BEST OF 2007: Backstage@Backstage #10-6 (Taking Back Sunday, Amy Winehouse, Joseph Arthur, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine) (Backstage Pass)

I ain’t even gonna front -- 2007 was a tough one here at the Backstage Pass for reasons that are best kept, well, backstage. That said, the year was still filled with too many amazing, memorable moments to list and that’s always a good reason to celebrate. (Shout out to my former boss and Backstage Passer Kevin Amorim: Dude, we miss you. BTW, we haven’t done a story on Westerberg or Pollard in months.) Hopefully, we will all be in for lots more in 2008.

Here are some of my favorites moments from last year:

tbsliveearth 10. Taking Back Sunday, Giants Stadium, 7.7.07: After their rousing set as part of Live Earth, TBS’ Adam Lazzara, Fred Mascherino and Matt Rubano take to the press room to discuss environmental concerns and the meaning of the day with the world’s media. When they see me, however, the trio uses its place at the podium to get the world’s media to give me a big round of applause. The world’s media declines.

9. Amy Winehouse, South by Southwest, 3.16.07: Britney Spears’ spectacular flameout is a mere footnote compared to Winehouse’s struggles for one simple reason: Winehouse has so much further to fall. At this show, before most of her tabloid exploits began, Winehouse was still stellar, if a bit tipsy. Spears can only dream of an album as fully formed and accomplished as Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” Actually, she probably can’t even do that.

8. Joseph Arthur, The Museum of Modern Arthur, 4.4.07: This was the year Arthur got to show off his frontman skills as he led the Lonely Astronauts, but he is still just as effective alone with his guitar. As he took me on a tour of his new gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn, he also previewed a stunningly downhearted version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” that he would later debut at a Carnegie Hall benefit and a new song he had written that morning that will hopefully appear on his new album due early in 2008.

7. Public Enemy, South by Southwest, 3.16.07: On the shores of Town Lake in Austin, Texas, Public Enemy united pretty much every race, creed, age group and socio-demographic for the evening with their rhymes of rage. Chuck D’s music stands for a lot of things, but few of those things are as important as the way it can turn almost any crowd into a collective raised fist.

Public Enemy - 101x In Studio (SXSW)
Free Music Videos at www.roxwel.com

6. Rage Against the Machine, Randalls Island, 7.28.07: In a year when so many reunions didn’t quite live up to their hype, the fiery re-teaming of Zach de la Rocha with his Rage cohorts surpassed even the highest expectations. And even though grand performances from the Wu-Tang Clan and Public Enemy went well beyond the opener status most of the Rock the Bells Festival fans conferred on them, Rage certainly performed like headliners.