Wednesday 21 March 2012

Live.

You would be hard pressed to find something that makes me smile as wide or as genuinely as live music. It’s the reason people pay through the teeth to stand in a crowded room for three hours. It’s the reason people don the wellies and highly attractive waterproof jackets to camp out in the mud for a long weekend. It’s the reason people spend an entire day in a queue. None of these sound like particularly enjoyable activities to partake in, but here’s the thing… live music makes it all completely worthwhile.

I have just got home from a Seth Lakeman concert, with support from Winter Mountain. In a weeks’ time I will remember it as being a truly amazing night and a stand out gig. Tomorrow morning when asked “How was it?”, I will garble a combination of the words “awesome”, “epic”, “brilliant” and “wow.” But for the next few hours, tonight was the single greatest gig I have ever attended, and beyond that it was indescribable. That’s how live music makes me feel, that the most recent experience of it was the absolute best. I’m writing this to try and capture that feeling.

Seth Lakeman - Taken from http://www.facebook.com/sethlakeman
One of the reasons I love live music is how musicians and singers always look ridiculously happy doing what they do. This is something you just don’t get to see with other professions; sure, someone can tell you how much they may love their job. But actually seeing it in their faces is something completely different. I’m a little bit addicted to McFly concerts, and for me the best thing about them is how much fun all four boys are having whilst on stage. They run around, they crack jokes, they jump about on aerial walkways firing t shirts out of canons into the crowd… it’s infectious and I can’t get enough of it. It’s something you just don’t get from a recording. The guy playing percussion for Seth Lakeman tonight, introduced to us as Cormac (part of his drum kit was a metal bucket, and that’s just cool), had this brilliant smile on his face whilst he was playing and I was watching him just as much as I was watching Seth. It’s so much easier to enjoy music when you can see the artist is thoroughly enjoying themselves too.


Another thing is the energy you get from watching live music, and the way it completely renews your love for a song you might have become complacent about. I have loved the song ‘Lady of the Sea (Hear Her Calling)’ for months, but having listened to it over and over it’s now one I might be likely to skip past on my iPod. Hearing it live tonight, it made me want to climb onto the roof and scream out, “I BLOODY LOVE THIS SONG!” When the artist is right in front of you, furiously playing the violin or stomping around the stage in time to the beat, it’s incredibly difficult to forget how much you adore a song, and so much easier to remember why you loved it in the first place. Also, when watching amazing music being created right in front of you it makes you appreciate how well everything has been composed and put together. As my friend said tonight, when something has been recorded in a studio it’s probably all been done separately, and then layered over each other. But on stage, each person has to get their timings perfect and watching them all get it absolutely spot on is a brilliant and unique feeling. 

Seeing someone live is also a great way to discover new music, that you might not feel as strongly about if your first experience of them is a recording. Tonight I was introduced to Martin Smyth and Joe Francis, also known as Winter Moutnain and the support act for Seth Lakeman's tour. I'm sure I would have enjoyed them  if I'd heard of them through some other medium, but all my friends and I could say to each other tonight after their set was, "Oh my god. They're amazing!" The last time this happened to me was at last summer's Beach Break Live festival, and the artist was Ed Sheeran. There's no better way to fall in love with an artist than to hear them they way they're supposed to be heard. I really hope to see more of these two guys, they completely deserve the love and support!

Taken from www.facebook.com/wintermountain
If you’re someone that doesn’t go and see a lot of live music, I would strongly advise changing that.  I’m writing this now because once it’s over, I always manage to forget exactly how live music makes me feel; alive.


Check out Seth Lakeman and Winter Mountain, who needless to say, are both phenomenal live.


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