Broken Memories 11.21.05: The Live Experience

Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 11.21.2005

Time for a new era.

Welcome readers from nigh and far, I am your host, Brandon Ratliff. You probably know me as the guy that does the weekly Sunday news column The Day You Can't Stay Up. For those of you that are regular readers of that, fear not, for I will be continuing it. As you will probably know, the last two weeks I did that, the column ended up being a sort of editorial, due to the fact that I simply didn't have to the time to put together a full (read: decent) column. I got a good amount of positive feedback on that, and with Melchor's blessing, I decided to, in addition, do a regular editorial column. Such a thing is perfect for me I feel simply due to the fact that I think way too much. As for the title, well, it is sort of an ode to the first of the two replacement editorials I did for The Day You Can't Stay Up, as it centered around the types of memories music can be directly tied into.

Allow me to reiterate that I will still continue The Day You Can't Stay Up as normal. Heh, and I thought I didn't have time before. Oh well. You, the readers, drive this site, so I am doing this for you. For the sake of continuity, I am going to try to do this column all in one sitting every time, but seeing as how much I work, and all of the other stuff I do on a daily basis, it won't always be easy.

Anyhow, this is the maiden voyage for the Broken Dreams column, and I hope you all enjoy it.

Brandon Ratliff

There are two ways to listen to music. Well, technically, there are many different ways to listen. You have the good old fashioned albums (whether they are on tape, compact disc, eight track, record, et cetera), you have your digital music such as the ever popular MP3, and its MP3 player counterpart, and so on. But what I really mean is there are two primary ways to hear music. Recorded, and live. Live recordings aside; these are the options you have. Bands will spend months, or even years if their name is Guns N' Roses working on a new studio album. Some bands opt to put out covers albums such as A Perfect Circle's eMOTIVe and Rage Against The Machine's Renegades. Some bands do concept albums, some bands do experimental albums. There are multiple ways of looking at it, but they are all largely the same. A band writes or learns a dozen or so new songs, and they record them, and release them as an album.

But what about listening to music live? There are several perks with such a thing. If it is a popular band that you really like, it makes for a sort of surreal experience to see the people that you've only seen on TV and in magazines there in person. And then, you watch and hear them play their songs live to you. They aren't playing to the few thousand (or hundred, or even ten, as the case may be) people there, they are playing to you. Whether you are in the very front getting kicked in the head by those annoying assed crowd surfers (which I suffer from a lot, seeing as how I am 6'6") and getting trampled by people who love to mosh, or if you are in the very back trolling around the concession stands trying to find even one thing that is affordable, you are there. Sometimes you have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to be there, but you are there. I think the most I ever paid for a concert was $40 to see Linkin Park, P.O.D., Hoobastank, and an up and coming Story Of The Year back in January 2004. Of course, one of my friends ended up paying me for the ticket as a sort of Christmas present, so I guess I didn't really pay for it. I once paid $12 to see Mushroomhead, which featured the (horrible) Used long before anyone knew who they were, $12 to see Finger Eleven, $15 to see Kittie, $7 and $16 to see Saliva (ironically, the $7 was the second time I saw them, and Shinedown opened for them too), $6 to see Evanescence, $15 to see 3 Doors Down, and so on. I saw Papa Roach and Trust Company for free for being on both of their street teams, and I saw Trivium, Still Remains, The Agony Scene, and 3 Inches Of Blood for free as well. I was supposed to see Killswitch Engage, and then Slipknot, Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall and Devildriver for free too, but both times something happened and I wasn't able to go. There were more concerts i've seen, but you get the idea by now i'm sure. But anyhow, there is just something about seeing the band up there on stage, playing everything right there in front of you (assuming they don't use vocals or music tracks besides those required). Hearing the notes blast out of the amps as the guitarist(s) pick the individual points on the instrument with usual expert precision. You hear the thundering blast of the bass and drum beats as you feel them reverberate through your entire body. You sing or scream along with the vocalist as they rip through the lyrics that they probably though of while drunk and riding the porcelain. Yes, this is the beauty of a live show.

The funny thing is though, is there are plenty of negatives to go with the positives. It is almost always guaranteed that you will have a hard time finding a place to park, and you still usually have to pay for it, even if you do end up walking a mile and a half to get to the actual venue. Getting anything to eat or drink right there is about the same as literally pissing money away (that's a scary image). There's a good chance that, if you are anywhere near the front, you are going to get kicked in the head by crowd surfers, and fall victim to one of the many jackasses that think it is funny to get a big push going in the crowd. Due to my size, I always end up being the one holding my ground and stopping the hapless fans from figuratively flying halfway across the place. Due to so many people being crammed into such a small space, it is always stupidly hot; I remember seeing Saliva the second time, and since it was an outdoor venue, it started to rain. The band continued to play however, and the rain made it feel so much better. It was wonderful. Oh, and don't forget about the fact that it almost always takes at least an extra hour or two to get out of there and get home due to the traffic. I remember when my buddies and I saw Evanescence in May of 2003 (it was the night before my senior skip day), it took us an hour and a half to even get out of our parking spot. At one point, there was a car sitting in front of us (we backed into the spot, and it was one of those parking garage type things) that we started messing with. The people in that car started playing like some pop music; we started playing Static-X. How fun. Oh, and as I said before, let's not forget the sometimes outrageous ticket prices. Want see The Stones? It'll cost you a couple hundred bones to see Mick Jagger shaking his hips that were probably replaced long ago. U2, Metallica…basically any so called legendary band. Megadeth (or, Dave Mustaine) offered up tickets to fans for this year's Gigantour for $40. The tour also featured Dream Theater, Fear Factory, Life Of Agony, and more as well. Mustaine may have his head up his ass, but at least he doesn't cheat people. Most of the time anyways.

So now, let's take a look at the positives and negatives of going to a concert as opposed to listening to an album:

Positives

- Seeing the actual musicians there
- Slight alterings of classic songs
- Feeling the music; getting into the atmosphere

Negatives
- Often expensive everything
- Parking sucks
- The heat…oh god the heat
- Crowd surfers
- Pushers and moshers
- Sometimes shitty sound quality
- Backing tracks for stuff they SHOULD play live
- Traffic on the way there and back

Looking at this, it would seem rather obvious that the negatives heavily outweigh the positives. Yet despite this, people still go to many concerts. Live shows are the primary source of income for the actual band members. Maybe subconsciously, you are looking at it like you are actually not only paying the band to, well, stay a band, but you are also getting a lot in return. Concerts often will create very memorable experiences, and that is something you don't want to waste. Sure, there are a lot of bad things that pretty much always come with a show (and I left out the thing of sometimes not being able to hear properly for a couple of days), but do you let that stop you? Of course not. So, go find yourself a show coming near you soon of a band you like, and go to it. Isn't that what life is about…enjoying every bit of it you can?