Saul Williams Spares A Penny: My Eternal Afterthought

That video above is evidence that something eternal happened last night at the Saul Williams show.

It was a case of my brain processing one thing while my heart processed another.

During what I believe was the song “A Penny for a Thought”  I misunderstood the lyrics in a way that surprisingly served my soul and comforted my mind and heart.

It was an unusual show in that the energy of Williams wasn’t quite at his normal level, which is still pretty intense compared to most artists.

That said, I had a hard time finding an emotional entry point into the show. 

But then, towards the end of the show, he played what I believe was ”A Penny for a Thought,” but I’m still not sure. 

In any case, there was a verse that caught my ear as Williams kept repeating it:  “Even death is a part of life…Even death is a part of life..”

And each time he repeated that verse the doorway to the emotional entry point I was looking for opened wider and wider.

So I stepped in.

And then it hit me. 

For the last three days, my wife and I have been mourning the death of her Uncle John who died last Thursday after his battle with brain cancer.

One of the reasons it’s been hard for me is because I got to know Uncle John’s love for live music earlier this year when I interviewed him for Live Fix about meeting Kid Rock backstage.

And naturally, that conversation and John’s death have been on my mind and heart in some pretty heavy and profound ways.

So during the Saul Williams concert I believe something eternal happened because this morning as I was writing this post I looked up the lyrics to “A Penny For A Thought” and realized that the actual lyrics were “Seven mountains higher that the valley of death/Seven dimensions deeper than the dimensions of breath..”

Now, I’m pretty sure I heard Williams sing “…even death is a part of life..”

But what I think was eternal and even spiritual about last night was that, for whatever reason, I heard what I needed to hear so that I would find some level of comfort and clarity as I grieve and process John’s death.

Whether I misheard the lyrics or not, what happened last night my friends was an eternal aspect of live music. 

And I think it was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve had at a concert in recent memory.  I didn’t plan on having it.  I just happened. 

Writing this post makes the whole experience even feel predestined or preordained in a way. 

It was as if God knew I needed to hear Saul Williams croon those words right into my heart.

So, as I mention in the video,  I encourage you to take time to listen for moments like I had last night when you go to your next show.

Have you ever had an eternal or “misheard” moment during a concert?

Live Preview: Saul Williams at Double Door

The Afro-Punk tour has arrived in Chicago.

And poet/actor/emcee Saul Williams is leading the funky freak charge to the Double Door tonight.

If all things go as planned, I should have a special treat for you once the show is over.

But you’ll have to be patient to see what that treat is.

The concert of memory inside my head

Since our minds store everything we experience in one way or another, I’ll be thinking about the last time I saw Williams in an intimate club like the Double Door.  I deemed it a  BAAD show.  Because my pre-show interview with Williams changed the concert experience for me.

But I don’t think this one will be because I won’t  be interviewing  him beforehand.

This time around I’m expecting Williams to create some new concert memories and bust out some new songs from his “album in the works.”

And I’m sure in one way or another he’ll show off his multi-colored sonic arsenal of funk, punk and hip hop; and leave us grasping  and gasping for more.

Follow along on with me on another Live Fix Experiment via @chriscatania

Is SPINearth a Mobile Haven For Concertgoers?

 

I’ve asked you before about this topic.

And whether you agree with me or not, the use of mobile technology (tweeting, texting and cell phone videos) is a key part of today’s concertgoing experience. 

I know it played a pivotal role in how I saw and reviewed M.Ward‘s and Miike Snow ’s live shows.

I’ll admit that it took me awhile to get used to it and to see how using mobile technology enhances the concert experience.

But eventually I did see how it could be used, among many things, to understand  psychologically and emotionally, why we love going to concerts.

I also believe that, if used correctly, mobile technology and certain applications can certainly enhance and help show us more about what goes on in our minds and bodies during our concert experiences.

SPINEarth

That said, when I read this review of  SPIN Magazine’s newly released SPINearth iPhone app by Mike at Sound Citizen, I wondered  if SPINearth would benefit our concert experiences, like the other mobile technology that I’ve experimented with on Live Fix.

