My camera phone took terrible photos so I'm grateful for this photo by "Erin is a Star."
The first concert I ever went to (not counting the Raffi concert my parents took me too when I was little) was to see the Allman Brothers at Merriweather Stadium in ninth grade. It was summer; my friends and I had older friends with cars. We piled in with coolers, food, and mixed tapes. We left western Maryland mid-morning turning the drive to Merriweather into a road trip and making an entire day and night out of the concert.
I loved everything about that concert–being outside, surrounded by extremely happy people, sitting on the lawn, dancing barefoot in the grass to live music on an outdoor stage–it was like being in another world. I don’t consider myself a groupie of any one band and I am not exactly a music connoisseur, but I definitely appreciate the chance to listen to live music. There is something about live music that I find captivating. I could watch an entire concert and potentially not hear any of the lyrics because I could get so sucked into the movements of the drummer, guitarist, or lead singer. Or I might never know what instruments are played because I’ll spend my whole time dancing.
Usually though, it is the combination of watching incredibly talented musicians and zoning out to the lyrics and sounds that makes a concert an amazing experience. Whether it’s an outdoor festival atmosphere like my first Allman Brothers show, sitting in an intimate restaurant watching Brett Dennon, a small packed bar for Tapes-n-Tapes, or a dedicated concert venue to rock out with Modest Mouse, all forms of live music have this power to free my mind and let me focus on the moment.
Missed The Bus
It’d been a while since my last concert and I’m lucky that my best friend is pretty keyed into the local music scene so when she needed a date to see Modest Mouse at Rams Head Live! in Baltimore, I was ready to spend time with my friend and get my dance on. My husband and I saw Modest Mouse open for R.E.M. last summer and they were okay. Their music was fun but I felt like they didn’t have a super stage presence and never acknowledged the crowd which was kind of disappointing, so I was ready to give them another chance.
The stage at Live! was jam-packed with instruments. There were two drum sets for the band including a bongo drum which is one of my favorite instruments to watch people play (check out Brian from Guster if you want to see a talented guy truly destroy their hands on some bongos). They had an accordion, some sort of small piano (not a cash register as my friend initially thought), and I counted 5 electric (maybe acoustic?) guitars, and possibly a ukulele.
By the time Modest Mouse came on, the crowd was ready to rock. They opened strong and had an awesome light show making the music that much more dynamic. About halfway through the lead singer became pretty irritated with a guy in the crowd shouting out requests and made it quite clear that they would be playing whatever the F**k they wanted. I tend to think shouting out requests is part of what concerts are all about and maybe even a little flattering but I can also see how that would be distracting while you’re trying to put on a good concert. At least this time I can’t say they ignored the crowd!
“Float On” is a song that I loved when it first came out and the only other Modest Mouse song I thought I really knew and liked is “Missed the Bus.” At the show, I thought every song they started was “Missed the Bus” so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I know and like more Modest Mouse songs than I thought. We danced, jumped, pumped our arms, sang, and grinned ear to ear with the energy of the concert. When they got to the last song before the finale though neither of my two favorites (and also the most overplayed songs on our local musically un-diverse universe radio station) had been played. We waited for the finale and by the start of the second song decided we should probably hit the road if we were to function for work the next morning.
I don’t know if we missed the most popular Modest Mouse songs by leaving early or if they missed the bus by not playing them at all, but I do know that I got the same buzz from seeing live music as I did at my first concert, and that is what it’s all about.
