Doing things alone

Yesterday I went to see Beach House play the Opera House (that must be confusing if you don't go to a lot of concerts or listen to a lot of hipster music, I apologize).

It was, in my recollection, the first time I have intentionally gone to see a gig alone. I must say, it was an interesting experience. Part of the reason people go to concerts is to bask in the communal energy of live music. If we just wanted to be introspective about tunes, we could sit in our dark corners with headphones on. The energy a live crowd imparts to a performer and vice versa is one of those rare bouts of reality digitization simply has not been able to emulate.

Watching a concert on Blu-Ray is just not the same as attending one, no matter how loud you crank that 5.1 surround sound audio. This is most markedly obvious when you compare the concert experience to sports.

Although both are live events, some people prefer to watch athletic competition on TV, where you have the best viewing angles, commentary, instant replay and easy access to your fridge. This just isn't the case with music. The worst nose bleed seats at a Justin Beiber concert are still invaluable to any 12 year old girl, much more than an advance copy of the DVD recording.

With that in mind, going to a concert alone is at once the same as going with friends, albeit slightly bi-polar. By that I mean: when there is music on stage, you don't really notice. Nobody really talks much when performers are on anyways, so no difference at all there.

When there is no music however, (i.e. before the openers, in between sets, after the final song) it's a palpable sense of dissatisfaction. By nature you want to share this experience with someone, but really there's just the other lonely dude beside you in the crazy ball cap.

Anyways, as I sat there, I couldn't help but think about how odd that was -- the fact that musical events are such a unique and difficult to reproduce experience.

So yea, it was kind of disaffecting to be alone at a great show. At the same time, I don't regret going because Beach House was pretty awesome. Basically, I've concluded I'd rather miss a major sporting event than regret not seeing a great band live when I had the chance.

Basically, today's moral? Everyone should go see more live music.