Here’s a snippet of Mike’s review:

For example, I just finished watching a video of Pearl Jam and Chris Cornell perform “Hunger Strike” from their Temple of the Dog days at a recent concert at Gibson Amphitheater. The video itself was jumpy as hell – to be expected from user-generated videos, I guess. There are also updates from the correspondents as they travel and other interesting features.

The other interesting feature about the SPINearth app, as Mike points out, is the community it’s connected to. I’ll be taking a closer look at Spinearth.tv (above photo) to get a better idea of how it’s serving live music fans. But in the meantime, I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think.  

Though I don’t own an iPhone (I’m a BlackBerry Storm guy at the moment), I’m sure many of you do, so I’d like to get your thoughts on mobile device concert app and the communities connected to it:

Have you used SPINearth?

Is the iPhone the best mobile device for concert fans? 

What apps/mobile devices do you use to enhance your concert experiences?

Coming up…

There’s another interesting iPhone app I want to talk with you about that will have a big impact on concert culture, so stay tuned as we continue this mobile technology discussion on a future post.

Rock and Roll Mama: ACL 2009 Recap

Hey, unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to visit Austin, TX for the ACL festival this year but thanks to Rock and Roll Mama Lindsay Reed Maines, being a vicarious live music fan was really easy for me.

Maines enjoyed Bon Iver’s set, among others like Kings of Leon, and I wonder if she noticed some Little Things, too.

That said, I strongly recommend being a vicarious live music fan with me and checking out her ACL wrap up to see live music through the eyes of a true rock and roll mama.

While I’m on the subject of moms and live rock, I’d like to know if you have any stories of moms and live music to share.

If you’re a mom who loves live music, I’d like to invite you to tell your concert story here on Live Fix.

 

 

Styx to Sigur Ros: Two Amazing Concert Stories

 

What if your first concert was too amazing, memorable and unforgettable?

Are you then set up for a chronic case of concertgoing disappointment for the rest of your life?

Possibly.

And what about experiencing concerts in unconventional venues?

What makes seeing a concert in an unconventional venue–like an art museum–so unique, special and transcendent?  

Styx to Sigur Ros: Two BlogWorld 2009 concert stories

This past week, I’ve wondered a lot about unconventional venues and first concert experience because, last weekend, I had two great conversations with fellow bloggers at BlogWorld Expo.  

These two live music fans, took me down two very interesting trails as we talked about the lifelong impact of amazing first concerts and transcendent concert experiences in unlikely venues.

One story was about seeing Styx during their 1983 “Kilroy Was Here” tour, and the other story was about seeing Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros perform at MoMA in New York. 

I hope you enjoy their stories as much as I did because they really got my mind going and brought up some interesting thoughts I hadn’t consider before.

Did Styx set the bar too high?

 The first concert story was told to me by Andrew Scorchine who is a film editor in California, the co-host to The Drill Down podcast/blog and also has the unique honor of being the top Digger on Digg.com. Andrew told me about his favorite, and very first, concert experience which was seeing Styx on their 1983 “Kilroy Was Here” tour.

With a nostalgic sigh and a chuckle, Andrew explained how the Styx concert set the live concert expectation bar so high that the next concert he went to was disappointing because it was just  a standard rock show (not a rock opera show like Kilroy) with only a simple stage and three guys playing instruments as usual. What stood out to me about Andrew’s story was how  every concert since has rarely compared to the Styx concert. 

Since Andrew’s story was so compelling, I did some quick research about the Styx tour and discovered an interesting fact that seem to contradict Andrew’s story and concert experience.

For those not familiar with Styx, “Kilroy Was Here” was an elaborate concept album and the tour was apparently deemed a financial disaster even though the album sold over 2 million copies.

Now that’s strange?

I also wondered why there was such a massive gap between the fan experience and the tour’s financial payoff? How is it that the tour didn’t “pay off” for the band as much as it did for Andrew’s emotional experience? Didn’t other Styx fans have the same concert experience as Andrew? And wouldn’t that fan buzz spread and lead more people to buy tickets to the show?

Did Styx spend too much on their elaborate live concert storytelling on the front end? And did that keep them from ending the tour in the black and reaping the financial rewards?

