Live in concert

Last Saturday night, I realized just how much I miss going to live music shows. I used to go often. When I was in college back in the day, I went to practically every live music show that came anywhere near my town. I never even really cared what type of music it was because I like all kinds of music. Really!

I've seen everything from bluegrass (Alison Krauss - one of the best shows I've been to, by the way) to R&B (back in 1986 or so, I flew to Washington, DC to see Anita Baker's show in Columbia, Maryland with an old college friend) to big stadium acts (Foreigner, Styx, Rod Stewart, Van Halen when they still had David Lee Roth) to glam rock (Loverboy, Billy Idol) and mainstream pop (Billy Joel, Melissa Etheridge, Celine Dion). I've seen Smashing Pumpkins, The Go-Go's (with special guest A Flock of Seagulls - LOL!), Prince, and a whole bunch of others whom I can't remember right now but will think of just as I start to fall asleep tonight.

My interest in live music can probably be attributed to my Mom, who bought season tickets to the Community Concert Series in My Very Small Hometown (population 16,000 - when I lived there) for several years, taking me with her to see acts like Herb Alpert and His Tijuana Brass and the North Carolina Symphony. I even went to one of Elvis Presley's last concerts when he performed in Fayetteville, NC just months before he died - yes, I was a child and no, I was not particularly impressed - however, lots of "older" ladies in the audience seemed to be.

I experienced a passive high at a Rolling Stones concert in Louisville. I've experienced mosh pits, closed pits, and slam-dancing pits (I was a punk once. I had pink spiked hair and about seventeen earrings in my left ear. It was nineteen eighty-something and I was young and wild. Someone has the negatives, which is why I'll never run for President.) BUT. I gave up going to large concerts several years ago. The crowds started getting to me. And in the smaller venues - after I gave up smoking in 2002 (on June 16, to be exact) - I just couldn't stand being around the smoke.

So when S asked me to go with her to IndyIndie the other night . . . well, I'll admit - I was excited about the music, but not so excited about my (as it turns out) very antiquated ideas of what the venues are like. Billed as "your personal backstage pass" (or something like that), IndyIndie is a very unique opportunity to hear independent artists playing in a very personal setting . . . in this case, the clubhouse of a condo community. We saw the Australian/American duo of Martine Locke and Dionne Ward, who blew us away with their energy and talent. Martine is as much of a storyteller/comedian as she is a singer/songwriter/guitarist, so we were really entertained. We got dinner AND a concert for a very reasonable price. It was a great night!

Best of all, there was no smoke. So . . . who knows. Maybe we'll be going back again. Actually, I think we already have tickets to the May event!