Keep music live, again.

I have just spent the evening doing something I thought would be tedious, but it turned out, not.

We went to a pre-Xmas street party, organised by one of the roads round here that is slightly better co-ordinated than ours.  There was mulled wine and raffles and stuff, and there was a band.  They were really very much better than to be expected.  I will try and post some info.  Here they are:

http://bourbonstreetrevival.com/

They were playing as a five piece tonight, and they were really tight.  All members were really good - I liked the guitarist in his pork pie hat, and the trumpet/keyboard player was blowing up a storm.

In the interval, the drummer poked me in the back and said; "So, you're a Doors fan, eh?  I saw your face light up when we played that number."

I am not aware of any other time in the past decade when anybody has noticed my face noticeably lighting up.  I would have bought him a drink, but when I turned around he was gone, and somebody else had spilled their lager all over my new jacket.  Even that didn't faze me.

And I would pay good money to anyone who has video film of their encore.  They played 'Mustang Sally',  and there was this choir of eight year olds who got totally into the moment when the singer presented them with the mike, and belted out 'Ride, Sally, ride!'.  Their little faces!  Some more poor kids lost to rock and roll.  

Ah, me.

Here's a thing I want to write.

I think it will be short, but it's heartfelt.  And there won't be any video links.

I am a great reader, I find solace in reading books, many of which I may have read time and time again.  I even read bad books, knowing that they're bad books, but just because they have something about them that I like.  My favourite books drive me mad, because I have to leave them for at least a year, say, before I can read them again.  Ain't it a bitch.

But music isn't like that.  [Oh god, oh god .... he's going to talk about music again!  Guards!  Guards!]

No, come on, give me a moment.  I was just browsing through some stuff on YouTube.  I know many people decry the comments section on YouTube, and yes, often it is full of moronic observations or abuse or ..... but sometimes you see people lay their lives out.  It's not always easy reading.

By coincidence, this afternoon I have read comments from two different people who have had recent tragedies in their lives, and decided to let it out by talking about music that they thought relevant.  In one case, the song in question was an undoubted work of art, in the other, it was a complete piece of garbage, trust me.

But that's not the point.  The point was that the music gave them a focus, and an emotional release.  A lot cheaper than hours in analysis.

I have never sobbed my heart out at a paragraph of Dickens, Tolstoy, Amis or Sayers, or at a single line of Plath or Housman.  I could give you three or four split second moments from some songs that would reduce me to primeval slime.  I think in one case, simply the studio ambience that precedes any actual sound made by the band would do it.  That's what music does.    

That's all I wanted to say.  

Ah, christ.  Let's all cheer up.