Best Live Show In The Past Year

The Christmas holidays are usually filled with gumdrop memories and catching up with old friends. But Santa really filled the indie-rock stocking to the brim in 2008, with two North of America reunion shows, one at the North Street Church and another at the Marquee. Former members Mark Colavecchia, Michael Catano, J. LaPointe, Jim MacAlpine and Mark Mullane made fans of the late ’90s band very happy, indeed. Mullane says, “For me, hands down, the highlight was being on stage with J. LaPointe again and playing songs like ‘Speech Is An Experiment.’ That, and spending most of the time on stage looking at a crowd and searching for familiar faces that I haven’t seen in a while and basically seeing everyone either singing along or with a big smile on their face.” The band has no plans to do any more shows just yet, but Mullane isn’t counting the idea out: “I think given the right circumstances, we’d certainly consider it.”

First runner up: Neil Young w/Wilco at The Metro Centre
Second runner up: Monotonix at Gus’ Pub