Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Check 1! Check 2! Is this thing on?

HELLO, CLEVELAND!



After years of being the redheaded stepchild of the concert touring biz – or at least feeling like that – Cleveland finally got back into the big time in 2017. We had some of the best – and, sadly, some of the worst – tours swing through town.



Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Paul Simon, U2, Green Day, Chris Stapleton, Guns N' Roses. Wow, it's like the proverbial Who's Who of current and classic music.



As The Plain Dealer's pop music critic, part of my job is to attend concerts. It wasn't as many this year, as we're turning our focus to previews and what you can see as opposed to reviews and what you might have missed. But for the most part, what we were lacking in quantity we more than made up for in quality.



I'm going to give you the top 10 shows I saw this year, and the bottom five. Now keep in mind that there were hundreds of shows – maybe as many as a thousand or more – in Northeast Ohio between Jan. 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2017. I am ONLY ranking the ones I personally witnessed. Some of those other shows MAY have been better – if I wasn't there, I can't very well pass judgment, right? And while there are some who talk about concerts they never saw, I just don't think that's right.



So here are my top 10, with a few words about how and why I chose them.





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Traffic getting into Blossom Music Center was a throwback to the Grateful Dead era - backed up for HOURS!

Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

No. 10

Dead & Co., June 28, Blossom Music Center. Traffic at the old Grateful Dead shows was legendarily bad. I can recall a show in Chicago, for example, where fans reportedly just left their flower power vans double parked on the Magnificent Mile and clambered aboard the El to get to the gig (although in true Dead fashion, I can't remember for sure whether the concert was at Soldier Field or some other venue). Blossom truly was reminiscent of that this past summer, as many fans stymied by traffic snarls were an hour or more late getting into the show, which featured the great John Mayer filling in for the late Jerry Garcia on guitar. Given the jam nature of Dead music, that meant they missed one whole song! Too bad, as Bob Weir & Co. made the concert Epic, with a capital E.

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Flea's outfit was just about as colorful as his playing when the Red Hot Chili Peppers came to The Q.

Kyle Lanzer / Special to The Plain Dealer

No. 9

Red Hot Chili Peppers, May 13, The Q. The seeds and the pulp – the source of heat – are still in the salsa served up by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith showed off their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bona fides in an organic show of rock 'n' roll for the ages.

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Jonathan Davis and his Korn band mates gave a few eardrums 'what-fer' at Blossom this summer.

Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

No 8

Korn, Aug. 2, Blossom Music Center. Earlier this summer, Alternative Press presented Jonathan Davis and his band with the Vanguard Award for 23 years' worth of decibel-blasting nu-metal. Which means, if you do the math, that they're two years away from eligibility in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. First ballot inductee, anyone?

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Jay-Z's tour in support of his new, Grammy-nominated album, "4:44,'' put hip-hop in its best - and maturing - light.

David Petkiewicz / Cleveland.com

No. 7

Jay-Z, Nov. 19, The Q. Critics of hip-hop cite the violence, racism and misogyny that's been so prevalent in the genre. Now, in reality, the violence, racism and misogyny in many instances has been purposeful, to point out the inequities in this cruel world. But there is no denying their presence in the rap world and its history. That's what makes Jay-Z's new album, "4:44,'' and this tour in support of it so important: This is a man acknowledging his mistakes and failures. It's possible he's going to be able to take the form to a new maturity. Now, if only he (or anyone else in the genre) could do it without the N-word . . .

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U2 electrified Cleveland Browns FirstEnergy Stadium when Bono and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and their band mates brought the 30th anniversary tour of "The Joshua Tree'' to Cleveland.

David Petkiewicz / Cleveland.com

No. 6

U2, July 1, Cleveland Browns FirstEnergy Stadium. The 30th anniversary tour celebrating the groundbreaking album "The Joshua Tree'' lived up to every bit of the hype. Bono, the Edge and the rest of the band – and their crew – were able to do something that I honestly thought was impossible: make the sound at a cavernous stadium as pure and clear as if I'd been listening to high-quality headphones in a booth at the late Paul Hamann's glorious Suma Recording studio, sipping top-notch Jameson's.

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Paul Simon took us all down by the schoolyard . . . again.

Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer

No. 5

Paul Simon, June 13, Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. I'm still crazy for Simon after all these years. What's wonderful is that the sweet voice hasn't really lost that much despite reaching the venerable age of 75. As a matter of fact, there's a sagacity now that surrounds the innocence of his tenor, like a corona around a sun.

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Lady Gaga doesn't allow concert photography by local outlets, so all we have is our memory of her show at The Q this past summer . . . and a photo distributed by her publicity firm of a previous gig.

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Live Nation

No. 4

Lady Gaga, Aug. 23, The Q. If she were just costumes and gimmicks, Gaga would be a glammed-up (if that's possible) Katy Perry – great entertainer, mediocre singer. But she's not. The lady can flat-out sing. Her Grammy-winning duets album with the legendary Tony Bennett, "Cheek to Cheek,'' is proof that this is a talent for the ages. Being able to showcase that gift live is even more amazing. Plus, the crowd at a Gaga concert is a show in and of itself!

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Chris Stapleton may very well be the salvation of mainstream country music. That was evident when he headlined a gig at Blossom in August.

Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

No. 3

Chris Stapleton, Aug. 18, Blossom Music Center. Stapleton won a Grammy for "Traveller,'' is nominated for one for "From a Room: Volume 1'' and will be for "From a Room: Volume 2.'' He is, without a doubt, the best thing happening in country music. This is what I wrote in the review of that show: Stapleton . . . actually sings like the love child of Marvin Gaye, Joe Cocker and the Hag. It's as if someone opened a vault and discovered a whole country division of Motown soul.'' Having Margo Price, who's the female version of Keith Whitley, as the opener, just made it better.

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Margo Price could and should be country's next big thing.

Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

No. 3A

It's rare that an opening act is such a perfect complement to a headliner -- usually the slot is one labels use to hype their prospects. But Margo Price was EXACTLY the right opening act for Chris Stapleton. A true singer-songwriter, she is a godsend to the genre.

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The memory of Tom Petty's last concert is a bittersweet one for fans.

Tim Harrison / Special to The Plain Dealer

No. 2

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, with Joe Walsh, June 10, The Q. We didn't know it was the last time we'd ever get to see Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Petty play live. His death in October at the age of 66 was a shock in the first order of magnitude. But hindsight has made the gig at The Q even more bittersweet. Having the guy Northeast Ohio claims as its own, Joe Walsh, as the "opener'' just made a great night even better.

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Joe Walsh's will forever be one of Northeast Ohio's own, no matter where he was born.

Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer

No. 2A

Joe Walsh's presence on the bill with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers turned it into a double-edged blessing. Now, if only we can convince him to convince his surviving Eagles band mates to come "home'' for the tour that features Vince Gill taking over high harmonies and the late Glenn Frey's son, Deacon, handling some of his dad's chores.

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Anybody who was at Blossom knows it's no surprise that Billie Joe Armstrong and his Green Day buddies took the top slot in our concerts of the year for 2017.

Kyle Lanzer / Special to The Plain Dealer

No. 1

Green Day, Aug. 21, Blossom Music Center. I personally have never seen a bad Green Day show, and I've seen a LOT of them. The one at House of Blues in 2015, the week Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame remains the best. But that's like comparing a thousand-carat diamond to a 999.9-carat diamond. The fellas combine energy, catchy songs and top-notch musicianship at a level most artists can only dream of achieving.

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Axl Rose's erratic vocals earned Guns N' Roses a dubious distinction: Nos.1-5 in Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic Chuck Yarborough's Bottom Five Concerts of 2017.

AP file

Bonus Round: The Bottom 5

Guns N' Roses, Oct. 26, The Q. Slash, Duff McKagan, Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed and Frank Ferrer were their fantastic selves. Vocalist Axl Rose was . . . not. Which is how GNR earned slots 1 through 5 on my bottom list. Every now and then, Rose was able to reach one of his trademark screech notes, but more often than not, he sounded more like a screech owl. Worst vocals since Meat Loaf butchered eardrums at Playhouse Square in 2012. That's the one in which I wrote that Mr. Loaf should've allowed Cleveland's beloved Christmas icon Mr. Jingeling to be part of his backing band; at least that way, he might be able to find a key.