This is for Leonard, if he's still here

Have you heard that line? It's from a live recording of Bob Dylan doing 'Isis' on the Rolling Thunder Revue, which is one of the greatest versions of a Dylan song you'll ever here.

As detailed in Larry Sloman's 'On the Road with Bob Dylan' (a great read) it's Dylan calling out to Cohen, who was in the audience that night, and who he'd tried, without success, to get to join him on stage.

Cohen and Dylan. Those are my gigs this autumn. Not bad, eh? I used to go to about 7 gigs by 20+ year olds a season, now it's 2 gigs by 70+ year olds.

Cohen was a couple of weeks ago. Pretty amazing. How about a gig where someone plays for 3 hours, has a perfect band, plays every song by him that you love (yes, there was Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat, So Long Marianne, Hallelujah, If It Be Your Will, Going Home, Bird on a Wire, Tower of Song, Chelsea Hotel etc), gives tremendous banter AND you get to pay £8 for a spongy hot dog.

Perfect gig. Is it the best I've ever been to? What are the factors that make a great gig?

I love factors.

But, you know what, fuck factors. More than most things in music, the best gigs are the ones that feel the best, the ones you enjoy the most. Simple as that. How, really, can it be anything else?

You experience it once and once only. It's not like an album or even a song where there's context and the opportunity to think about it and listen to it again and again.

A gig's a gig. It's a happening. I've been to 100s, seen even more bands if you count all the festivals too.

Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're ok, they're rarely awful these days. Well, not the ones I go to. I once watched Editors from a distance at Benicassim. They were awful.

What are the best I've been to, besides Leonard (if he's still here).

Blur. Blur at Hyde Park, 2009. That was probably the best. That was every 90s boy's dream come true and more.

These are the others, the ones that really stand out. Some of them are at festivals, some at small venues, some were folk, some were bands who aren't even that great but know how to put on a show. Some are about great singers, some are about rock'n'roll, some about drunken dancing, some about euphoria, some singing along, some hushed reverence, some were evocative, some were gone in an instant.

Band of Horses at Brixton Academy.
The Walkmen, mid-afternoon, at Latitude.
Ash at Somerset House.
Franz Ferdinand at Benicassim.
Joanna Newsom at ATP.
Brian Wilson at the Royal Festival Hall.
Embrace at Glasgow Barrowlands.
Belle and Sebastian at the Roundhouse.
Super Furry Animals at Brixton Academy.
Iron and Wine at Green Man.
Arcade Fire, headlining Latitude.
Mark Eitzel, an unexpected pleasure in a bingo hall at ATP.
Nick Cave at ATP.
Adam Ant, for goodness sake.
James Yorkston, Scala, I think, one of those London venues which is usually a bit rubbish.
The National, Latitude.
Bob Dylan tribute concert at the Barbican. How wonderful that was. Liam Clancy and Odetta.
The Bluetones farewell concert at Shepherds Bush.
Polyphonic Spree, an unexpected feelgood hit in Spain.
Sufjan Stevens, with all his finery, Royal Festival Hall.
Josh Rouse, Union Chapel.
Madness in the blaring sun at Benicassim.
Badly Drawn Boy being mental in Glasgow.
And the best band I've seen (officially, technically, taking in all factors!), the one who've come up trumps the most, Wilco.

I've left out a few other crackers. I've even left out Bob Dylan, maybe in the hope that the next Bob gig will be the best of them all, or maybe in the hope that I'll magically be transported back to 1963 or 1974, when I really wish I'd seen him ....

But I've seen some good ones, that's for sure.