Live Music

There are few things in life that I enjoy more than live music and this week I had the opportunity to see three of my favorite artists.

First was William Elliott Whitmore again. (third time in a year and a half I think) He was absolutely outstanding. It's hard to believe that someone can sound as good as he does live. I think my favorite part of his shows is how he doesn't make a setlist, but rather relies on his audience's knowledge of his music. When he finished one, the Majestic theater would erupt with calls of different songs. He spent a large time of this last show playing songs from Animals in the Dark and it was amazing. I can't wait for him to come back.

Finding new artists that I love and want to see live is always fun, but sometimes you need a little nostalgia in your life. Taking Back Sunday and Bayside touring together was that for me. And it made me realize some interesting trends of the people who attend these shows.

"Back in the day" (aka about eight years ago) seeing rock shows was an interesting experience. Kids would show up to a venue ready to look like an individual and lo and behold everyone looked the same. The same swooping hair, often died black with blonde streak, placing me in a sea of skunk-headed people. And that's just the start of the similarities, the tall lanky guys (guilty as charged) were everywhere at these shows, Vans and Chuck Taylors on your feet, and god-forbid you would wear a shirt of the band you were seeing.

Not only were clothes and hair an identity, but so was knowing the opening band. If I heard a band I liked was touring near me I would either immediately research and download the openers or I would look at who the headliner was to see if it was worth going. If you didn't know the opening band you were not going to fit in with the "scene kids." (which looking back, why would you want to?) They always thought they were better than everyone else because they knew the opener and that they knew the band before they were popular.

Going to see Taking Back Sunday now (possibly the seventh time maybe more I've seen them) was an even more interesting experience this time around. First of all they were going to play their first album Tell All Your Friends from beginning to end, something we as fans have been wanting to hear for a long time. This time around instead of lanky guys and "skunky" hair the crowd was (mostly) diverse. There were still the "scene kids" and of course the hipsters, but there were "bros" in flat-brimmed hats, the tall lanky guys "filled out" (read as got fat), and then there were the regular people wearing clothes that fit and just having a great time.

Not only were the people different, but their attitudes were different as well. Instead of being jerks pushing and shoving through the crowd, everyone was polite and said excuse me. It was confusing at first, but then I thought about it a little more and realized that we all used to have to deal with jerk-fans who would push through and step on your feet and just not care. So somewhere along the line of aging we, as a whole, learned to be nice to each other and just enjoy the music.

And enjoy the music I did. Seeing the passion in the singer's face and body language as he yelped out those lyrics from songs written when he was just out of high school. The hatred he had for a girl back then has now become hatred for some of his lyrics. It was cool to see that he outgrew the meaning of the lyrics just like many of us as fans did.

Some things never change. The mosh pits, the screaming every word of every song, and the feeling of compression in your chest from other fans pushing behind you; all the things I've always loved about this kind of show. I never considered a show to be fun for me unless I walked out drenched from head to toe in sweat. Both mine and everyone else's around me. It may sound disgusting, but it's not everyday you get to be within the first five rows of a mosh pit. Not one person this close minds the pushing and shoving here because we're all there to hear the music. It seems that when the band starts playing their set the audience goes into his or her own world and we're brought back only when the last chord of the last song is played and the band leaves the stage.