My 2024 had a great soundtrack.

I got to see bands I’ve interviewed and listened to for years that I’d never seen live — Dropkick Murphys and Indigo Girls, both at Packard Music Hall, but definitely not together.

I got to see longtime favorites once again (Frank Turner at the Roxian, Bruce Springsteen at PPG Paints Arena, Jason Isbell and Alejandro Escovedo at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica). I got to see an iconic artist for the first time (Stevie Wonder at PPG Paints Arena). And I got to see guys from a band I used to love (Tim Quirk and Jay Blumenfeld of Too Much Joy) play music in a Youngstown backyard.

Thanks to being a member of the Summit, I got to meet Turner and Graham Parker (whose “Squeezing Out Sparks” album probably makes my list of 10 favorite albums of all time) and watch them perform in a room that holds maybe 75 people.

But many of the shows that stand out in 2024 had a local flavor, even if some of those acts have growing national or international followings.

It was great watching The Vindys play two very different shows in 2024 — performing with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra at Powers Auditorium in April and watching the band win over the crowd at MGM Northfield Park in July while opening for Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo and imagining that scenario playing out in the 20-plus cities where they opened for the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers.

I’ve seen Anthony LaMarca lead The Building on multiple occasions and sit in with other acts, but I got my first opportunity to see him in his primary gig as a member of the Grammy-winning band The War on Drugs at Blossom Music Center in September.

I’ve known the music of the Ohio Players since I was in middle school, and I got to watch Billy Beck and Rick Ward bring the funk with their fellow players to the Warren Community Amphitheatre for the Warren African American Achievers Association Festival in June.

I got to see Youngstown’s Infidels — a band I love as much as any act mentioned above — for the first time in two years last weekend at Westside Bowl, and I got a double dose of MUNNYCAT, with Khaledzou (Khaled Tabbara) and K808 (Katianne Timko) playing The Summit’s 330 Day Concert at The Kent Stage and opening for Red Wanting Blue at Westside Bowl.

I saw RWB three times already (it should have been four, but I made what turned out to be an unfortunate decision in watching the Cleveland Guardians lose an ALCS series at Progressive Field instead of going to the free Downtown Open concert in October). My concert-going year will end at House of Blues on Friday for a perfect double bill of RWB and Youngstown’s Labra Brothers.

Part of this job requires being a cheerleader for the local entertainment and arts scene, but it’s easy to shake those pom poms thanks to the level of talent that exists locally and the caliber of national artists brought to the Mahoning Valley by promoters.

The same is true of theater. I saw some of the national touring productions, but nothing was as polished and perfect as Millennial Theatre Company’s production of the musical “It Shoulda Been You.” That show, which didn’t last four months on Broadway, played like a blockbuster on the Hopewell Theatre stage. Its productions of “Cabaret” at Hopewell, and “Spamalot” at Youngstown Playhouse also impressed.

Speaking of the Playhouse, its centennial season got off to a glorious start with “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” in August at Powers Auditorium.

As entertaining as the Playhouse’s own productions have been, the theater also has asserted itself as the local theatrical hub of the Mahoning Valley by allowing Millennial, Rust Belt Theater Company and Oakland Center for the Arts to use its main stage for their shows.

That collaborative spirit only makes local theater stronger.

Over the years, I’ve attended some sparsely attended performances at Kent State University at Trumbull Theatre, so it was heartening to see the sell-out crowds that came out for this fall’s “Legally Blonde: The Musical.”

Kent-Trumbull Theatre also did a magnificent job with the powerhouse drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in the spring.

Hopewell matched “Virginia Woolf?” in the drama department with its staging of David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole.”

Youngstown State University’s “Once Upon a Mattress” was delightful, and the theater department also showcased one of its alumni with Amber Palmer’s alternately funny and moving script “It’s a Small World (or The Robot Play).”

2024 saw Susan Davenny Wyner step down after 24 years leading the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her replacement, Austintown native Christopher Cicconi, made his WPO debut in November.

Galen S. Karriker made his debut this year as conductor of the W.D. Packard Concert Band. He replaced Stephen L. Gage, who died in 2023.

After a multi-year search, Youngstown Symphony Orchestra hired Sergey Bogza as music director and conductor to replace Randall Craig Fleischer, who died in 2020, only to have Bogza resign due to undisclosed personal, health and family matters without ever picking up the baton.

One of the many ripple effects of the Realty Tower explosion in downtown Youngstown was the cancellation of 2024’s Y-Live concert at Wean Foundation Park. Headliner Tim McGraw will be rescheduled in 2025.

After four years on display, the Boy Scouts of America art collection, including its Norman Rockwell paintings, was packed up at Medici Museum of Art in Howland and shipped away.

The first group of paintings were auctioned in November, so those fortunate enough to see the local exhibition will be the last ones to ever see those Rockwells together.

It was sad to see them go, but I’m excited for folks to see “Sci-Fi & Hollywood: The Art of John Zabrucky,” which opens at Medici on Jan. 24. It will provide a sneak peek for what’s in store when the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts eventually opens in Warren. With the selection of a name and the hiring of an architectural firm (the same firm that designed the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.) in 2024, progress is being made.

It will be one of the first of what I’m sure will be many things to look forward to in 2025.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.