The Pogues at the Congress Theater in Chicago: Best Concert of 2007

You know you're getting old when your favorite bands from high school started reuniting and going on tour. And I knew I was old the day I started getting excited about these shows. Still, the last couple years have been great for 1980s and early 1990s reunion acts. Whether it's for the love or the money, I've decided I don't care because these bands often make a better showing than their latest and hippest counterparts.

My pick for best concert of 2007 (so far, anyway) goes to the Pogues, who played the Congress Theater in Chicago on March 5.

I think I was 11 when they broke up, and they've played very few shows with and without Shane MacGowan since. This show was like an opportunity to see a band I felt like I missed the boat on the first time around. And they played with more enthusiasm and energy than I've seen from most newer, first-time-around bands.

There was some speculation before the concert about whether or not Shane MacGowan would show up. He is, after all, a man known more for his drug and alcohol abuse than his reliability. Supposedly MacGowan has rehabbed, but he looked like crap and no one could understand a word he was saying. (Bless his crusty, rock-star heart.) Fortunately, he can still belt out an Irish-rock tune like he's 22. My friend and I joked that he seemed to sober up as the show went on, because the Pogues just kept sounding better and better.

Highlights of the show included "Streams of Whiskey," "Dirty Old Town," and "Fiesta," which ended the second encore. Really though, they seemed to play everyone's favorite songs and not just mine.

The Congress Theater is always an amazing place to see a concert, and the crowd was pretty rowdy, especially in the front of the venue. I was briefly glad I had gotten old, so I could hang in the back and not lose face by worrying about my teeth getting broken out.

The Pogues were a tough choice for best concert of 2007, so I'll mention a runner-up to be fair. (Drum roll, please.) My runner-up pick for best concert of 2007: Dinosaur Jr. at the Abbey Pub on June 1, which was night two of a three-night booking.

Again with the nostalgia, but these guys sounded great. Lou Barlow and J. Mascis have managed to bury the old hatchet and play together like they never spent a day apart. I felt like I was watching my childhood heroes sing all my favorite sad songs.

The crowd was full of aging hipsters, but I haven't seen people this nice at a show since the early 1990s. I reminisced with some strangers about our favorite Dinosaur Jr. songs when we were teenagers, and some exceptionally tall people cleared a space for me to stand and see.

Dinosaur Jr. would have made my pick for best concert of 2007, but the sold-out Abbey Pub felt packed to the point of dangerous. And while Dinosaur Jr. has mad skills and stoicism on their side, the Pogues have pure, unbridled enthusiasm.

All in all, it was a pretty good year for reunion tours.