i said it's like magic, but better than magic. it's like taking the magician's hat and upending it on the table, spilling wand, deck of cards, even the BUNNY onto the table. it's like seeing everything that goes into magic. hmmm...of course, figuring out how the magic tricks work takes, well, the MAGIC out of them. i guess it's not like that at all.
wait.
i'm explaining this wrong. my forehead is making that little "w"-shaped wrinkle that it does every time i scrunch my eyebrows together because i'm saying it wrong. let me try again.
i talked about the perfect combination of senses--sight, sound, smell, even touch and taste--accompanied by the right company and the inexplicable joy...these things all go into the best concert experiences. when it is JUSSSSSSSSSSSST right, it provides the same wonder you get when you still get to believe that magic tricks are REAL.
so i went to see freelance whales on saturday. they opened for some other band (name, unimportant...fully satisfied, i left after freelance whales played.) that combination of the senses seemed to take all gravity out of the room. delicious.
the stage rose a mere half a foot the floor, putting the band just high enough that you can differentiate them from the crowd, yet keep them close enough to give them...concreteness? tangibility? either way, i could see them without having to strain my neck upwards. the physical act of LOOKING, like the abstract act of ENJOYING became effortless. what else did i see? i have written about the problem of live music, tied closely to the narcissistic dilemma we call "the lead singer", when the mewling, grasping need for attention drives the performance, and each band member takes turns being the baby grabbing and clinging. none of that here. they switched instruments, the changed places on stage, they searched each others' faces for the non-verbal cues that led them into, through, and out of each song in tandem. it felt like walking through the halls in your own house at night, not needing to turn on the lights because you know and love the path so well. what struck me the most visually, (and i DO mean struck...my chest caved in at the sight) was the look of absolute devotion to the process of playing the music. there was no detachment of cool between audience and performer. each face radiated the joy that can only come when one is completely spent by the act of creation. THAT kind of bliss...THAT happens with musicians rather than performers. i hope it was mirrored back to them on the faces of the audience. i know it was certainly on my face.
but the visual was not the only delighted sense in my arsenal...ohhhhhhh no. the music climbed and snaked and spiraled out of each instrument, seemingly reproducing exponentially to the point that, were i to shut my eyes, i would SWEAR that a whole orchestra had invaded the stage. layers upon layers upon layers of sound swarmed richly and warmly around the whole audience. add to that the fact that i was standing in front of...ummm...amp? speaker? jeff said it was called a woofer, and who am i to argue? i placed one hand on the front of it and one hand on the top, and was delighted to find my fingernails resonating its sounds hours later...i've never felt a tactile echo before. yum.
now, i always internally mock people who listen to "the work" either on the way to, or the way from "the work", but laughed to myself when the cd changer in the car read my thoughts and played their album, "weathervanes"...not because the show had made the songs come alive for me, but, rather, because the album allowed me to relive the show even as we sped away from it.
...and don't even get me STARTED on the lyrics. to analyze them here is to pin the butterfly to the board for inspection--yes, you can see it better, but it dies in the process. go and see it for yourself...live.
for my students, the word of the day is euphonious...
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