The Best Concert of Summer 2022: 12-Inch Poll

With the summer concert season behind us for the most part, it's time to ask: what was the best concert of Summer 2022?

Summer 2022 truly felt like the return of live music. Granted, last summer had its fair share of tours and big name acts out on the road. But plenty of people--myself included--were still wary of heading out to big summer shows during the Coronavirus pandemic. Now that it seems we'll be living with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, plenty of people--myself included--are making their peace with that and heading back out regularly to enjoy live music again.

I hit up a few shows this summer, starting with the (un)official kickoff of the summer music season: Boston Calling Music Festival. Two nights of Nine Inch Nails was a dream come true. And Metallica closing down the festival on Sunday night was epic. Then, it was a summer of lots of swimming and body surfing and pizza boarding in Maine and points north. So I missed out on The Black Crowes at Tanglewood and The Cult at Leader Bank Pavilion, two shows I was looking forward to. But I did drag my kid to see Spoon and Interpol at Bold Point Park in Providence. And we were on hand for Red Hot Chili Peppers, St. Vincent and Thundercat at Fenway Park. They even reviewed the show for me!

So how about you? The Ticket Troll gave away a metric ton of tickets to big summer shows starting all the way back in June. And the winning continues this week with tickets to see Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction or Alice In Chains and Bush. Get the details here. Then scroll through my list of 21 summer concerts and vote for your favorite.