After a couple years of very uncertain times, the world of live music got … well, just a bit more certain in 2022. Shows happened, at least, which is more than we can say for much of 2020 and 2021. In Central Oregon, the concert calendar felt like it got back to pre-pandemic levels, or at least close. Below, I’ve listed my favorite shows of the year, with a few words about five of them.

• Deep Sea Diver, Feb. 9, Volcanic Theatre Pub in Bend

A Deep Sea Diver show is as much an exercise in physical exertion as it is a concert. The Seattle-based band plays a particularly punchy brand of indie rock, with bass lines you can feel in your bones and drum beats that thwack you between the eyes. And then there’s frontperson Jessica Dobson, who makes magic happen on the electric guitar while she delivers sturdy melodies and puts on one heck of a show. By the end of the band’s gig at Volcanic Theatre, Dobson was perched atop one of the stage monitors in a full (and deserved) rock-star pose, sweating despite the chilly temperatures outside and a room full of people in the palm of her hand.

• Jose Gonzalez, March 12, Tower Theatre in Bend

• Help, March 23, The Capitol in Bend

• Teenage Halloween, April 1, High Desert Music Hall in Redmond

• Charley Crockett, April 21, Midtown Ballroom in Bend

• Joshua Ray Walker, June 4, Silver Moon Brewing in Bend

Silver Moon was packed to the gills when Walker, a talented Texas songwriter, slowly led his band through the crowd and onto the pub’s small corner stage. Thanks to problems with the sound system, Walker kicked off the show with an unamplified version of my favorite of his tunes, “Flash Paper,” a devastating slow-burn of a song about the loss of a loved one. He was filling the dead air, but performing it that way made a spellbinding song even more so.

Then, as the microphones crackled to life, Walker and his band jumped into a blazing country cover of Lionel Richie’s hit ballad “Hello,” supercharged with a shuffling rhythm and swoops of pedal steel guitar. It was an excellent intro to what would become a near-perfect 90-minute set of pure, uncut country music.

• The Chicks, Aug. 10, Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend

(Originally published Aug. 12)

They played soulful and solemn protest songs (“March March,” “For Her”) and zydeco-flavored blues jams (‘Lubbock or Leave It’) and one of my favorite songs ever, “Goodbye Earl,” to close the show. Along the way, Natalie Maines endeared herself to the audience by shouting out Central Oregon rockhounds and the big, bright moon as it rose over the Old Mill District.

And, oh yeah, they played the songs everyone knows by heart, like “Travelin’ Soldier” and “Cowboy Take Me Away”’ and “Wide Open Spaces,” which was not only the biggest singalong of the evening, but also a good reminder that wrapped up in all of The Chicks’ pink and glitter and video screens and political activism is a world-class string band with a whole bunch of great songs at its fingertips. And isn’t that what it’s really all about?

• Willi Carlisle, Aug. 13, Domino Room in Bend

• Nine Inch Nails, Sept. 9, Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend

• The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Oct. 2, Sisters Folk Festival

(Originally published Oct. 4)

(The) Tennessee bluegrass band tore through a bunch of crowd-pleasing jams, pickin’ at lightning speed, hamming it up along the way and making it look like it’s easy to do both at the same time. There’s a reason this quintet is getting nominated for Grammy awards, I suppose. The highlight of the set — besides the high-octane hillbilly music that transported me back home to Kentucky — was watching guitarist Josh Rinkel … change a guitar string while singing lead on a song, and finishing in time to rejoin his bandmates before the song’s end. That put a big smile on every face I could see.

• Wand, Oct. 6, Domino Room in Bend

When it was first announced, Wand’s tour with Japanese electro-thrash band Melt Banana seemed like an odd pairing. But that’s really only true if you think of Wand as an L.A. psych-rock band with a penchant for catchy melodies and guitar heroics. Which they are, and they have been in the past, and so I do. But on this night, the band showed off its way-out-there side, blasting off into a number of extended psych excursions that regularly careened into cacophonous jams and noisy freakouts led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Cory Hanson. It was a wonderfully weird performance that made the bill make perfect sense.

• Good Looks, Nov. 5, Volcanic Theatre Pub in Bend

• Jake Blount, Nov. 10, The Belfry in Sisters