LIVE MUSIC!!!! -my history of being a recent concert girl

This past evening, I had the pleasure of going to the Grand Saltaire by the pungent shores of the Great Salt Lake to hear Ben Folds play the piano like a man on fire.

While pressed up against the ledge of the bar area overlooking the stage, it occurred to me that I have hit a new stage of my life... the active concert participant. I never believed myself a "concert girl." The people I knew who went to concerts were the people who would attend hard punk concerts, thriving in smoke, booze, and mosh pits. I just never saw the appeal of that scene growing up. I never wanted to risk my bones and vitals by going to a concert with a mass of stinking teenagers, ramming their bodies against each other. So... my teenage angst came out in other ways... like my obsession with musicals at the age of 17.

Now at age 25 I try to decide on what has kept me from this enjoyment... either the music is better than when I was in high school, or I am more finally active in the music scene. As a teenager, I only wanted to hear the Beatles in concert and that was never going to happen. There are major drawbacks to being so involved in music from 30 years prior. However, my first REAL concert was seeing the only Beatle that would come to Utah.... Ringo and his All Star Band!

I remember the concert was very good, but nothing to make me want to drop another 40-60 bucks again. I guess money has been a factor too.

Eventually, I took the job I have now, processing home loans. It was here I met a few people who opened up a brand new musical area of my life.... The Indie genre. My brother had been my prior musical sensai, but at this job I met people who were into bands that were just forming and had a definite connection to my preferences. Suddenly my musical tastes expanded and my musical sensais doubled. It was fun to share songs, groups and album titles among friends.

So, here I took my first leap into the thriving beautiful land of concerts. Around the beginning of September of last year and following a break up, I went to a MUSE concert with several friends who had nothing in common but their love for loud music.

Juliette Lewis and the Licks opened and kept me laughing in mockery of her songs, (especially the song, Sticky Sticky Sticky) before Muse came out and rattled me to the joints. It was loud and repressed explosive music and I was in heaven. I went home elated and ready for more .


The next concert I took on was Regina Spektor. This was my first introduction to The Venue in Salt Lake. It was also the first time I was so grateful I was of drinking age. Not because I drink, but because I could now watch the concert from the Bar above, instead of being squashed in the massive pit of stinking teens, eager to get a wave from Regina. A guy named Only Son opened for her and he was a quite a nice discovery. Regina Spektor was kind and softspoken, even as she told the audience to (please excuse me!!!) "shut the F*** up, she used her "inside" voice. But regardless, I was just impressed with her pure talent. Honestly, she had a pure voice and her singing live was just as good as any of her recordings.

In November, I got the chance to see Billy Joel at the Delta Center and he was just as fun as I hoped. Though, I prefer the smaller venue to the Delta Center because you feel like you are actually meeting the musician instead of watching a picture on the jumbo-tron. But, nothing beats We Didn't Start the Fire, live!!! That was worth ever bit of squinting.

The last and most amazing concert of 2007 was Iron and Wine. This was my first concert at the Great Saltaire. It was also the first really bad snow of the season and driving in and out of the storm was not fun. However, this concert had a feeling of pure surreal euphoria. It literally didn't feel real. Sam Beam was long haired and bearded and next to his red haired, violinist sister, they made quite the pair. Snow fell all night along the shore of the Salt Lake, and every song felt slower than usual, streaming endlessly into the next. A feeling of early Christmas good will, settled in as everyone left the parking lot, pleasant and polite as I had ever seen one group of people.

Then last night, I went back to the Saltaire with my boyfriend to see Ben Folds rock out on his Baldwin. We started with a few too many opening acts. Yet, I loved Ben Lee and his optimistic attitude as technically everything went wrong with the sound system. I prefer to follow his advice and embrace the chaos of live music!

When Ben Folds arrived I had forgotten what a total nerd he was. At 41, he was sporting his traditional t-shirt and dirty brown pants and thick Buddy Holly glasses. But as he, his blonde drummer, and tall dark bassist pounded out music straight from 9 to 11, my body was left vibrating with the choruses of I Wanna Be Kate, Army, Jesusland and a strange new song called Free Coffee. He also played my two favorites, The Luckiest and Landed. The night was raw and loud and fun.

What next? Well, I want to keep up this habitual concert habit as long as I don't let it put me into debt (but I have been pretty lucky so far). I hear the master of love, Al Green is coming and maybe some Death Cab for Cutie would be a good addition to my list. Plus, someday maybe I will be blessed to see some of the people I would really LOVE to meet.... Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, and Coldplay(which might be possible someday since their newest album comes out in about a month or two.)

Either way, nothing compares to the thriving pulse of an audience eager to enjoy the talent of others. You just can't bottle energy like that.