Let's fall in love with music
The driving force of our living
The only international language
Divine glory, the expression.....
-- Andrew Wood, "Man of Golden Words"
The thing I'll remember most about the 2010s is that sometime around 2014, I fell in love again with live music. In my college days, we had live music everywhere — especially in a touristy artsy town like Charleston. I couldn’t always afford the cover charge (and being real, I’m not pretty enough to get a guy to pony up the cover for me), but there was weekly live music for free on campus. If you were really lucky, a frat might hire a local band for one of their parties and even if you didn’t go, you could hear the music nearby. My service fraternity had a yearly event with live music. Our College Activities Board sponsored at least one big concert a year.
It's been 30 years since I went to my first REAL concert. I was in college — Elton John on the Sleeping With The Past tour. Charlotte Coliseum, October 16, 1989. Some things you never forget. We were still making our way into the venue when “Bennie and the Jets” started. On the second song “Island Girl,” we’d finally made it in and I remember going up the stairs at nearly full speed (not easy for a fat girl, mind you) and I was in heaven. My next concert was just a few weeks later, a Jimmy Buffett show as a benefit for Hurricane Hugo victims and we were blessed enough to snag front row seats.
After that, I didn’t go to another show until 1995. Honestly, I was making crap wages, paying back student loans at a ridiculous rate (because private loans since my parents “made too much” for federally funded loans). I went to mostly some local gigs from friends or things with maybe a $10 ticket because again — low wages.
Finally in the mid-2000s, I got a decent job with awesome benefits, good living wages, and was in the process of regaining the woman I’d discovered in college and then quashed to make people happy. And it all started with a Facebook post from Marc Cohn: "Hey Greenville SC fans, where's a great place to eat when I come there?" That was it. I knew I'd have to go!
So I started out a little slow, with two shows in 2014 .....
- Marc Cohn (Peace Center Amphitheatre, Greenville SC)
- Steely Dan (Township Auditorium, Columbia SC)
And I was hooked again. There were no shows in 2015 (foot surgery instead) .... and then in 2016, it began for real. Eight shows that year.
It actually started with me finding out in December 2015 that Pearl Jam was going to tour. I was thinking, "Okay, so I'll just go to Atlanta because that will be the closest show....." Then the schedule was released: GREENVILLE!!! My brother -- who wasn't a huge PJ fan -- texted me immediately, "You ARE getting tickets, right????" So we went..... it was both the first and last show we ever saw together.
- Pearl Jam (BSW Arena, Greenville SC)
- The Mavericks (Peace Center Amphitheater, Greenville SC)
- Chris Cornell / Fantastic Negrito (N Charleston Performing Arts Center, Charleston SC)
- Rick Springfield / Night Ranger / The Romantics (Midtown Amphitheater, Charlotte SC)
- Fantastic Negrito (Asheville Music Club, Asheville NC)
- Avett Brothers (BSW Arena, Greenville SC)
- Temple of the Dog / Fantastic Negrito (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
- Temple of the Dog / Fantastic Negrito (Paramount Theatre, Seattle)
- Bon Jovi (BSW Arena, Greenville SC) **NOTE: my brother was supposed to go with us, but he had an eye exam that day, and they dilated. He said, "But what if I have a ticket for the Bon Jovi concert tonight....?" and the staff laughed. Luckily, my friend Nicole drove in at the last minute and we enjoyed it together!
- Soundgarden (Carolina Rebellion, Concord NC) — also Eagles of Death Metal, The Cult, Every Time I Die, Radkey and probably plenty of others who played that I didn’t go see. And I got to meet my friends Mike Z and Nancy C in person that day.
- Soundgarden / The Dillinger Escape Plan (Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, Tuscaloosa, AL) -- got to meet my friend Clayton B that day in person, and ran into someone I knew from one of the fan sites. She was wearing her TOTD shirt and I was wearing my white Soundgarden King Animal logo shirt.
- Steve Winwood / Lilly Winwood (Peace Center, Greenville SC)
- U2 / OneRepublic (Cardinal Stadium, Louisville KY) (The first show I saw after Chris Cornell's death, and I admit, I *cried* during "Running to Stand Still" and "One Tree Hill.")
- Lake Street Dive / Ron Pope (Pisgah Mountain Brewing Co Outdoor Pavilion, Swannanoa NC) -- left probably 2/3 of the way through the set because RAIN at 10 pm and a 2-hour drive home.... and a migraine starting. :(
- Foo Fighters / The Struts (Colonial Life Arena, Columbia SC) -- AMAZING! But it was the first show after my brother died, and before I realized it, I was singing along on These Days and the line "One of these days your heart will stop and take its final beat....." and I couldn't breathe for a few moments.
