Primavera Sound LA this Saturday, just about every show this year has been sold out and things were no different on Tuesday when Reznor’s outfit returned to the Santa Barbara Bowl for the first time since 2009.

The 4,562-seat amphitheater continues to be one of our favorite places in California — if not the entire country — to catch a concert, and despite the coastal city’s music scene being a bit more laidback than LA’s, you wouldn’t have known it by the time NIN stormed onstage shortly after Yves Tumor wrapped up his opening set.

With the outdoor venue’s strict 10 p.m. curfew always at play, there was no time to spare for Reznor, Atticus Ross, Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin, and the five-piece made the most of its one-hour, 45-minute gig with deep cuts like “Last” and “Heresy” preceding setlist staples that featured “March of the Pigs”, “Piggy” and “Closer” from The Downward Spiral as well as “The Perfect Drug”, the 1997 cut on the “Lost Highway” soundtrack that only made its live debut in 2018 but has already been played 30 more times thanks to Rubin’s thunderous ambidexterity on the drum kit.

Of course, we would be remiss to not also mention the high energy of “Reptile” and a groovy cover of David Bowie’s haunting single “I’m Afraid of Americans” as other highlights before being punched in the mouth by the trifecta of “Gave Up”, “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole” leading into a brief encore break. Yet, it was the penultimate “Even Deeper” off The Fragile that truly put us on cloud nine for the rest of the evening and reminded us that with or without new songs, we’re all lucky to still have NIN filling our earholes after wondering eight years ago if we would ever see them perform live again.

NINE INCH NAILS

Setlist:
Mr. Self Destruct
Wish
Last
March of the Pigs
Piggy
The Lovers
The Frail
The Wretched
Reptile
God Break Down the Door
Copy of A
Closer (with “The Only Time” breakdown)
This Isn’t the Place
Heresy
The Perfect Drug
I’m Afraid of Americans (David Bowie cover)
Gave Up
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore:
Even Deeper (preceded by band introductions)
Hurt

YVES TUMOR

Setlist:
Jackie
Gospel for a New Century
Medicine Burn
Operator (with “Be Aggressive” chant)
Cntra
Kerosene!
Romanticist
Dream Palette
Mtora
…And Loyalty Is a Nuisance Child
Secrecy Is Incredibly Important to the Both of Them

After more than two years, Telefon Tel Aviv finally gets the chance to entrance fans at Lodge Room before taking a break from performing

Telefon Tel AvivBy Josh Herwitt //

Telefon Tel Aviv with Chasms //
Lodge Room – Los Angeles
July 29th, 2022 //

More than a decade has passed since Joshua Eustis tragically lost the other half of Telefon Tel Aviv.

Forming the band with his high school friend Charles Cooper in 1999, the two would go on to release an EP, three LPs and a number of remixes together while carving out their own space in the glitch and IDM scenes alongside Leftfield, The Future Sound of London and Boards of Canada to name a few. But just two days after unveiling their third full length Immolate Yourself, Cooper was found dead.

Cooper’s accidental death marked a major turning point for Eustis. Had the time come for him to shut it down for good or should he continue to make music under the TTA moniker in honor of his bandmate?

Over the next four years, Eustis would find himself working with other bands. He co-produced Puscifer’s Conditions of My Parole in 2011 and then toured with Nine Inch Nails, manning any instrument that was requested of him whether it was guitar, bass, keyboards, saxophone or even the erhu.

Eustis, though, wasn’t ready to give up on a solo career quite yet so he returned to the studio in 2014 after NIN’s “Tension Tour” to focus on a different project named Sons of Magdalene before turning his attention to recording the first TTA album without Cooper.

Telefon Tel Aviv

The end result, almost five years later, would be 2019’s Dreams Are Not Enough. The nine-track effort on Ghostly International officially put TTA back on the map as it garnered high praise from music critics, including Pitchfork (if you can believe that), and offered him the chance to take the stage again.

So when Eustis announced in early 2020 that he would be playing a TTA show in his current hometown, it was an opportunity to cross another 90’s electronic act off my bucket list. Of course, the performance would end up being rescheduled twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it finally came to fruition last Friday at LA’s Lodge Room inside the same historic, three-story building that the Highland Park Masonic Temple once called home.

To make things all the more special, Eustis had previously said on social media in advance that Lodge Room and Grey Area in San Francisco would serve as TTA’s final two dates in support of Dreams Are Not Enough and the last ones he’ll perform live (“like, not DJing” in his words) stateside for a while.

That might not be what TTA fans outside of California wanted to hear after waiting patiently for live music to come back safely, yet given the fact that Eustis has produced Apparat, Drab Majesty, Tropic of Cancer and Vatican Shadow among others and spent a few years in synthwave trio The Black Queen with Greg Puciato and Steven Alexander of The Dillinger Escape Plan, it’s not hard to understand why he’s taking a break now.

