With the economy bordering on shambles, the stage was set for a dismal year.

Then, in late winter, the concert announcements started trickling in and then piled up in ways no one expected. We even added two shuttered outdoor venues with the return of the Amphitheatre at Station Square and Riverplex at Sandcastle.

While the arena was more active than usual in the spring and summer, Live Nation went for broke at the Post-Gazette Pavilion, serving up the various high-priced reunions (Phish, blink-182, Creed, Jane's Addiction) along with a few rarities such as Coldplay and Lil Wayne mixed in with Buffett and Skynyrd.

Down on street level, the club shows were typically fast and furious, whether it was buzz bands such as Metric or Camera Obscura at Mr. Small's or more underground sensations such as Iron Lung at Modern Formations or Jay Reatard at Brillobox.

I wish I could say I saw even most of them, but that's impossible. From what I did see, these were my favorites:

1. The Decemberists (Byham, Aug. 14): This was the same night as the blink-182 reunion show, and being kind of a sucker for pop-punk, I recall being torn on which way to go. I opted for the Byham and I think it was the right choice. In its first show here since playing the Quiet Storm in 2003, the Portland indie-rock band brought "The Hazards of Love," its answer to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or The Who's "Tommy." Although it wasn't staged with sets and props, to an extent, frontman Colin Meloy and operatic singers Shara Worden and Becky Stark acted out the piece, a mythical horror tale set to a beguiling blend of English folk, prog and stomping metal. It was all performed with staggering beauty and precision, and was followed by a lively second set of The Decemberists' faves and an unforgettable cover of Heart's "Crazy on You."

2. AC/DC (Mellon Arena, Jan. 8): Ahhh, there's something about classic metal in that first week of January. It's a Pittsburgh tradition and you gotta have it. The thrashy Australian rockers rolled in on an icy January night with the chart-topping "Black Ice" and a devilish catalog of headbanging hits that sound even better now than they did back then. After the increasingly insane-looking Angus Young finished shooting out musical sparks on "Let There Be Rock," they should have just cleared everyone out and razed the place. Except, then the No. 3 concert couldn't have happened.

3. Bruce Springsteen (May 19, Mellon Arena): Bruce has been to our city so many times, the shows are a bit of a blur at this point. This one, though, will always be remembered for the sign raised by a fan in the front rows: "Like a Rolling Stone." With that, the resilient E Street Band ventured into the Dylan classic for the first time, and played it like they owned it. Bruce wisely downplayed the new "Working on a Dream" album, actually dropping more songs from "Darkness on the Edge of Town." The themes of the night, for tough times, turned out to be empowerment and old-fashioned fun. The bummer is that we didn't get the fall tour, where he played such albums as "Born to Run" and "Greetings From Asbury Park" straight through.

4. Black Eyed Peas (Sept. 10, Point State Park): We had a feeling it was going to be a good night. And it was, with the Super Bowl Champion Steelers kicking off a new season, a psyched crowd, a stunning stage constructed in front of the fountain, a beautiful sunset and a sexy band on a hot streak with chart-busting singles. Although they admitted to not being Steelers fans, the Peas tapped into the towel-waving energy with a booming set of hip-pop hits. Although he showed off his quarterback arm, Titans fan and co-headliner Tim McGraw didn't rise to the occasion. In the end, we won, but lost Polamalu, and you know the rest.

5. Brian Wilson (Carnegie Music Hall Library, Nov. 8): I can't recall many times where I fought off tears at a concert, but listening to the 68-year-old Beach Boy sing "Little Surfer" was one of those get-out-your-hanky moments. Wilson obviously wasn't 100 percent (and hasn't been in four decades), but his mere presence with those timeless songs and an exquisite band added up to a heavenly night.

6. Girl Talk and Friends (July 31, Amphitheatre at Station Square): This festival didn't encompass the full range of Pittsburgh music (no punk, no metal, no bar-rock), but it came pretty close, with the pounding math-rock of Don Caballero, the exotic indie-rock of Centipede Eest, the '80s girl-pop of Donora, the hilarious rap-rock of Grand Buffet, the mainstream hip-hop of Wiz Khalifa and then Girl Talk turning the crowd of 4,500 into a frantic party mob with his blizzard of samples. Best of show, though, was the incomparable Modey Lemon putting Blue Cheer, The Who and Sonic Youth in a blender with mind-blowingly heavy and hypnotic display. Paul Quattrone, we are not worthy.

7. Morrissey (March 17, Carnegie Music Hall): The Moz actually showed! The first time in 23 years. One of the great crooners of the post-punk era, the former Smiths singer was in beautiful voice, whether it was caressing the woeful ballads, raving through driving rockers such as the new "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" or reaching for the operatic falsettos on the climactic "First of the Gang to Die." His energy level lagged only a few times in a room that approached the temperature of one of Carnegie's mills.

8. ZZ Top/Aerosmith (Post-Gazette Pavilion): When they played that wild stadium show here in 1976, ZZ Top was the headliner, and that's the way it should have been again. Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were a mean blues-rock machine, churning through classics with that perfect balance of precision and grit. The Bad Boys from Boston, playing "Toys in the Attic" straight through, was missing ailing guitarist Brad Whitford and Steven Tyler seemed distracted, so the band wasn't clicking quite the way we've seen it in the past. It didn't even make it through the tour.

9. Riverboat Gamblers and Jay Reatard: Allow me to cheat. These were two different nights, two different seasons, opposites ends of town. But they were two bands we rarely or never see doing the most high-energy club shows I saw this year. Austin's Gamblers played a roaring, ear-shattering set of tuneful garage-punk with frontman Mike Wiebe literally bouncing off the walls of the Smiling Moose (on April 24). Then, on Nov. 23, after a crushing set by locals Kim Phuc, Reatard hit the Brillobox stage for his first Pittsburgh show and lived up to the hype as a thrashy punk brat with an ear for a hook.

10. Jane's Addiction/Nine Inch Nails (Post-Gazette Pavilion, June 10): In the 10th spot, a nod to the Lollapalooza era. If we can trust Trent Reznor, this was the last NIN show in Pittsburgh, and it was an industrial strength blast of dark, desperate metal. (As a bonus, I even got to watch his 90-year-old grandfather, sitting in front of me, dance to it.) Then, the original JA topped it with an equally thunderous but more celebratory and sensuous set powered by Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro.

Honorable mentions: Kings of Leon/Walkmen, Green Day, Yes/Asia, The Melvins, The Hold Steady, The Black Keys.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.