Maybe? 

Either way, I’m sure that Andrew wasn’t the only fan who loved the show, so hopefully there are other Styx fans out there who can help answer some questions because I’d like get their perspectve too and look a bit more into the details of that tour to see what happened.  

Now on to the next fan story…

A Sensory Work of Art: Sigur Ros at MoMA

The other fan story shared with me was about how Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros transformed New York’s MoMA into an atmosphere of sonic euphoria.

Fellow live music fan and blogger, Kate Heffernan, told me how Sigur Ros filled MoMA with resounding waves of melodic guitars and ripples of sweet rhythms.  She explained how the collective beauty of having the band play while being surrounded by works of art in a non-traditional concert venue enhanced the band’s symphonic splendor. 

Hearing Kate’s story I revisited thoughts about our senses and how seeing a band perform in an unlikely venue engages more of our sensory system and makes the show more captivating.

I thought about Kate story from a sensory perspective and wondered: Was it the intense combination of sight and sound during the concert that allowed fans to visually absorb the artwork while letting the music flow in their ears, thus producing a heightened moment of sensual stimulation? 

What role did acoustics play?  Did MoMA have a unique sound set up that made ears perk up and relish in the pleasure of an unusual sonic surrounding that was different from the average concert venue?

I wasn’t there (I wish I was). But I’ve been to concerts in similar venues.  And after I watched the above video, I would have to say the intense sensory combination probably played a huge role in the pleasure factor of the show.  Because I know that the more senses you incorporate into any life experience the more likely the moment will be more intense, memorable and life-changing. 

It’s amazing to me that by looking at our concert experiences we can learn more about how our bodies are wired up.  And it’s no surprise that seeing Sigur Ros at MoMA would have been a great show were multiple senses were engaged.

The senses and venue location are just two variables that can make seeing a concert unique.

So what do you think?

Is it the band or the venue that fuels the power of the transcendent experience?  

What bands would you like to see play in unlikely places?

What are some of the most unlikely places where you’ve seen a concert? 

Have you had a experience like Andrew where your expectations were set so high by your first concert that future concerts just couldn’t ever compare?

Thanks again to Andrew and Kate for sharing their stories. 

Share your concert story here.

Roll On: A Tribute To A Live Music Fan

Kid Rock and John

I have some sad news to share with you.

This morning my wife’s uncle,  John O’Donnell, passed away due to his struggle with brain cancer.

It’s hard to write this post for many reasons.

But I write regardless because it helps to cope. 

But most of all, I write this post as a tribute to John and the great conversation we had about the power of live music.

My eyes well up every time I think about how much fun I had talking with John about his love for live music and how he met Kid Rock backstage earlier this year. 

As a tribute to that conversation here’s a link to the original interview.  

I haven’t listened to Rock N Roll Jesus the same way ever since my chat with John.

And I know, after today, I will continue to feel the same complex mix of grief, loss and joy each time I listen to the album going forward.   

Speaking of emotions, I invite you to check out a recent post about experiencing grief, joy and community in live music.  Many Live Fix readers have enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy it, too.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the O’Donnell family.

Live Preview: Wilco (The Concert)

It’s time for Wilco tonight. 

It’s the second of two shows at UIC Pavilion in Chicago. 

And seeing as I’ve passed out at a Wilco concert before and their 5 night residency at the Riveria during their last tour was fantastic, this will be the kind of show that I’ll bring with me all types of  memories and emotional touch points and triggers. We’ll see how my Ink19 review turns out.

Here are a few things I’ll be thinking about during the show:

• I always wonder what a band does when they play back-to-back shows. Do they compare them in their mind or are they like  baseball players (when I played I used the  24-hour rule and only focused on a win or lose for that day then I moved on). So does a band just block the previous show out of their mind so they can focus on the present show.
• Do they apply what they learn from the last show to make the second show better?
• What level of change does the band experience with their emotional energy from one show to the next?
• Does Wilco think of ways to make each show unique?
• This will be Wilco’s final show of their recent tour, so will there be anything special for Chicago fans?
• What will seeing Wilco in an arena be like, especially when they start playing “Just a Kid,” a song they contributed to the SpongeBob SquarePants movie soundtrack.

