Music as a Destination – The Ultimate Concert Experience
It’s time to take concert going to the next level. My friends and I are avid music lovers, and we love seeing live shows. There’s something about seeing a band perform live which can either make you love them more, or shatter the production illusion when you see they can’t really sing, dance or play as well as what’s on their album.
There’s a group of roughly six of us who have been friends for almost 15 years, music being the tie that binds us all. We all have a huge diversity within our vast music libraries, so most of our music passions match up with at least one other person within the group. Throughout the years we have seen a large diversity of live music at many, many different venues as a result.
The more shows we see, the more we’ve realized the impact a venue can really have on the concert experience. Two of the group moved to the East Coast from the West opening up a whole new range of shows and venues. I have seen the first show in a tour on the East Coast, and have come back to see the last show of the tour on the West Coast. The two experiences are very, very different indeed even though it’s the same show. Differences vary from sound quality of the venues to the attitude of the audience.
As we have grown older, it is no longer about the number of concerts we can squeeze into one year. It has come to be about the full concert experience. Where you are, who the audience is, who you’re traveling with as well as the band can play a great role in the experience of the live music. Vacations are now scheduled around concert events. We have traveled to see our favorite band play live in their hometown. We have traveled abroad to see shows in Europe. We have seen some great music at some of the best venues in the world.
East of Denver, built into the Rocky Mountains, is Red Rocks. Acoustically it is the best venue in the United States, and on the top ten list as one of the best in the world. I highly recommend taking a tour when there’s not a show happening so you can experience a clear conversation in normal tones with one person on stage and one person all the way in the back, back row. The Gorge in George, Washington is one of the most beautiful venues, and as such often outranks Red Rocks as best venue. It too appears on the top ten list of best venues in the world. There’s a little circus tent in Cape Cod with a round center stage. There’s a bar across the street from Yale where a lot of big name bands play to “warm up” before they begin their tour if you want an intimate setting.
The next step for us in concert going is to see some of the greatest artists in some of the greatest venues around the world. I’m sure next year will contain a whole new goal as we are, and forever will be, in search of the ultimate concert experience.
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Sorry for the delay!!