Tag: music

The Summer Concert Series

Growing up, I would always get excited around March when the newspaper came out with its special section that announced which bands would be coming to Red Rocks that summer. My siblings and I would look over the list and find the ones that we were most interested in going to, when tickets would be sold, and how much they would cost. We could only afford to go to two or three per summer, so we had to be choosy about which ones were the most important to us. It was a part of our summers and I was lucky enough to see some amazing shows during those summers.

Of course, the concert scene was a little different back then. We still had to go through Ticket Master, but this was long before you had to set up your computer and hope that you would get a ticker on-line before the scalpers snatched up all of the good seats. Instead, we had to set our alarms to get up early, run to one of the many Ticket Master locations, and stand in line with other eager concert goers with just the right amount of money in our pockets so when they opened the doors to the location we could get the best ticket available. It was almost as fun as going to the concert itself. We would talk with the other people in the line, ask how long they had been there, get excited about which songs the band would play, and ask if they knew anything about the opening act. It would be a couple of months before the concert even happened, and we would already getting pumped up for the event.

It became a right of passage. We would go home with our printed out ticket, and put it in a safe place until the day of the concert. My was always next to the collection of past concerts that I had gone to that I kept tied tight with a rubber band in my sock drawer. That collection was more valuable to me than any collection of football or baseball cards. Each ticket told a story about an amazing event and would bring back to that moment from a previous summer, and the shows that I had watched, what friends came with to that show, and what songs connected with me the most. The concert scene was not only fun, but it was also a culture that I bought into and is part of the reason for my love of music that I have to this day.

The concert scene has changed quite a bit back from those summer days of my youth. I do not know if it has much to do with the way that tickets are sold today, and what happens when going to a concert, or if it is more about me not having the same energy I used to have for these shows, but I do not look forward in anticipation for these shows that I used to. Yes, I still look for what shows will be happening over the summer at my favorite venues, mainly Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, and Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon. These are also the two locations that I will be at during the summer, so that limits my options as well. I also have only a couple weeks at both locations, so I really have to hope that the bands that will be playing at those times are somebody that I really want to see. In the past, I would go to almost anybody I had a passing interest in, but that was a lot due to the cost of concerts back then. In the eighties and nineties, I could see a good band with an up-and-coming opener for somewhere between twenty to thirty dollars. That is including the fees that Ticket Master tagged on to the ticket prices. Now, those tickets have jumped up to almost one-hundred dollars, and those are for the second tier bands. When you start to look at the top tier acts, the price gets out of control. I wonder how people afford to go and see acts like Taylor Swift or Oasis because the ticket prices for acts like this have gotten completely out of control.

The ticket prices are only affordable if you jump on-line during the first few moments that those tickets go on sale as well. Where in the past, Ticket Master worked on making a system that limited what a scalper could do, it almost seems to welcome them with open arms today. Computers allow the scalpers to set up mills where they can snatch up the premium tickets as soon as they go on sale, making it really difficult for the true fans to get any tickets, even if they are able to be there when the tickets go on sale. I know systems have been set up to allow those fans to get the tickets that they want, but they are not usually through Ticket Master. This means that if a person wants to get a ticket to go see one of their favorite shows, the price for them is increased by scalpers who are now acting as a middle man and making money on a show that they do not care anything about. To add insult to this injustice, people are not even given a physical copy of the ticket, so they can have that little memento of the show that they watched. It is digital copy that will disappear off of their phone the day after the show, leaving no real record that the band wander through the town in the first place.

Even when I get to the show, the plundering of my wallet does not stop. Prices of concessions at shows has always been high, but it has reached a new level in the United States today that force people to really consider how much money they are spending at one of these shows. I went to a show just a week ago, and a beer was $15, and a single taco was $7. I have also been seeing shows in Peru, and the prices there for concessions are much more reasonable, and I was able to afford to enjoy myself more at these events. And it is not just concerts where this is happening. Movies and sporting events have also hiked their prices up, making it almost impossible for any below a certain tax bracket to go to these events. It makes it even worse if it is a whole family that is going to the event. If it can happen for certain families, it will only happen once a year if they are lucky.

For the most part, the concert scene has changed a lot over the years, and it does not look like things are going back to the way that they were any time soon. But adjustments will have to be made soon in the entertainment industry if they wish to survive in this changing economy. Movie theaters are the first to experience these growing pains. Theaters are no longer packed, not even during the summer blockbuster months. Streaming has a lot to do with that, but I also believe that the price of movies and concessions also keep a lot of people away. I would be curious to see what would happen if theaters lowered their prices, and how packed they would be if they did that.

