The best musical moments of 2023: Elton, McCartney, Farnham, QOTSA, Foo Fighters
The Australian’s music writer nominates his highlights of 2023, from the best concerts, songs and albums to the best comeback.
The Australian’s music writer nominates his highlights of 2023, from the best concerts, songs and albums to the best comeback and soundtrack usage.
Best stadium concert
Elton John.
How often does any of us know with certainty we are doing something for the last time? On January 21 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, about 45,000 of us watched as this great British singer-songwriter gave his final performance on our shores, aged 75. The man himself knew the stats: he told us from the stage it was his 237th show in Australia since his first visit in 1971, and the 278th show of his worldwide farewell tour. Artists come and go in this life, but very few have the songs, the stamina and the hunger to be filling stadiums five decades after their name became globally known and loved. This was the finest and fondest of farewells.
Also great: Ed Sheeran, Paul McCartney, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Best arena concert
Paul McCartney.
To begin his national tour on October 18, the former Beatle played to about 8000 people at Adelaide Entertainment Centre – not quite a warm-up show, but one that allowed him and his trusty band to get back into the swing of things at a smaller scale after 16 months between gigs, before moving onto stadiums. With an enviably deep songbook and an unrivalled melodic sensibility, McCartney leads his concerts with sure-footed ease. Watching him go about his business at age 81 – while alternating bass, guitar and piano, and singing for the best part of three hours – is one of the most treasured musical wonders to be found today. Nobody does it better.
Also great: Lorde, The Smashing Pumpkins, Modest Mouse, Ghost, Maneskin, and The War on Drugs.
Best theatre concert
John Williamson.
The country/folk singer-songwriter has long been a fixture at the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival, and his show at the NSW city’s Town Hall on January 20 was a standout stacked with superbly written and performed songs. Yes, my three top picks for the best gigs of the year at venues large and small were all artists aged north of 75. They’ve each lived full lives in the public eye, and rather than putting their feet up, they’ve chosen to continue treading the boards and bringing the music to us because they can, and because they love it, and because we do, too. What a gift.
Also great: Kasey Chambers, Genesis Owusu and the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Vile, Ball Park Music, Tommy Emmanuel, King Stingray, Eagles of Death Metal, Rivers of Nihil, Dan Sultan, Delta Goodrem and The Mark of Cain.
Best festival
Tie: WOMADelaide and Dark Mofo, which respectively offered a great deal of daytime, family-friendly entertainment and adults-only, after-dark delights.
Also great: Knotfest Australia, and Good Things.
Best album
In Times New Roman… by Queens of the Stone Age.
Eight albums into its career, and after six years between releases, this Californian rock quintet continues to surprise and inspire thanks to its unique musical chemistry led by Josh Homme’s lyrical and vocal knack. Together, the group produces some of the most thrilling and urgent rock ‘n’ roll to be heard anywhere, at any time. Its tour here arrives in February.
Also great: Dan Sultan by Dan Sultan, Struggler by Genesis Owusu, Radical Romantics by Fever Ray, How Many Dreams? by DMA’S, Hey Dawn by Fanny Lumsden, Hackney Diamonds by The Rolling Stones, and Rat Wars by HEALTH.
Best song
Show Me How by Foo Fighters. I’m a sucker for intra-family vocal harmonies. Here, Foos frontman Dave Grohl blends beautifully with his daughter Violet on a lyric about learning to cope with grief, which also sidelines the band’s usual rock style in favour of a gorgeous feel that’s somewhere between shoegaze and dream pop.
Also great: Straight Jacket Fitting by Queens of the Stone Age, Tied Up! by Genesis Owusu, Outrun the Night by Tina Arena, Now and Then by The Beatles, Last Night by Morgan Wallen, Ghosts Again by Depeche Mode, Flowers by Miley Cyrus, Whole Wide World by The Rolling Stones, Houdini by Dua Lipa, Undreamt Shores by Dan Sultan, Future of Hell by HEALTH, and When I Die by Fanny Lumsden.
Best book
Full Coverage: A History of Rock Journalism in Australia by Samuel J. Fell
Also great: Love and Pain by Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou, Ringside by Rod Willis, and Songwriters Speak by Debbie Kruger (reprint).
Best comeback
Tie: The Beatles – whose haunting final song Now and Then got the Fab Four back into our lives some 53 years after the peerless British rockers called it a day in 1970 – and their 1960s-era peers The Rolling Stones, who never really left us, and never will. For us, there’s always been the sun and the moon and The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles.
Best music TV
Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All
Best music film
Burn Gently by Sensible Antixx
Also great: Ego: the Michael Gudinski Story by Paul Goldman, and John Farnham: Finding the Voice by Poppy Stockell.
Best soundtrack usage
You’re the Voice by John Farnham, which soundtracked the Uluru Dialogue’s campaign in support of a Yes vote for the Indigenous voice to parliament. The referendum result didn’t go the way that campaigners had hoped, but I was deeply moved by the emotionally resonant and historically-minded way in which one of Australia’s most-loved songs was used by filmmaker Warwick Thornton, whose ad made a noise and made it clear.
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