Lady Antebellum w/Darius Rucker, Thompson Square
Radio City Music Hall
Thursday, March 3

Better than: Most things that can actually be described as antebellum.

Two years ago, "Need You Now" pushed Lady Antebellum, a soulful country trio with a chart-topping record and single, out of Nashville and into the pop spotlight. Quickly they were winning not just CMAs but Grammys; their music was being covered by the cast of Glee; and they were being translated into Simlish for video game soundtracks. But Lady Antebellum never sat easily under the country label, pushing the genre to the point where it begins to sound like adult contemporary and "adult contemporary" to the point where it begins to sound like a completely bullshit idea for a genre.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Izod Center
Tuesday, April 3

Better than: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in any of the 49 other states.

At 11:06 p.m., seated in the press box at the Izod Center, it's hard not to like Bruce Springsteen. His last three songs have been, in order, "Out in the Street," "Born to Run," and "Dancing in the Dark," and he's currently reprising "People Get Ready" from earlier in the night. Now he's playing "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," singing from on top of his piano, and you're standing behind what was your seat, probably having the best time you've had at a show in at least maybe a month or so. Then he cuts the song off after the line about the big man joining the band and the crowd applauds for what feels like well over a minute—probably the most touching thing you've seen at a show maybe all year.

But for you (the reader) what good is another hagiography, and besides, what good is that hagiography if it forces me to brush over the fact that first three-quarters of this show were, although brilliantly played, all kinds of messy and conflicted?

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Eric Church
Hammerstein Ballroom
Thursday, March 14

Better than: Watching some laptop soundscaper at SXSW and making an "I don't think Waylon woulda done it that way" joke to an unappreciative stranger.

Spending the past summer touring the country, preparing crowds for the massive star Toby Keith, Eric Church played understudy. His guitars could crunch, but never too loud; his fans could sing, but only with the knowledge that the Toby Keith lifers would be looking at them out of the sides of their eyes; and at the end of his set, this alpha male would have to defer to a former college linebacker who has enough "Drink in My Hand"s that his greatest-hits collection could reasonably expand to three discs.

Last night, however, all eyes fell on Church, who didn't walk onstage but who appeared from behind a cloud of smoke, then played a song called "Country Music Jesus" and summoned fire when the lyrics called for it.

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For the last few years, Momma's Hip Hop Kitchen has celebrated the beginning of International Women's Month by bringing some of New York's best female MCs and poets to the Bronx's Hostos Community College, raising awareness for HIV/AIDS and placing before audiences that cross otherwise rigid boundaries of age, race, neighborhood, and gender. In advance of Saturday's event, the Voice spoke with Kathleen Adams, one of the original organizers, about the Kitchen's growth and the challenges that the South Bronx faces.

How did you get this event going? How did it come together, originally?

So Lah Tere [of the rap group and arts collective Rebel Diaz] and I, we were friends and we knew each other and we both had a passion to use hip-hop in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Being in the Bronx, especially the South Bronx, and knowing how important hip-hop is and that the rates for HIV/AIDs are extremely high, we thought this would be a one-time event. When we had it February 2008, we thought only 75 people were going to come to showcase and over 500 people showed up. That kind of gave us the idea to keep this going because obviously there's a need and a lot of energy behind this.

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2 Chainz, Asher Roth, Ace Hood, Vado, and Gunplay
Gramercy Theatre
Tuesday, February 21

Better than: Clicking through the 50 best hip-hop jumpsuits.

Is a show still a success if the audience has a great time, but never quite figures what's being promoted? Last night at the Gramercy Theatre, a website called Best of Both Offices brought a handful of rappers from along the east coast to help them re-launch their website and announce a new partnership with Complex Media. Yet the next morning I'm still not exactly sure what that website is. The company refers to itself as a "fully equipped lifestyle and artist development brand designed to creatively develop, market, promote and establish brand new upstart or prominent artists or brands into the marketplace," but that doesn't help much, and Complex claims that it has "successfully marketed, developed and digitally promoted artists including... Jay-Z," which I have trouble believing.

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Romeo Santos
Madison Square Garden
Saturday, February 11

Better than: Coming home and hearing about Whitney.

I lived in the Bronx during the 23 weeks when Aventura's The Last reigned over the Billboard Latin chart, and the local quartet's music was everywhere. From all-night dance clubs to family reunions at Crotona Park, corner bodegas to Orchard Beach, there were few places you could go to escape it. Of course, why would you have wanted to when any of the album's 16 tracks (the two skits don't count), plus the inevitable throwbacks like "Obsesion" and "Hermanita," could start a party as quickly as they could turn around a floundering one?

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Throughout the award's history, Grammy voters have tended to bestow Best Comedy Album upon trusted favorites: Bill Cosby closed out the 1960s with six straight victories; Richard Pryor took home three trophies in the '70s and two more in the '80s; and Peter Schickele opened the '90s with four consecutive wins of his own. Lately, Chris Rock, George Carlin, and the Daily Show/Colbert Report nexus of talent have dominated the category, with Flight of the Conchords providing the only surprise. This year, however, the award is pretty much up for grabs. Full rundown below.

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As part of this year's larger reduction in genre-specific awards, 2012 will see the country portion of the Grammys streamlined to just four categories: Best Solo Performance (which swallows Male and Female Vocal Performance), Best Duo/Group Performance (which swallows Best Duo/Group Vocal Performance and Instrumental Performance and Best Collaboration with Vocals), and Best Album and Best Song (which have been around since the beginning). This year, the last of those categories mixes old and new, split (along gender lines, as it turns out) between Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Martina McBride, who between them racked up 13 Female Vocal Performance nominations and four wins, and Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton, both up for the first time. Full breakdown below.

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2 Chainz w/ Marcus Manchild
S.O.B.'s
Monday, January 30

Better than: Spending today watching the 50 or so videos that were taken during the performance.

2 Chainz is tall. I was going to guess 6'5", but an internet answers site—and we all know how reliable they are—is telling me he's 6'8". Whatever the number, he needed every inch of it to remain visible over the mob of hangers-on, loose affiliates, and camera people, especially camera people, that surrounded him as he performed the best cuts off his two 2011 mixtapes, February's Codeine Cowboy and November's T.R.U. Realigion, last night at S.O.B.'s.

As a rapper, 2 Chainz's success is based more on the thrill of recognition than the thrill of innovation: Both on stage and on record, he does little new but, from his flows to his beat selection, nearly everything well and—perhaps most important to his recent success—with a consistency that has grown increasingly rare. Anyone with a DatPiff account can tell you how few of the hundred of new mixtapes that appear on the site every day remain strong from track one through track 15. In 2011, 2 Chainz released two of them.

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IFC

Portlandia: The Tour
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Friday, January 20

Better than: Watching television (but who has one anyway?).

In the middle of a nearly two-hour set of live sketches, improv riffing, and unseen clips, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, the stars of IFC's Portlandia, strapped on guitars and played the song that served as the show's much-emailed teaser. "Do you remember when people were content to be unambitious, sleep 'til 11 and hang out with their friends? And they had no occupations whatsoever?" Fred asks. "When people were singing about saving the planet, forming bands?... When they encouraged you to be weird?" That dream, the dream of '90s, he explains to Carrie, is alive in Portland.

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