A Music Metaphor for My Night
At first I thought I bombed hard tonight. And then I watched the rest of the show. Thereafter I realized something.
Imagine if there were a sign that said, "Show for Music Lovers Tonight!" and you got about sixty people to fill a three-hundred seat theater. They're all music lovers, sure. So they get there and sit down. The lights go low. The announcer announces the opener, straight from wherever...
A Jazz Band. Okay. Sure. There's only a few jazz fans in the audience, so the other people sort of ignore the Jazz Band and try to figure out what's going on. Jazz? I thought this was a music lover's show! Boring!
The next act is a Death Speed Metal Band. Rock and roll! Half the crowd lights up. Now this is what we came to see! But the jazz fans are sort of angry and the other people who think of themselves as music lovers are insulted that this trash, this gutter garbage of noise is being played.
But wait. Finally, the last act, the headliner, is an '80s Pop Cover Band. The other half of the crowd goes nuts. This is the music we remember. Is that Hungry Like the Wolf? I lost my virginity to that song! But now the Death Speed Metal fans are just staring at the women screaming and the jazz fans are sitting there scratching their heads wondering if the headliner is going to do something a little calmer.
Now imagine all of this - and then imagine a screaming crowd of twenty-five women there for a friend's birthday. So no matter what type of music was being played, they really wanted you to sing some Sinatra. Because Kim loves Sinatra, and it's really her night - damn the rest of the crowd.
The Jazz Band - they're just a jazz band, so they don't even have a singer to handle that type of material. They can get the rhythm down, but no one's crooning tonight.
The Death Speed Metal Band does a cover of "Fly Me to the Moon," but the girls want real Sinatra, not some sort of post-modern take. So they go back to rocking and try to pick up the pieces of the half-crowd.
And the 80's Pop Cover Band does their best to fit as many songs by Sinatra in there as they can. "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Summer Wind," "How Deep is the Ocean," they try them all. And while they do better than the Jazz Band and the Death Speed Metal Band, the ladies aren't really with it. They want it faster for the ballads and slower for the Swingers. A little more pop! C'mon, you know, like Frankie did it!
And in the end, everyone left feeling a little confused. Because we're all music lovers, right? But at the same time, everyone who came had a different idea of what great music was. And it seems like while most of the performers came close, no one quite got it exactly right.
That's what tonight was like. Take that as you will.
Imagine if there were a sign that said, "Show for Music Lovers Tonight!" and you got about sixty people to fill a three-hundred seat theater. They're all music lovers, sure. So they get there and sit down. The lights go low. The announcer announces the opener, straight from wherever...
A Jazz Band. Okay. Sure. There's only a few jazz fans in the audience, so the other people sort of ignore the Jazz Band and try to figure out what's going on. Jazz? I thought this was a music lover's show! Boring!
The next act is a Death Speed Metal Band. Rock and roll! Half the crowd lights up. Now this is what we came to see! But the jazz fans are sort of angry and the other people who think of themselves as music lovers are insulted that this trash, this gutter garbage of noise is being played.
But wait. Finally, the last act, the headliner, is an '80s Pop Cover Band. The other half of the crowd goes nuts. This is the music we remember. Is that Hungry Like the Wolf? I lost my virginity to that song! But now the Death Speed Metal fans are just staring at the women screaming and the jazz fans are sitting there scratching their heads wondering if the headliner is going to do something a little calmer.
Now imagine all of this - and then imagine a screaming crowd of twenty-five women there for a friend's birthday. So no matter what type of music was being played, they really wanted you to sing some Sinatra. Because Kim loves Sinatra, and it's really her night - damn the rest of the crowd.
The Jazz Band - they're just a jazz band, so they don't even have a singer to handle that type of material. They can get the rhythm down, but no one's crooning tonight.
The Death Speed Metal Band does a cover of "Fly Me to the Moon," but the girls want real Sinatra, not some sort of post-modern take. So they go back to rocking and try to pick up the pieces of the half-crowd.
And the 80's Pop Cover Band does their best to fit as many songs by Sinatra in there as they can. "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Summer Wind," "How Deep is the Ocean," they try them all. And while they do better than the Jazz Band and the Death Speed Metal Band, the ladies aren't really with it. They want it faster for the ballads and slower for the Swingers. A little more pop! C'mon, you know, like Frankie did it!
And in the end, everyone left feeling a little confused. Because we're all music lovers, right? But at the same time, everyone who came had a different idea of what great music was. And it seems like while most of the performers came close, no one quite got it exactly right.
That's what tonight was like. Take that as you will.
posted by Mike Drucker at
8:45 PM
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