And while no one knows how “long” it will be except for maybe Eustis, if this was the only night I ever got to see TTA in the flesh, it will certainly not go lost on me.

Setlist:
Intro
The Means Whereby Lovers Are Waylaid
A Younger Version of Myself
Standing at the Bottom of the Ocean
Mouth Agape
What It Is Without the Hand That Wields It
Introductory Nomenclature
Something Akin to Lust
Not Breathing
Arms Aloft
Mean Friend (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix)

Encore:
I Dream of It Often
The Birds

If we never see Nine Inch Nails live again, it’s been quite a ride

Nine Inch NailsPhotos by Rob Sheridan for NIN.com // Written by Josh Herwitt //

When Trent Reznor told Nine Inch Nails fans six years ago that it was “time to make NIN disappear for a while,” no one knew if they would ever have the opportunity to see the industrial rock goliath perform again.

As someone whose musical palette was heavily influenced by such 90’s masterpieces as The Downward Spiral and The Fragile — two albums that will likely go down as some of the best rock music that’s ever been made — but never got to see NIN live, it came as a shocking blow to my psyche.

For me, NIN was always that band whose music felt uniquely original and accessible, yet remained frighteningly dark in image. More than 20 years ago, it was MTV that was forced to significantly censor the music video for “Closer” — still NIN’s most popular song to this day — in which Reznor combined themes of religion, sex, animal cruelty, politics and terror to go along with his disturbingly eerie lyric “I want to fuck you like an animal.”

Still, for as creepy as Reznor made himself appear — and there may be no better example than NIN’s epic performance at Woodstock ’94, which was officially released online almost two weeks ago — there is no band that has bridged the gap between heavy metal and electronic music better than NIN. From his early days as a sound engineer to his passion for analog synthesizers and digital technologies more recently, Reznor created a genre of music that few have ever come close to emulating. While other industrial acts like Ministry, MDFMK, Killing Joke, Filter and Rammstein achieved moderate levels of success at one point in time, none of them ever garnered the same mainstream appeal that NIN has sustained for more than two decades.

Nine Inch Nails

But even with two Grammy Awards and nine full-length albums to his name, Reznor has had his doubts about keeping NIN going. It’s why he announced in early 2009 that the band would be done performing live “for the foreseeable future” before embarking on its “Wave Goodbye” tour, which culminated in a 37-song show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, before that fire was eventually rekindled with the release of 2013’s Hesitation Marks last September.

It’s not that Reznor fell off the face of the Earth during that five-year layoff, though. With NIN on an indefinite hiatus, he went on to win an Oscar and a Grammy for his soundtracks to The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, write the theme music for the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” and form the post-industrial outfit How to Destroy Angels with his wife and lead vocalist Mariqueen Maandig, whom he shares two children with now. Over the last two months, he’s managed to find the time to finish composing the soundtrack for David Fincher’s upcoming movie Gone Girl while touring North America with his NIN sidekicks for quite possibly the last time.

After all, from what he told the crowd last Thursday night in Chula Vista, Calif., Reznor has no plans for another NIN album or tour right now. Even if he continues writing music like he told us he would that evening, just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, there is no guarantee it will be for NIN. And at this point, it would be completely understandable for Reznor to retire the band he once gave birth to 26 years ago in Cleveland, where it will likely return to some day for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Reznor, of course, isn’t getting any younger. At the age of 49, the NIN mastermind and only official member of the band has battled plenty of inner demons in his younger life, having overcome both drug and alcohol addictions, depression, social anxiety disorder and sadly, even his own suicidal tendencies. Now as a sober family man, he has openly admitted that the rigors of touring have taken their toll on him.



So, if this was the last time I ever got to see Nine Inch Nails perform live, I have no regrets attending four of the 26 shows that they are co-headlining with Soundgarden this summer.

In fact, seeing one of my favorite bands of all time at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre was an absolute dream come true — a show that no doubt will go down in memory as one of the best I have ever witnessed in all my concert-going years. Then, there was Monday night’s noteworthy performance at the Hollywood Bowl, which marked another important moment for the band in playing the historic LA amphitheater for just the second time ever, with the first coming almost nine years ago following the release of 2005’s With Teeth.

Sure, seeing four shows — Red Rocks, Chula Vista, Irvine and Hollywood — on this tour might seem like overkill to some. For me, it felt like the right thing to do. It didn’t matter that the setlists have varied little from show to show over the last month. Instead, just having the chance to connect with the music and art that Reznor specifically curates for each NIN tour more than once is something I will always cherish, whether or not I ever get to do it again.

Because even if I don’t, I’ll know that those four shows I saw were worth every penny spent.

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails