2008: Best concert

Neko Case at the State Theater in Ithaca was magical, the Fiery Furnaces at the Bug Jar kept heads snapping and spinning, but the once-in-a-lifetime experience could only be My Bloody Valentine at the Kool Haus in Toronto, on my birthday no less. Enough online accounts are available, as are various other media ("My Bloody Eardrums" was my favorite title), and I have to say they are all true, down to the last hyperbole. Not only was it a dream come true to finally see Kevin Shields and co., but the heart-stopping (and I mean that literally) grand finale of ear-splitting racket was unduplicated in my several-decades-plus of concert-going.