Kevin's Watch

Have you ever been listening to some live music and gotten caught up in that perfect moment? That moment you can revisit in your memories and your even your dreams and still get a rush from it months/years later?

For me there have been three...when U2 first came out on stage and began playing their fist song of their concert City of Blinding Lights. I have been a U2 fan for a couple of decades, that was my first chance to ever hear them live, and that is a song that reminds me very strongly of my first meeting with a person who means a great deal to me, so that song carries a lot of great positive associations with it.

The second was hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in concert. That was the first piece of classical music I had ever fallen in love with, and still my favorite piece of music of any genre in all the world. When the first singer began his solo, the entire audience let loose with this great sigh, and I knew that everyone, like me, had been sitting on the edge of their seat, waiting for the vocals to start in one of the most grand melodies ever created by mankind.

The third happened recently, at a concert I actually have pretty mixed feelings about. It was the Vienna Philharmonic and they were playing a tone poem about death by Strauss. The tuba player started getting down his with bad self, and when he played, the very walls and ceiling and floor vibrated and you weren't just hearing the music, you were literally feeling it, down to your bones. That was just really cool...represents what music means to me in a nutshell - not just something that you hear, but something that affects you, all of you - vibrating through your mind, body, soul...

been thinkin about this all day...trying to think of one stand out perfect moment...

music is associated with so MANY of my perfect moments in life...

the first time i saw TULL onstage...todd rundgren...yes...just loads of live shows that were each remarkable...CSN live and Crosby doing "Delta"...

too numerous to pick out one among them...so many songs associated with so many perfect moments...the first song Ger and I learned together...

so to settle on one...i have to go to performance...there's really nothing like a standing ovation...nothing.

in high school, we did a concert to raise money for our school literary magazine. myself and another girl learned a couple of songs together...she came out and did her song, then i came out and did one alone...then she joined me and we did one together...a Fogelberg tune i think it was...can't remember which one...we were the token "hokey folky" girls...hahaha...whatever it was they crowd liked it and the stage manager told me to go back out and do another one...so i did...went out and did my belting version on Dylan's "I Shall Be Released"!! and when i was done...the freakin crowd stood up! now granted it was about 300 people only...and many friends and family...but lemme tell ya how LOUD that crowd was!
never had one since but godalmighty was that PERFECT!

The moment I realized that the muted stumming that SRV was doing on stage was the intro to Voodoo Chile,The Grateful Dead playing Terrapin Station,Page and Plant doing Whole Lotta Love(the closest I will ever get to a Zeppelin show).

Bob Mould acoustic: Celebrated Summer (my favorite song) and his interpolation of Hardly Getting Over It with Explode and Make Up. (waited years to hear Summer, was told he wouldn't play it. It/Explode was a surprise) meeting him before and after the show.

Willie Nelson (in Mass) City of New Orleans (i grew up hearing that song every morning before school) meeting him after the show.

Mike Watt: the Opera tour. (he did the entire album, most emotional show i have ever seen) meeting him for the first time after the show. having beers with his drummer before the show. the opening bass riff for In the Engine Room...

Breeders: standing in front of Kelly the whole show. her playing fiddle for Driving On 9. meeting her and Kim after the show. the opening band Poster Children were great. got to meet singer/bassist Rose. their song Accident Waiting To Happen was stunning.

Brad: talking to Jeremy during the show (bassist/singer) Julie making Stone Gossard laugh when she yelled "we love you Jeremy" after the crowd screamed for Stone the entire show. Jeremy singing Circle & Line. Julie sending the drummer after Jeremy when the show ended.
them playing Mr. Pink from the Satchel album. singer/piano Shawn Smith, bassist/guitar Mike Berg and drummer Regan Hagar are also in Brad. the band playing Buttercup.

Kristin Hersh: meeting her before and after the show. (i love her and Julie knows it. ) her admitting from stage she couldn't remember the lyrics to my request and apologizing to me.

Mike Watt with J Macis: I Live For That Look (Dinosaur jr, from Green Mind) accidentally blowing off J after the show to say hi to Mike)

Mike Watt solo: Tv Eye Julie says i was the only one in the audience singing with Mike to this classic Stooges song. and I was siinging quite enthusiatically.

U2 in '85, the 'Unforgettable Fire' tour.

Flaming Hellcats opened for Watt the 1st time we saw him. the did a great song about panties. and they were drunk as hell. among the best opening acts we have ever seen.

Live Aid....The Zeppelin Reunion. Plant's voice was hoarse and Jimmy was out of tune, but I was in Heaven when they did those three songs.

I'm bitter as hell they're not on the DVD.

I'd say the "perfect" moment for me was the last piece of the last evening of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's first New Music Festival in 1992 (a yearly event dedicated to playing only the works of living composers). There was a buzz that night, because everyone was excited over how well this inaugural festival had been received all week. When this thing first began, the WSO had been bracing for a lot of empty seats, because it seemed crazy to put on a festival dedicated purely to unfamiliar contemporary classical music -- in a prairie city in mid-winter, no less. Yet people came, and they liked what they saw and heard. So it was that for that last evening of music-making, it was close to a sold-out concert hall. It wasn't your traditional, stuffy-shirt classical audience: the ripped-jeans set, twentysomethings and even teenagers were there to take in the music. Apparently, Nirvana didn't have a monopoly on teen spirit after all.

The closing piece was Glenn Buhr's Cycle of Spring, an ecstatic celebration of rebirth and renewal. It was Buhr and then-WSO Maestro Bramwell Tovey who had dreamed up the festival, so it was fitting that Buhr's music ended the night. Accompanying the WSO was an onstage performance by a contemporary dance troupe. The melding of dance and music was magical. It perfectly summed up the fresh spirit of the New Music Festival. There was a huge standing ovation. I remember feeling very euphoric when I stepped out into the night. What a great night for music it was.

i've thought of one that stands out...

Weather Report, during the Heavy Weather Tour, June 4th, 1977

the concert hall they played in seated about 1500-2000 people. it's a concert hall on the U of L campus...acoustics were BRILLIANT.
band comes on, jaco last one to the stage...they just picked up their instruments and LAUNCHED into Birdland and the sound was so clean and crisp and the band was SOOOOO tight...just a great live performance of the thing...and then...at the end of the song...in that 2 or 3 second silence just before the first applause...some redneck in the back of the room yells out "Hey! you f*ckers are GOOD!"

only in Kentucky, man. izzat perfect or WHAT.

when Julie and i saw DC Talk they did an acoustic set in the middle of the show. this was at Cynthia Woods, out on the grass hill at night, a slight breeze and all of the audience singing the chorus of Awesome God along with DC Talk, when they stopped playing on stage and the audience took over for a good 7-10 minutes, it was beautiful.