How Often Do You Listen To Live Music??

We've been going about once a month this year. As I get older (in my 40's now), I have less and less tolerance for poorly amplified/mixed/produced performances. I'd simply rather stay home and listen on my system! It sounds a whole lot better most of the time in those cases. Also my hearing doesn't suffer as a result. The last thing we saw like that was Beck playing Beneroya Hall. Now Beneroya is an acoustic wonder, as well as being quite beautiful to look at. And I do like Beck..not only is he an innovative and gifted musician, but he is also a charismatic performer. But this concert was probably the third in a string of pop-music concerts where I turned to my wife and said, "..NEVER again..!!" I hope I've learned. I just don't enjoy the music when I can't make out the lyrics, or distinguish instruments in space. The concerts I'm referring to come off as purely noise to me...and by no means enjoyable noise! We are talking well in excess of eardrum damage levels. And I do like some pretty "loud" music on occasion...someone mentioned Tool, and I do like Filter as well. I must be getting really old as there were a vast majority of younger folks at all these concerts just getting down to...to..gosh, I really don't know what they were getting down to, but a good deal of the eardrum piercing noise is being made by the audience themselves in the form of screaming (we had a screamer behind us at Beck). I just don't get it?! The concerts I've enjoyed the most this year have been mostly acoustic performances. My two favorites have been Gillian Welch, and Patty Griffin, oh, and a great outdoor performance by Cowboy Junkies.

Its a great time for Dallas' local music. We went to the clubs quite a bit this past year, and you can see us there this Friday :) I would love to go to Bass Hall for some symphony, but just haven't found the right time.

With a 4 and 6 year old we dont get out too much (extra $40 for a baby sitter) but i play drums in a band 3 or 4 times a month so I guess that counts as being at a live music event.
I am looking forward (in some ways) to the kids getting older so we can start to go to the Austin Symphony on a regular basis like we did pre kids.
Until that time, I will make do with my ever growing stereo system.

Try to get out every month or 2 but I too find the acoustics and bad mixes tough to listen to. Though, today, I had an experience that almost made me want to sell the system.(not really) I went to buy a few groceries and heard a voice singing opera. I thought it must be from some store but then I saw that this woman (obviously trained) was the source. Across the street and through traffic I heard an almost unearthly voice. I don't attend operas and my exposure is only through recordings but this was unreal. I never knew what the real voice sounded like. So present and piercing almost defying the distance between us. Have to check out a soloist sometime soon.

Hey All,

I don't get to live music shows often enough. The last show I attended was Live opening for Jane’s Addiction at Madison Square Garden last year. I went to see a co-worker who did an acoustic one man show down in the village. Before the Garden show I went to see Sting at the Paramount in 1996. I'm really looking forward to my anniversary on Friday, I got tickets for the Dave Mathews Band at the Garden. That should be a great show, I love Dave Mathews. I use many of his recordings as demos for new additions to my system. The best show I have ever witnessed was U2 at Constitution Hall in DC back in 1984. It was intimate, about 7000 people, and every once in a while, it seemed that Bona was singing right to me. I was 16th row orchestra and I’ve never had better seats for a show since. It was great......John