Tribune’s Greg Kot had this to say about Sunday’s concert.

Did you see last night’s show? 

Are you going tonight?

Follow my tweets on @chriscatania

 

Photo by Colleen Catania

Wingin’ It at Blog World Expo 2009

 

 

It’s been a busy last two days, and now that I’m sort of caught up on my sleep, I’d like to share some quick notes on the first couple days at BlogWorld 2009. Some of what I’m going to share with you are new topics for Live Fix.  And though I’m not focusing directly on live music these next three days, what I’m going to share with you is all about how blogging, social media tools and communities can impact our live  music experiences.

I’m really excited to share this and now that I’m done with the intros and disclaimers, it’s time to get to the goods!

Welcome to Las Vegas!

My flight to Las Vegas was full of excitement. I was also a bit nervous about what my first BlogWorld experience would be like.

So I did what I usually do to cope with nervousness.  I turned to my creativity and whipped out my moleskin since I couldn’t use my Blackberry during the flight. 

I hope you enjoy my quickly sketched representation as I gazed out from my window seat and pondered what it would be like once I got to Las Vegas.  I was also listening to Saul Williams’s Grippo which was a first for me on a plane. I suggest you do it to if you ever have the chance. The song is perfect for plane rides and listening to Grippo gave me some extra creative boost that I needed for my sketching.

What happens at BlogWorld Expo shouldn’t stay at BlogWorld Expo 

If you’re new to Blog World, here’s a quick explaination as far as I’ve come to understand it during my first conference.

For me it’s been a mixture of reconfirming , connecting and building new ideas.

And for the most part, BlogWorld is designed for two audiences: bloggers/social media folk and brands/marketing managers.   Bloggers are here to connect and learn with other bloggers and brands are here to learn how they can connect with consumers in social media.  I fall into both categories since I’m a “music” blogger who also helps guide brands and clients in connecting with their audiences in the socialsphere.

I’ve learned a lot new ways to connect with live music fans . And many of the social media  live concert experiments  I’ve done have been affirmed as I hear the panelist and speakers talk about how to build communities. (Stay tuned for new experiments in future posts.)

Mommy bloggers, news ideas, new friends.

Who are mommy bloggers? If you’re new to mommy bloggers, they are a niche of bloggers who are moms ( and who don’t like that “mommy” title) who blogging about all their family experiences. Mommy bloggers have exploded in numbers and have also greatly increased their influence growing influence which has gained the attention of big brands  who have courted several top mommy bloggers to blog about their brand and products.

Minds of Moms Summit: Value Exchange/Win-Win

 

At Blog World there is a Mind of Moms summit going on where top mommy bloggers are speaking on key topics such as the recent FTC  ruling, ethics and value-exchange.  I attended two sessions  yesterday because for a while now I’ve been inspired and fascinated by their community and blogging styles. I’ve been working on social media projects involving mommy bloggers over the last several months and I hope to have some of them share some of their favorite live music experiences, too.

The mommy blogger sessions have been some the most inspiring sessions at Blogworld because these ladies are fully aware of the power and influence they have, and many of them are doing som pretty amazing things with that power and influence.  Check out my tweet stream for some of my live tweets during these sessions. And visit TypeAmom, Rock and Roll Mama, Resourceful Mommy, Skepchick to see what else these ladies are up to. 

 Chris Brogan

On the plane I finished up read Trust Agents by Chris Brogan. It’s a great book to get learn how you can use social media to build trust and influence. It has a lot of helpful tips and profiles of others who are using social media tools to revolutionize their communities and business.

Brogan was the keynote speaker last night. And it was the first time I’ve heard him speak. And I have to say that I was very impressed and I’ll say it again: INSPIRED. 

His Keynote speech was an excellent mix of humor and practical kick-in-the-ass motivation for social media folk who he says “need to get passed the playing stage”and start using social media to impact real change in the world and communities they’re a part of. 

Brogan asked not to write a post about him. But as you can see I did anyway because his speech was right in line with what I hope and plan to do with our Live Fix community. 