- Trans-Siberian Orchestra (BSW Arena)
- Black Jacket Symphony as Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Foo Fighters / The Struts (Turner Field, Atlanta GA)
- Black Jacket Symphony as Led Zeppelin IV (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Fantastic Negrito (Asheville Downtown After Five)
- 3 Doors Down/Collective Soul/Soul Asylum (Heritage Park Amphitheater, Simpsonville SC)
- Brandi Carlile (Peace Center) **CANCELLED**
- Black Jacket Symphony as Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Asleep at the Wheel String Band / Kyle Petty & David Childers (The Spinning Jenny, Greer SC)
- Black Jacket Symphony as Queen: A Night At The Opera (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Alabama / Charlie Daniels Band (Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro NC)
- Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets (Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw NC)
- Tom Morello / The Last Internationale (The Orange Peel, Asheville NC)
- Drivin n Cryin / Gin Blossoms / Collective Soul (Heritage Park Amphitheater, Simpsonville SC)
- Weird Al Yankovic (Heritage Park Amphitheater, Simpsonville SC)
- Tedeschi Trucks Band with Blackberry Smoke and Shovels & Rope (Heritage Park Amphitheater, Simpsonville SC)
- Heart / Joan Jett / Elle King (PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte NC)
- Hootie & The Blowfish / Barenaked Ladies (PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte NC)
- Peter Frampton / Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience (Heritage Park Amphitheater, Simpsonville SC)
- Adam Ant / Glam Skanks (Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta, GA)
- Marty Stuart (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- The Avett Brothers (Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville SC)
- Black Jacket Symphony as Fleetwood Mac Rumors (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Robert Earl Keen / Shinyribs (Peace Center, Greenville SC)
Two more were on the slate for 2019 but didn't pan out:
- Radkey (The Radio Room, Greenville SC) — I went to the venue even after a horrid day at the office with mass layoffs, then learned my cousin’s child passed that day. My heart wasn’t in it after that.
- Willie Nelson / Alison Krauss (Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville SC) — Got cancelled due to Willie getting ill.
And I already have 8 planned just through August of next year:
- Black Jacket Symphony: Pearl Jam/Nirvana (Von Braun Center, Huntsville AL)
- Radkey (The Radio Room, Greenville SC)
- The Bellamy Brothers (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- KICK: The INXS Experience (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Black Jacket Symphony as Prince: Purple Rain (Walhalla Performing Arts Center, Walhalla, SC)
- Lake Street Dive (Peace Center, Greenville SC)
- Black Crowes (PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte NC)
- Weezer / Green Day / Fall Out Boy (SunTrust Park, Atlanta GA)
What I’ve learned is that there’s nothing quite like being in the crowd and singing along. There's nothing like the feeling of having music wash over you and cleanse you.
And oddly, as an introvert, I normally avoid crowds, and I also normally don't strike up conversations with complete strangers (my mother did this with amazing ease). But there's something about a concert crowd that's different. You're all there for basically the same reason. It's not a far stretch to say that in some places and some songs, it's a spiritual experience. And it's easy to talk to people over music. Example: I'm there at the Heart concert, and the guy two seats over from me had brought his young daughter for her first show! And during the intermission, a lady two rows behind me said, "Hey, Temple of the Dog lady!" (I was wearing my light gray one) -- to ask me if I had really gone and which show. She had wanted to see them so much and asked how the show was. I said, "Madison Square Garden was huge but awesome. Seattle was smaller and BEYOND amazing," at which point she was like, "I want to hate you for going to two shows but I can't!" :-) Ran into one of my college frat brothers at Hootie. Ran into a former coworker at two Black Jacket Symphony shows. Took / taking my dad to a couple of shows.
Music is my lifeblood. And it's why I hope to keep continuing to enjoy live shows for as long as I can.
And oddly, as an introvert, I normally avoid crowds, and I also normally don't strike up conversations with complete strangers (my mother did this with amazing ease). But there's something about a concert crowd that's different. You're all there for basically the same reason. It's not a far stretch to say that in some places and some songs, it's a spiritual experience. And it's easy to talk to people over music. Example: I'm there at the Heart concert, and the guy two seats over from me had brought his young daughter for her first show! And during the intermission, a lady two rows behind me said, "Hey, Temple of the Dog lady!" (I was wearing my light gray one) -- to ask me if I had really gone and which show. She had wanted to see them so much and asked how the show was. I said, "Madison Square Garden was huge but awesome. Seattle was smaller and BEYOND amazing," at which point she was like, "I want to hate you for going to two shows but I can't!" :-) Ran into one of my college frat brothers at Hootie. Ran into a former coworker at two Black Jacket Symphony shows. Took / taking my dad to a couple of shows.
Music is my lifeblood. And it's why I hope to keep continuing to enjoy live shows for as long as I can.
No comments:
Post a Comment