The Ten Best Los Angeles Concerts of 2012

Timothy Norris

3. Fiona Apple
Greek Theatre, September 14
Probably the most surprising aspect of Fiona Apple's return to touring was how happy she seemed. The singer with haunted eyes, an unnerving stare and a gravelly voice that sounds wrenched from her very core always has been shrouded in an air of suffering. In fact, it seemed there was a constant, very violent war being waged within her mind and soul. But at the Greek Theatre show on her birthday, she seemed different. She still growled "Sleep to Dream" and bruised the piano keys during "Shadowboxer," but in between, she beamed and giggled and blurted out cute asides -- even literally kicking up her heels. Guess we were the only ones crying this time. --Rebecca Haithcoat

Colin Young-Wolff

2. Sigur Ros
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, October 13
Few places in L.A. are better suited to induce a sense of eerie beauty like the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. So when Icelandic purveyors of wonder Sigur Ros announced that they would be playing there, tickets sold out lightning fast. On the way into the cemetery we even witnessed desperate fans climbing the stone walls of the place trying to get in. Their scrapes and cuts turned out to be well worth the effort. On the grassy field between the sleeping dead, Sigur Ros played most of their new album Valtari, their beautiful and oftentimes unnerving post-rock washing over the crowd. Raw emotion rippled through the audience, leaving some staring, open-mouthed. --Molly Bergen

See also: Sigur Ros at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 8/13/12

Timothy Norris

1. D'Angelo
House of Blues, July 4
House of Blues
While year end wrap-ups are pointing to Miguel and Frank Ocean and proclaiming R&B to be back, we'd like to take a moment to recognize one of the progenitors of the current movement, D'Angelo. After an almost 12-year hiatus, one of the most important of the '90s "neo-soul" singers took the stage on the Fourth of July. We were equal parts jazzed and jittery -- America loves a comeback, but could D'Angelo, whose fame and sex-symbol status had driven him down a self-destructive path, handle it? Any doubt was swept away as his voice, sounding as pure and sweet as it did on his 1995 debut Brown Sugar, got the crowd swaying. And the fireworks he set off during his cover of Parliment's "I've Been Watching You" were better than any we've seen. --Rebecca Haithcoat

See also: The Best Los Angeles Concerts of 2011

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