Even before that first show......Licorice Fix live at the CAW hall in Chatham, ON........I started watching live music through the lens of 90's Saturday Night Live. Week in and week out, another prominent band would take the stage and prove or disprove whether they had the chops to translate to the stage. Monday mornings at school were often talks of how they sounded compared to their albums....whether the singer could really sing, or whether the drummer hit as hard as Dave Grohl. (nobody ever did of course....).
When I started to have friends over to jam in my Dad's garage....fondly entitled "the shed", band practice was always executed in the sense of performing for an audience. My bandmates and I would practice our best Thurston Moore impressions, slamming our howling guitars into the speakers and after hitting that final note, holding our hands in the air as if to receive praise from the pop cans and cobwebs that called "the shed" home.
When I got my drivers license, first order of business was to buy a minivan so that I could fill it with 6 of my best friends and head off to a live show. Sometimes they were all ages, other times we slipped in without getting our ID checked. "Act like you belong here" was my mantra. Between the ages of 17 and 21, most of the greatest moments of my life happened on the way to, during, or after a great live show.
For 5 years I drummed in a band called "Square Root of Margaret", a local Chatham band with enough reach that we could easily get gigs around Southwestern Ontario. I was able to play many of the stages that my idols performed on......and while you would think that would intensify my appetite for live music, I actually spent less time going to shows for sheer pleasure. Living through the ups and downs of my own band.....as well as talking to the bands we shared a bill with, put things into a different light. I was surprised how often bands were not enjoying that act.....but rather obsessing over whether they were in a desirable time slot......whether they "screwed up", or whether there were enough people in the audience. I was always grateful just to be playing music at all.....and trying to hit my drums so hard that I broke them. (I only ever broke one snare skin in those 5 years!)
Now that my band has called it quits, I go to shows hoping to see those magical moments when a band locks into the audience and the show becomes an event for all those involved. Most of the time it is a cover band going through their motions.....or an original band not sharing the experience with the crowd.....and the experience is far from magical. When a band gets it right......it is even that much more rewarding. In those times I look around at the sparsely filled venues and think, "I wish there were people here to see this!!". Maybe I am crazy, but there are times when a band is so good I feel as though anyone would be moved.....regardless of what they are into.
I recently sat at a table to mutual friends....so they didn't already know the band that I was there to see. I kept telling them how good the band was, so that they wouldn't leave during the opener and shove off to another bar. The band came on, and killed it. Every person at the table turned around in the booth to get a look and kept remarking how great the band was.....and how they couldn't believe they hadn't heard of them before. I wanted so badly to say...."how often do you come here to see bands? Its not their job to come to your house!". Of course I didn't say it, I was just happy that those 5 people caught the live music buzz that night.
Spur of the Moment Media has always been my way to keep bands connected with audiences, and keep original bands playing live. At times my role is simply cheerleader for a struggling local band, or a father figure keeping them working. Many sleepless nights mixing tunes for not enough monetary reward, but with the rewards of having that music exist forever. Archiving, sharing, and promoting. Pushing the band to get off their ass and believe in themselves enough to take it in front of an audience. Telling them not to give up. Trying to make sure that others will develop the love affair that I did.
What is your experience with live music? Do you only go to the big ticket shows? Do you wander into empty bars in search of that next undiscovered band for the bragging rights that "I knew them first!". I'll take a moment to dig up some videos that pay homage to some of the great live shows I have witnessed, and I'll post them below.
