A New Form Of Live Music

About six months ago I made a conscious decision to see more live music. I have seen a fair amount in my life, not loads and not enough to be impressive in any way, but there have been memorable experiences I can count on more than one hand. There have though been occasions in which I have passed up on seeing someone; leaving a show early fifteen years ago because of girlfriend issues and not staying to see The Prodigy still rankles as a major moment of regret. This spring and coming summer then I was hoping to see some music but this has clearly all changed. While some summer festivals have been postponed until the autumn it is pretty clear I’m not going to get this music fix in the short term.

This pandemic has forced people into embracing new approaches to getting their message, music, produce and so on out into the world. The internet is yet again showing itself to be a most incredible tool and social media may have plenty of downside but it is proving to be an brilliant source for sharing when people need it the most. There is one phenomena which I have been enjoying and that is the live music. From what I can see this began with people not necessarily famous but who were used to performing regularly be it bars to small venue. I have a few friends on Facebook who have put on some shows and while I haven’t watched them all, I have enjoyed them, not announcing my presence just watching as if I was sitting silently at the back of the gig and leaving just as they ended.

A few of the more famous musicians have been getting in on this too, for various reasons, some charitable and some personal. I watched Post Malone do a really good show of Nirvana covers to raise money for the World Health Organisation. I then listened to a few of his actual song and realised he wasn’t for me, but his take on Nirvana, with the help of Blink 182’s drummer Travis Barker, was really impressive.

I discovered yesterday that a favourite dub artist of mine Panda Dub took part in something called the Aftrwrk Online Festival.

While these are ultimately the type of videos you’ve been able to watch on YouTube for a longtime there is something different about watching them live. We are leading such disconnected lives in quarantine that even the slightest connection to something happening in the moment that others are also partaking in can not be overlooked. I don’t think for a second that this form of music will overtake actual live music in person but it will certainly have forced people to view and approach other medians of live music in a new way.

Tonight then there is one by a group called Whitehorse who I came across about a month ago. Tonight they are doing a live show at about 22.00 British time. This is a link to their facebook page from which I think it will be shown.

Maybe I’ll see you there.

An Unknown Transition Into The Unknown

I’m not someone who feels the need to play music all the time. I enjoy silence. I enjoy podcasts. I enjoy music. But a balance between them is vital, as is my mood on their regularity. I have been listening to some music for the last half hour while I was online and avoiding writing this. When I see people listening to music and being able to study, read or write, basically concentrate, I have often wished this was something I was capable of. The words coming on this page would be inspired by the sounds around me but I can’t focus and not even one word follows.

I was listening to some dub and desiring a party or a festival. These last few years have been an interesting transition in life. Everyone goes though different chapters in their lives, even if they marry at 18, never divorce, never leave their home town and keep the same job, there will still be chapters within this. Mine have been slightly more adventurous and I can recognise periods when I wanted nothing but travel and others when I felt a need to rest for example. It took about five years from my first desires for rest to get to were I am now but life is all so extreme that I’m still longing for adventure equally alongside some kind of ‘normal’ existence. ‘Normal’ is a strange and inexplicable concept, which is why I won’t even try explaining what I mean by it and I know my version of it will still be a long way from the man with many chapters in the same town above. But fuck, right now having listened to a little music and recollected a few memories, there is a part of me that wants to put down the ‘normal’ so much and pick up the alternate once more.

I have also come to appreciate this life though recently and value the people living it far more than I ever did at the height of being a prick in my more adventurous moments. I’ve come to realise there is as much value in this existence as one lived with daily excitement and variety, it’s different value but it’s still value regardless, as it too is exciting and varied regardless. That doesn’t stop me wanting to drop it all and jump on a boat heading somewhere wild and exotic though but I doubt that will ever leave me. Equally this current existence is an extreme in the other direction as I know the ideal will be somewhere in the middle. I only meant to come here for a few months to help a mate out and it’s been nearly six months. He’s taking great pleasure in reminding me a few more months and I’ll have broken my longest job record. With this pizza takeaway now being a thing and coronavirus being an even bigger thing it seems I may still be sitting in this same seat in four months trying to understand what the drink in my hand represents.

Is this now life? Well it’s the current version and I’m starting to learn enough from it that interesting things happen when we roll with whatever comes up. In a way that’s a freedom more real than any enforced search for a liberty that ultimately becomes constrictive. There are always things out of our control which make us jump between paths, enduring the grey transitional space between, but once we’re actually on it; life never really seems all that bad. Quite often the opposite. It has become clear to me recently that we’re owed nothing, their is no destiny, that desires will never happen if we wait for them to and ideas of fairness miss the harsh unknown nature of life. It is an irrational and absurd world. Nothing bad has happened but seemingly I’ve managed to understand the knowledge I previously had and it all seems to make a little more sense. This is why discipline is necessary. Why being able to focus the energy to achieve the goal is the only way we can really get things done. Why I’m curious, excited and unsure about what comes next. It’s a little unknown. But then everything always has been.