The most inspiring story he shared was about  how Facebook is being used to stop gang wars and connect with inner city kids using regular updates.  Now, those kind of stories pump me up because they get right at the heart of how social media can change the world on a real-world and everyday level. 

Like I mentioned, I hope to take what Chris encouraged all the bloggers to and use the knowledge to do the same with our Live Fix community.  Please hold me accountable and send me feedback because I’d love to hear your ideas on how we can make Live Fix better.

One of the great things about being at BlogWorld is meeting other bloggers and social media folk.  It was great talking with and inviting them to the Live Fix community, too.  And hopefully we’ll hear about some of their favorite live concert experiences.

Touring the Strip

Lastly, I took my first tour of the Las Vegas Strip last night as I ventured to the Blogworld party at the Bellagio.

 As you know, Las Vegas teems with sensuality, sex and over stimulation. And naturally, I was amazed to see everything blinking, pulsing and surging around me. Everything I saw conjured up a  bunch of ideas about connections to live music, so I’ll be exploring those stimulating ideas on a future post.

Coming up…

Once I get back to Chicago later today I’ll share with you what I learned at the Technorati  State of the Blogosphere and Death and Rebirth of Journalism panels.

Just because you’re not here at Blogworld doesn’t me you can’t join in. 

I invite you to join in at I live tweet during sessions @chriscatania

Do We Get In The Way of a Great Show?

 

 

Though most of the show shifted in all the right ways and flowed to all the right places on the strength of Noonan’s smooth and soothing lyrical storytelling, a bit of tension arose between Noonan and fans who gazed upwards in awe at him from the front row. Getting a bit frustrated, he wasn’t finding the intimate connection he was hoping for with the crowd. So he took a risk and decided to call out fans for abusing their right to record the show on video cameras and cell phones.  He smiled at fans in the front row and said “I appreciate the desire, but the Internet doesn’t need any more videos of us Irish lads floating about, so can we sing a song for you without a lens between us.”

 

This is a snippet from my forthcoming review for Popmatters of Bell x1‘s recent Chicago concert at the Double Door. It shows how lead singer Paul Noonan was expressing his thoughts on technology getting in the way of our live concert experience. 

Capturing his comment wasn’t something I had planned for the Live Fix Experiment that I was doing to test out experiencing “How Your Heart Is Wired” live.

Nonetheless Noonan’s comment came just before he was about to play “Eve, the Apple of My Eye,” a hit song that fans certainly were expecting to hear, so his move could’ve ruined the moment for fans.

 Then the other thing that came up about how we use technology to record our concert experiences was this comment left by a Live Fix reader on my post about Why We Tweet and Text During concerts. 

 Here’s the part of his comment that got me thinking:

At concerts I have witnessed people waiting for hours on end to get that perfect spot in front of the stage only to proceed to position their device directly between themselves and the artist during the entire show. Tell me how they are experiencing it in such a way as to be able to accurately describe it to someone else? They are viewing it through a phone. Even a photographer puts the camera down and looks at the subject periodically. In their attempt to so generously share the show, (are you sure they are not just bragging?) the fans around me have radically altered my experience.

I really appreciate this fellow concert fan’s comment, because he made several great points that challenged my thoughts on how we enjoy concerts.

So I’m wondering now if overusing our love for recording our live music experiences is actually holding us back from having a more transcendent live concert experience?

What do you think?

Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below.

 

Photo credit: Colleen Catania

Are We One Step Closer To a FANS Concert Model?

 

It’s been a busy week for stories that involve putting the fans in the driver’s seat in the music industry. 

First, it was Glastonbury’s early sell out then I read this story about Public Enemy calling on fans to front money for their next album and giving fans a share of the profits.

Both stories have really made me think that maybe I wasn’t that crazy when I started to think about FANS, a concert ticket model that gives concert fans more power and leverage when going to see live music.

Take a look at SellaBand, the new business model being used by Public Enemy, and tell me what you think about creating a similar model for the live concert industry.

Fans, artists, promoters and label owners: I’d like to know what you think.

 Photo credit: NME