Just What's A Canker Sore
8 years ago
Monday, October 31, 2005
That was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Full report coming tomorrow complete with photos.
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About Me
- Ludicrousity
- I'm a Melbourne chick, born and raised. I have travelled to Germany and lived in Tassie. I have done quite a variety of things from lifeguarding to radio announcing to youth working to maths teaching to childcare working to singing to housekeeping to studying and much more. I'm a jack of all trades as they say. I think. I wonder where that saying came from. I have a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and English and a graduate diploma of Education. I'm passionate about teaching and seeing people reach their potential.
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I would say what I thought of Live Music, but Guru would just accuse me of being some sad angry hermit again.
Full report!
I often would ask why people would go to see a game of football live, when one could see it from the comfort of home. You can see the action better, have updated scores, controlled temperatures and smell... just everything about watching it on TV was better. (This has nothing to do with the fact that I also don't like football... wow, maybe I am just a sad angry hermit)
Whenever I said this to people who were going or had invited me, I expected them to have some clever well thought out response, with several reasonable arguements since they were going anyway. All they said was there was a 'vibe'. A what? I've been to stadiums, there's no vibe. There is 'volume', excessive and pointless amounts of it. There is 'vomit-like smelling people' sitting in close quarters, but what is this vibe?
Live music is the same. Let me make a list of all the disadvantages compared to buying the album and listening at home.
- Crowded, claustrophobic, pick-pocketing surrounds
- Uncontrollable volume, don't know what it is, but it's always too loud
- You can't pick the songs. There's always one you can't stand, and you only listen to the ones you like once, or if you're lucky and spend a lot of time cheering tiresomely loud you might get one oncore
- Uncontrollable temperature (not going to even mention weather and outdoor events)
- Unlike home, you can't just 'go grab a snack', you're stuck there.
- And if you can 'go grab a snack' it's priced 20 times what it's worth
- The music, if you happen to be listening to one you like, is marred by countless tuneless people trying to sing along, and people screaming for no reason whatsoever. Shut up and listen to the music already.
- If you're standing (or Santa forbid, moshing) then you get tired of standing
- And if you're in a classy enough place to be sitting, it will never be as comfortable as the couches and such at home.
- I'm not entirely sure how much it costs to go to these things. Even if we were in denial enough to pretend they were free, I could still say all the above things and I would still not want to go. However, I think I remember my friends trying to convince me to go with them to see an artist I didn't like (Their only reason was 'c'mon, it'll be great'. What? Aren't they listening to me?). When I asked how much, they said 30 bucks. What?? What kind of a rip off is that? You could buy the album and listen to it forever. Apparently that was a cheap price as well.
Now, to be fair, I will now list the advantages.
- According to Aimless, some bands sound better live. This somehow doesn't seem to sit right with me. Let us forget that it is hard to hear the music over the clapping, slapping, screaming, whistling, hollerin' and singing, what magical properties do playing in front of people aid the music. Do they think, 'Ah, finally. We're out of the recording studio, we can play well'? Are they like, 'Okay, Andre, you can play with your right hand again'? Maybe it's something to do with the acoustics. I'm sure that proffessional sound managers, who have the full extent of audio technology and years of experience wouldn't have worked out how to optimise recording. Sorry Aimless, but I'll need more reasons than that, even if they did sound better on stage live, it seems more reasonable to just find a 'live' recording, plenty of them around. I think it's just some excuse fans make to validate spending 30+ dollars to hear music they already own.
- The last advantage would be if one is shallow enough, and impressionably star struck enough that they want to 'see with their own eyes', or 'be in the same room as', or more likely 'be in the same vicinity as' or 'see tiny and far off' their relative musicians, then one of these events is good place to do it, as stalking is illegal.
Now I'm sure someone is going to say something like 'But KK, some times the weather is nice'. Sorry, the only way I'd be convinced is if someone said live events have now been tailered to be exactly like listening to music at home, and was free. And I still wouldn't go, because it wouldn't be worth the travelling.
Signed:
The S.A.R.
(Sad Angry Recluse)
'Vibe' isn't a great way to describe it but there kinda is a great atmosphere. People get excited and that's contagious, you end up with a whole lotta people on natural highs. It's cramped, hot and hard to move/breathe and you end up with aching legs but i'd take it over just sitting at home listening any day.
Of course, this is just my opinion, but if it's a good band concerts are better.
Best of all, you get to see their personalities, and their interaction with each other and the audience. That is something that just doesn't come through on a CD.
I will say that I prefer some of their songs more than others, but even during the ones I'm not as keen on, I still admire the amazing skill and talent they have in being able to do what they do.
This is also evident from another of my favourite DVD's, 'The main event'. There was a lot of humerous banter not afforded by the album.
I still think the disadvantages vastly outweight actually travelling to see them live.
Then again, I've never been anywhat of a musician (I just made up a word, anywhat), and would never really seek to talk with, let alone see other musicians. I have rolemodels that I would love to talk with, but for the sake of answers.
I always thought wanting to see famous people was selfish and sad.
"Santa forbid"??? Hahaha! Brilliant.
I think that there are two, very good reasons to want to see a band/musician live, which I think both Rob and Aimless have put forward.
1. Aimless has commented on the 'vibe'. If you want to boil this abstract term down to specifics, I believe the core of it is society. Sure, you can sit at home alone, listening to your favourite band in a dingy corner. However seeing a band live creates an environment where a 'community' of people who share the same tastes as you are able to enjoy the music together, and encourage each other to have fun with it. This is a very fundamental thing about humans: we all want to find fellowship with people who we can relate to, and we gain strength from this.
2. Rob's point is a crucial one. When you pick up a cd and put it into your player, you are consuming a polished, edited, mixed and fancified product. Live music is the event that makes the music real. It is there, in front of your face. As the guitarist strums his instrument, so sounds that relate directly to that event come from the speaker. You are also able to access the mind behind the music: the personality and thoughts of the person who created something that you love. The best live musicians also allow the crowd to respond to them as well, and so 'seeing' a live band becomes an interactive experience.
Best band I ever saw live was Sons of Korah. They are so amazing, and led the whole place in a time of really connecting with God. It was amazing.
But even if they were the best two points in the world (even though 1. that whole community thing is overrated, and 2. you can get that 'real' 'unpolished' feel from live DVD's like I said) it still doesn't outweigh, in my opinion (obviously), all the many disadvantages live stage music has.
It's an experience more than entertainment, and you take the bad with the good,which, hopefully, is very good.
I know, maybe I get that vibe thing from pre-recorded media and you don't.
Thanks, KK. However, sometimes one or two good arguments are enough to demolish a thousand weak ones.
I think the 'social experience' thing boils to this: two metres from where you're standing, there's ten people going nuts at the same music you've loved for a very long time. Then apply that principal grand-scale. It's encouraging, it's communal, it's celebratory. You can't get that through pre-recorded, because there's no society involved!
Plus my second point still stands un-rebbuted :)