Many of us have had our musical attitudes completely recalibrated after witnessing an important musical event. What has done it for you?
COMMENTS
Live music almost always sucks. They amplify the crap out of everything so that it's just an undifferentiated crashing dinand this goes for jazz as well as pop (aka "rock")and then you get to spend time in the company of a crowd of stoned or drunk assholes you wouldn't associate with under any other circumstances. Apart from classical chamber music, I haven't heard a listenable concert in a decade; the exceptions only prove the rule. Why else have a stereo?
Too many great concerts I have attended to choose just one. A most ear-opening moment for me took place at a local mall. I stumbled upon a strolling violinist and the sound from this solo instrument/musician changed the way I have felt about sound reproduction via hi-fi ever since. There is plenty of room for improvement, not only in playback but, more important, in the recording of music. I wish we could get away from the fantastically spectacular in-your-face sound and move toward the actual tone and balance and volume of the instruments being recorded. But then the problem would be trying to sell this more natural sound to the general public.
Neil Young at Roskilde Festival in Denmark, 1996. Beautiful weather, good beer, 90,000 people, LOUD, crystal-clear sound, and, best of all, seeing the jaws dropping on all the middle-aged ladies who had come to hear "Harvest" when he and Crazy Horse started the concert with "Hey-Hey, My-My" at full blast!
Seeing the Yardbirds as a part of a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. Jimmy Page had just taken on lead guitar from Jeff Beck, who had dropped out. Page's style, which included playing his guitar with a violin bow, blew me away. I was hooked on "progressive" rock from that moment on.
Diana Krall's free concert at Pioneer Square, Portland, OR last year. The acoustics left a lot to be desired (open air, downtown setting), but all the attributes that make her music and voice so appealling just shone through. All the emotion, soul, and timeliness of the songs was felt deeply. My wife got converted to the High End right there. Made succeeding system upgrades pre-approved!!
It was a concert in the (early?) '70s in Lincoln, Nebraska. A bunch of us car-pooled to drive down from Sioux City, Iowa to see Alvin Lee and 10 Years After. It was a typical concert of the time, with 3 bands. The first was eminently forgettable, but that second bandwhat a surprise! They started off with some great rock'n'roll, but 'long about the 6th or 7th song, they cranked back and laid one nasty, low-down blues number on us and the crowd went wild. A lot of us didn't even know what we had just heard (I didn't), but we knew what we liked! One of the members of this 3-piece band leaned out over his mike and, with a quizzical tone in his voice, said, "You people like that down-home shit?" Then exclaimed, "We know a lotta that shit!!!" I got my baptism in the blues that night. We boogied our tails off for the next two and a half hours, including 3 (yup, 3!) curtain calls for a band none of us had ever heard of. When Alvin Lee came on stage, we hardly even applauded, being all boogied out, as we were. I heard later this was the last concert that ZZ Top ever played as a backup band to anyone!
My opinions on music were changed drastically upon first hearing Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions." For so long I limited myself to music within a narrow focus (i.e. rock). But when a friend turned me on to this CD I looked at music completely diferently. I am no longer concerned with the genre of the music or my preconcieved ideas about the artist. Now I merely concern myself with the quality of the music and the sound quality of the discs. A word of advice for any Stevie Wonder fans: Pick up the 24-bit remastered versions of his 70s masterpieces (i.e. "Talking Book", "Innervisions", "Songs in the Key of Life", etc.), they are spectacular.
A friend and I once saw the Santana band in 1983 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate NY. Carlos was in rare form (even for Carlos!), and that's when Graham Lear was still with them on drums, and their old killer percussion triad were still showin' the youngsters how it's done. The best way I can describe it: It was a religious experience. I was about 25-30 feet from Carlos' Mesa-Boogie Mk.III amp stack, directly in front of it. I have seen Santana several times since then, but that night in 1983 was one of the magical ones.
Seeing Taj Mahal several times around '76/'77. The last time was at our college, and we kept pestering him for "Satisfied 'n' Tickled too." For their 2nd encore they finally played it. Taj had a calypso/reggae-ish band at the time, and it was magic, we could tell, for the musicians as well. They were in a groove with LOTS of time space. Time seemed suspended between the grooves. That showed how a given performance on a given night can make all the difference, and how music can manipulate our sense of time/space perceptions (far beyond whatever else it was).
Joan Osborne, live at Centennial Olympic Park, 1996 Summer Olympics, a few days after the bombing. An outstanding performance, incredible electricity and emotion from the crowdsomething that just can't be reproduced by the finest of home systems. A moment I'll never forget.
My most memorable concert of popular music was a 1980 appearance by Harry Chapin at Stanford University. He appeared without his band -- just a great musician, singing and playing his guitar, in an outdoor amphitheater on a glorious spring day. My most memorable classical concert was a Chicago Symphony appearance in Milwaukee's Uihlein Hall. I was in high school at the time and had heard very few live orchestral concerts. The CSO's flexibility, precision and power left me wanting to hear much more classical music. I've been a fan of classical music in general, and CSO recordings in particular, ever since.
Some 40 years ago I attended an open rehearsal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with guest conductor Antal Dorati. The program included a performance of Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, which was originally commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the BSO. Dorati and Bartok, of course, knew each other quite well, as both were from Hungary. That night of the rehearsal, Dorati spoke to the audience for about 20 minutes about Bartok and the music in the most intimate and wonderful detail, before performing the piece with the orchestra. I have not forgotten the evening, even after 40 years! It gave me a whole new appreciation for the piece, the composer and musical performance and interpretation.
A recent performance by The Bach Festival in Winter Park Florida of Beethoven's 9th. in a 500 seat chapel. The performance of this wonderful piece was inspired. I have never seen an audience moved by a performance like that special night. It is the greatest live musical event I ever experienced and I have seen many. To hear a recording of this masterwork is nothing compared to an inspired live perfomance of it.
Jethro Tull has a way with the flute I never heard before or after. A very entertaining performer. To this day I can recall the finguring of notes to which I can't even whistle. His notes echoe out of his flute as if it were of his body to tell a story of trials and triumphs. Ian Anderson has my admiration of one of the most talented and inspiring artists in a position of that may not lend an ear from all the crowds that could appreciate the man behind the music.
The late great band called "Chase" lead by Bill Chase a trumpet player once with Stan Kenton assembeled a rock/jazz goup with rythm section plus 5 trumpets. This was pure energy on stage. It still raises the hairs on my arms 25 years later when I listen to their poorly done recordings
Roy Buchanan, Plymouth State College New Hampshire. The way he played that guitar was just unbelievable. And to think the sound he was making was just his Telecaster, two hands and Fender tube amp. From that day forward blues bacame my favorite form of music. i have heard many great performances since, but nothing that matches that night.
Seeing Fugazi for the first time in 1990 defined a perfect musical experience for me. Out of the hundreds of other live music experiences I have attended, nothing has topped it. I've seen Fugazi four times total but that first time, when I was a mere 15 years old takes the cake. You should see them to.
There were three that stand out The Dead at Harpur College (Dick's Picks 6); Hendrix at Avery Fischer hall with the New York Woodwind Quartet;Pavarotti at Avery Fischer a special benefit concert with New York Philharmonic( I was just stage left in the third level looking right down on him.
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