On Monday, November 15, 2010 at The Great American Music Hall I went to a benefit show for Jeff Jacobs a recently injured member of the San Francisco based band The Drift. Originally I was drawn to this show because Explosions in the Sky, a band I have wanted to see for a long time, was playing. Yet the band that peaked my interest was the openers, The Drift.
Three men stood on stage and create a beautiful symphony of expression leaving space for their fallen member. Precise and careful The Drift painted pictures with guitar, base and drums. Like the jazz musicians that came before, their songs seem to never end flowing from one to the other. The musicians closed their eyes and breathed deep, they sat inside the music engulfed in the flames of each note. What impressed me most was their ability to make choices. They had a certain level of simplicity in their music at times that was breathtaking. Of course you could hear a heavy jazz and indie influence but the sound is so layered and unique to them that it’s difficult to single out specific influences.
I couldn’t help but ask myself if we have entered a place musically that Bach, Mozart, and composers a like only dreamed of? A place where musicians tell stories with their instruments and not their lyrics. We see this with bands like Four Tet, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, God Speed! You Black Emperor (just to name a few) that choose to express themselves with an emphasis in instrumental scores rather then catchy pop lyrics. This is also seen with the increasing popularity of electronic music, even if sometimes the story expressed is to simply dance. Like the old saying, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Well, if you can’t write lyrics or don’t deem it necessary then don’t. Not everyone is a lyrical poet but at the same time not everyone can create sweeping musical movements like these bands can.
Standing there watching, The Drift, I was reminded not only of why I love music but mostly why I love seeing live shows. The space between musician and fan becomes filled with sound soaked deep into the walls, into our pores, consuming everything it comes into contact with. Music becomes the ultimate form of expression transcending all other forms of storytelling. We fill the void between space with experience and the tunes take flight.
Since the beginning of time humans gathered to tell stories: to chant, to dance. Around a fire we bellowed into the night discovering that we could make “music.” Somehow in the age of Internet we have lost this desire or perhaps we begun losing this many moons ago. Now satisfaction can come from downloading a performance on an iphone. And hey that gets people listening but it’s not just noise, it’s not just sound bites. It’s art. It’s storytelling. It’s tribal. The experience you have when seeing music live is like nothing else. Your imagination begins to soar as you watch artists bare their souls in a dingy, dark theater. With beer spilling on your shoes and the smell of sweat, you stare into the abyss and you are not only viewing the creation of art you are apart of it. Human connection has been made and you might as well be around that fire from whence it all began. This is why live music can and will never be replaced. This is why it survived and continues to thrive. This is why music is art. This is why we love music.
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