Regarding Live Music

March 29, 2009

2178340815_37388170cc.jpg.jpeg
Orchestra at square dance in McIntosh County, Oklahoma – from the Library of Congress

As I walked home with some friends from a Radiohead concert in 2006, I asked a girl what she thought of the show. “It was great!” she said, “I love live music.”

Her answer bothered me, and I never forgot it.

The concert was great, but I wondered if she would have said the same thing if we were walking back from a Matchbox 20 or Pussycat Dolls or Animal Collective concert. I had to wonder if she “got it.”

The next year I went to the SXSW music festival. I was walking down 6th street with my friends Paige and Kevin when we heard a hackneyed blues solo float from the windows of a nearby bar. It prompted me to exclaim “This is great! I love live music!” and we all had a good laugh. Paige and Kevin got the joke—they both have a deep understanding and appreciation for music, and they know that some of it is better than the rest.

I don’t know how many times I’ve made the “I love live music” joke since, and I’m writing this essay largely to explain that I don’t keep repeating it just to get some laughs (in case any members of my vast readership are getting bored with it). I keep pulling it out because it’s the safest way I’ve found to reveal my particular brand of snobbishness—that is: I admire quality, I believe that quality is rare, and I like it when people recognize quality. Inversely, I’m leery of people who don’t seem to care about quality, or even know it exists.

The joke is a litmus test that tells me if I’m talking to someone as snobby as myself. When people get it, I know I’m in good company. When people don’t, I’m simply embarrassed and slightly ashamed by my pretentiousness—it’s a small price to pay, but I think it’s worth it.

P.S. I acknowledge that taste in music is relative. I know and respect people for whom listening to Radiohead is a form of torture. I’m glad these people acknowledge a preference for something over something else. I’d be just as leery of a person who claimed to love movies, restaurants, or paintings, etc.

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Short link to this post:

http://someez.blogspot.com/ Ian

I love this… AND live music, too! I need to get better at the whole blogging thing and just promised myself to being more consistent. We’ll see how that works out, but I definitely want to read your stuff more. You go with your snobbish self!
http://leefurwork.com/home.html lee

Definitely snobby, but I feel ya. The mindless, blanket “omigod I *love* [subject x]” makes far too sweeping a statement to have respectable stentiment behind it. I “love” movies, but the vast majority are shite. But a good movie can hold me and manipulate me and make me feel… something. I LOVE those experiences, and I LOVE *those* movies.

So I guess I’m snobby too. As if I didn’t know and come to accept that. :)
http://leefurwork.com/home.html lee

PS. Rad photo choice
George

I have a similar snobbishness about food. My pet peeve is when people reflexively gush: “IT’S DELICIOUS!!!” after every single bite. Maybe I just hate the word “delicious.” But to me, it’s an empty expression, famished for specific meaning. And it makes those people look like grotesque gluttons, as if stuffing their face and then vomiting up a once-size-fits-all affirmation somehow validates their good taste. It would be better simply to say: “I like the texture/temperature/spice/presentation/etc.” Or, frankly, nothing at all!
Alex

That’s is the snobbiest high-brow comment I’ve ever heard. Im offended by your upstart attitude.
http://jedsundwall.com Jed

I love comments on my blog.
http://jedsundwall.com Jed

Oh wait, seriously. Thank you for your comments. I’m obviously afraid of tasteless people like Alex chiming in, but it’s good to see that George, Lee, and Ian see where I’m coming from and don’t hate me for being the way I am…even if Ian loves live music.
bindi

It seems that quite a few people (particularly waitstaff in Australia) feel the same about “delicious”. If I eat a meal which I do find delicious, I am inclined to let people know. In my experience, however, saying “That was delicious, thank you,” in response to being asked “How was your meal?” often elicits a look of scorn. Scorn! So it seems that the indiscriminate “DELICIOUS!” utterers of the world have unwittingly (I assume) united to foil me in my attempts to sincerely express my enjoyment of a meal. It’s a bit of a bind: if I just say “That was delicious, thank you,” waitstaff think I’m being sarcastic. But I suspect that if I were to say “That was delicious, thank you, I particularly enjoyed the ,” I may just come across as being totally over the top and making fun of them. After surveying my friends (asking them if they think it’s weird to say a meal was delicious – most of them kinda agree with you George) I experimented with replacing “delicious” with the more subdued “lovely”. This gave rise to fewer scornful looks, but when the meal WAS delicious, lovely just didn’t cut it. So! I am sticking to my “delicious” guns and modifying my tone a little, making eye contact, touching them on the forearm… oh, no, hold on, that was an online date I went on in 2003… George! Don’t let delicious become empty! Don’t be afraid of “appropriate usage”! (Ahem.) Tell it how it is! Or not! :) And reflexive gushers: leave all that gushing to babies, broken dams, and newly tapped kegs. PS: I too love the emotions, perception, clarity and adventures that often result from experiencing live music that I like.
http://www.cmikesell.com Chris M

Be happy in knowing that I use this phrase as my litmus test as well. Thanks to you for introducing it to me last year. It was said no short of 20 times during sxsw this year by me.
http://listgenerator.blogspot.com/ Danny

I’m totally co-opting your joke/litmus test dude.

I LOVE live movies!
http://southpawjones.net Southpaw Jones

Funny, my girlfriend recently heard a coworker say flat out, “I don’t like live music.” Yoinks.

The problem with Radiohead and any other mainstream band (sorry) is that a majority of their fans are goobers by the law of simple probability.

The majority of any group > 1,000 = goobers.

As a musician, I can proudly guarantee that all of my dozens of supporters are cool as cucumbers. But I’ll welcome the goobers when they come, please lord.
Nicole

I totally get it. *Snob high-five*
Pete

the delicious discussion reminded me of a quote from Ratatoullie…yes, I’m quoting a Pixar movie. if you recall, someone said to him, “Well, if you love food so much, why are you so skinny?”

To which he replied (i’m doing this by memory btw, so it’s not verbatim), “Because, if it doesn’t taste good, I spit it out.” or something like that.

Anyhow, the problem with music is that you can’t spit it out. It gets stuck in your head, so my point is that YES, you must be a snob about the music you listen to, especially if it’s “live music” – your head could get really fat.
nunya

When people say something like “I love x,” it’s generally assumed that whatever x is, it’s of good quality.

If I say “I love bacon,” which I do, then this does not preclude the possibility that there is crappy bacon in the world (I’ve had some before).

Plenty of people say things like “I love dogs,” but they shouldn’t have to say “I love nice well-mannered dogs” for you to understand that they wouldn’t like a dog who wanted their limbs for their next meal.

People should not have to qualify that which should be obvious.