The movie theaters are not the only places that will feel the repercussions of these prices. Eventually other forms of entertainment are going to price themselves out of the common man, and there won’t be enough wealthy people around to support musicians and athletes. It just makes me wonder when that break will happen because I cannot figure out how they have been able to sustain such high prices for so long. Until then, I will go to the shows when I can, and for those shows that I have been priced out of, I just hope some day the price will drop so I can see my favorite bands.

Should I Have Taken More Pictures?

I went to go see the Avett Brothers at Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon last night. It has been a couple of years since I have seen a show, and it was great to see live music again. I was a little spoiled growing up in Denver. I had the opportunity to see many shows up at Red Rocks Amphitheater and it was back at a time when concert tickets were more affordable. Now, I have a hard time justifying spending that much money on a show, but I am glad that I did to see the Avett Brothers. They were a lot of fun; they are great musicians; and I love the way they harmonize.

But after the show, I realized that I had only taken one picture during the whole show, and that was because I got a text from my sister right before the show started, and I wanted to show her where I was at the time. At first, I thought it was a little uncharacteristic of me. Every time I go to a new place, I take tons of photos, and I have to scroll through them to share the best one with you. But this time I only took one.

It was not like I did not see other people taking people who were taking pictures during the show. Hayden Homes Amphitheater is a great location with a pretty setting, especially when the sun starts to set. There were people posing as a group with the stage in the background. There were people trying to take good pictures of the Avett Brothers during their set even though I think they might have been too far away to get a good picture. There was even one guy in front of me that recorded the Avett Brothers singing all of “I and Love and You”. But I took one picture.

It wasn’t until after the show, and I thought about the guy recording a whole song that I contemplated why I didn’t take so many pictures. If I had taken pictures, would it have changed the way I enjoyed to show. Would I have been so busy trying to get a great picture, or record the music just right, that I would not have enjoyed the concert during their performance? Am I better off just storing this moment as a memory instead of collecting the memory on my phone?

I think that me just enjoying the show was the better option. By not worrying about taking pictures, I was able to really immerse myself in the experience, and get the most out of the concert. Yes, that guy who recorded that whole song is probably at home right now watching it again and is proud that at any time he could bring up that memory, but I don’t think he was able to really feel the impact of the song in the moment because he was too busy making sure he recorded the song just right. I will always be able to go back to that song any time I hear it again, and I will relive the feeling of the moment when that happens. I think that feeling is more important than the recording, and it is probably the reason that I did not even consider taking more pictures at the show.

Phones are great and have the changed the way we live, but they might not always be the thing we should go to when living an experience. I am glad that I put my phone down and enjoyed the Avett Brothers, and I hope that the next time you find yourself in a similar experience, you do the same thing.

The Alki Art Fair – Seattle, Washington

There is a rule of thumb in Seattle – when the sun comes out, you go outside. It is strictly followed during the winter months when the sky is usually shrouded in a cloud, but things are a little different during the summer months. There might be some clouds in the early morning, but they usually burn off before the afternoon, and the day delivers the perfect weather to enjoy. This is why many people come to visit this city during the summer, and certain places crowd in with people.

The city knows this as well, and uses the opportunity to have their festivals and fairs. They find the most iconic places in the area and gather artists, food, and music to give the people something to do while the weather is so beautiful. One of these celebrations has been coming year after year in late July on Alki Beach near West Seattle.

The Alki Art Fair is a chance for artists from the Pacific Northwest to come together to show off their latest creations. It is a great place to find paintings, photographs, woodworking, clothing and jewelry directly from the artists who created it. Many people gather here to find that next perfect thing for their house while being able to talk to the artists at the same time. Most of the work has the feel from this part of the world, and helps to support the arts in just Seattle, but all of Washington and Oregon as well.

The best part of coming to this art fair as opposed to others across the country is that afterwards, I found myself still on Alki Beach. It is one of the hidden treasures of Seattle. Yes, it does bring out many tourists who want to have a great view of downtown Seattle and hand out on beach right on the sound, but it is not as many as are found in Queen Anne or Pike’s Place Market area. It is the place where you can find more of the local population, especially on a great summer day as they look for the perfect place where they can come out and enjoy it.

