My husband is a pretty cool guy.  Turns out he has some pretty cool ideas in his head as well.  He told me several years ago that the best way to change something you don’t like or push for something you do like is to vote with your dollars.  Good advice.  He also encouraged me to branch out musically and stop listening to “old” music as a mainstay and instead investigate what’s out there now.  More good advice.

For me the music of my youth is more powerful than the music of maturity.  I don’t think music today is any less awesome than it was in my teens and twenties, it could easily be better, but my ability to connect to it isn’t as strong.  Angst is worth a certain something and most of my angst has left the building.

I can still sit back and belt my heart out to the Indigo Girls, Pink Floyd, The Cure or Trip Shakespeare, and all of the old feelings come flooding back.  It’s reassuring, powerful and easy to get stuck there instead of foraging ahead.  We have some friends in NYC who are a few years older than us and they are constantly on the look out for new music.  They see live music 4 or 5 times a week.  Their love of music blows me away.  I’m inspired by them to keep appreciating the new instead of holing away with my past.  The past is a nice place to visit, but it’s not the place I want to live.

I prefer concerts in places where you get a comfy chair and maybe a nice meal.  A venue where you sit back and take in the music in a relaxed sort of way.  Maybe at the very end you stand up for one song and do a little light dancing.  It’s all very civil and nice and proper.  The band performs for you and you listen and appreciate.  But, every once in awhile I head out to First Avenue or a similar venue to remind myself of what music is like when it’s one of the most important things in your life.  It’s not comfortable, quiet, or relaxed, but for me it’s a bigger, brighter and more participatory experience.  It’s still not something I’m up for very often, but getting in touch with that sort of feeling is the best way for me to remember the past and live in the present.