Alki Beach is far enough away from the Seattle’s city center that tourists rarely find it, but it is a great location to hang out on the beach all day, enjoy kayaking or paddle boarding, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants on the other side of the street from the beach to entertain you as well. The art fair is just a great excuse to make it out to this part of Seattle and adds more flavor to an already great spot. If you were unable to make you way to it this year, don’t worry, there will be another chance to make it there next year. It will help you to make it out to this spot of Seattle and see something that many people miss out on during their visits here. It won’t take you long to figure out why when you come.

Guilty Pleasures

I’ve made a fortress out of my music
And in its confines I plan to reside.
There’s various artists from which to pick
And I will gather their passion inside.
Many will try to break that barrier
To connect with the person that I hide.
They think that it will make me merrier
If I’d put that protective wall aside,
But the memories of generations
Continue to boom loudly in my ears,
Living up to my high expectations
By burying my societal fears.
We all have something that we hide behind,
So don’t pretend that helping me is kind.

The Death of the Record Store – The Move Day 25

Many people will look at this post and laugh as they download another song on their Apple Music or Spotify app. They either look back on the days of Tower Records and San Goody with either fond memories and just shrug it off as something from the past that they will no longer regret the passing of, or they are not even old enough to remember how these store dominated the landscape and the culture of every young person from the 90s. But it was also the height of what I would consider the best era for music ever that these stores slowly started to disappear. At first, it wasn’t something that discouraged me because if one went out of business, there was usually another one across the street that was better and probably not a part of some huge franchise that overcharged for the music they were selling.

The stores themselves were an explosion of expression. My favorite ones were the ones that would plaster posters of the bands that loved and who had a new album to sell over ones that had passed on to obscurity. The latest record that the employee behind the counter felt like playing that day would be blaring over the speakers, and sometimes it would become you favorite new album. Random strangers would talk to each other about the albums that they were looking over. It was a community, and there were many of these places where I felt at home. I never thought that they would eventually disappear.

But like Blockbuster, they slowly disappeared until only a few remained. For me it felt like the passing of something important with music and there would be a whole generation of people who did not understand the importance of these stores or why finding the deep tracks on an album showed a true love of the genre. Music, a thing that was always meant for disposable income, had become even more disposable because the music now came at you as something easily downloadable from some service you paid a monthly fee to online. No longer did somebody have to search long and hard to hold that album in their hand. No longer did they have to collect the music, and listen to it constantly as the jewel case cracked and the artwork faded to prove to those who saw it that this was that person’s favorite album. Music no longer became something to treasure. It was now just something to quickly consume and dismiss on the tablet as it shuffled off to other songs that you might appreciate.

Even though it looks like the cd will go the same way as the cassette tape, there is hope on the horizon. Steadily, over the years, vinyl has made a comeback in this arena. It is still not at the same level that it was at during the 1960s, but more and more of the younger generation is finding out about the joy of this medium. First of all, it sounds better than any other medium, giving the music a richer, warmer sound. But more importantly, it makes the playing an album an event again. People need to gather around a turn-table and listen as the needle pops into the groove if they want to listen to the album. It will give people the opportunity to once again share music instead of hiding away behind the earphones with it. And the surviving record stores recognize this.

There aren’t many left in America, but when I find one of them, there is a joy that runs through me because I know that I am going to get an experience from my youth that I thought had died. There is Ranch Records in Downtown Bend, Oregon, Rasputin’s in San Fransisco, and Boogie’s West in Castle Rock, Colorado. The owners have added space to sell records, and it is fun flipping through them to once again see the beautiful artwork, and hold in my hands that amazing moment that I know will happen when I open it up and listen to it. My two favorite record stores are something that I look forward to every time I am in those cities. The first is East Street Records in West Seattle who has some deal with Pearl Jam and they sell a bunch of their bootlegs there. They also have a breakfast place that is always packed and helps to supplement their true love, music. And the store that still has the crowds and the love that I remember from the 90s is in downtown Denver, Twist and Shout Records. At this store, people come in to dump their old record collections, not knowing what they have, and they resell them to the public in packs of ten where you don’t know what you are going to get. It is a lot of fun, and sometimes allows you to find something new.

So even though the record store is harder to find anymore, I do not think that the last ones left will go away. I am glad that they have survived, and I hope more and more people will realize that this is a better way to enjoy music, and continue to visit them when they come across them.