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Something I have to work on constantly while cramming in all this live music is managing expectations. Going to see someone multiple times in a short span will almost certainly result in getting the same (or similar) show. Sure, the audience vibe can affect things with the artist, building them up into a frenzy or knocking them sideways, and time slots can vary. Usually what I get is the same set list, and with the exception of possible location-specific banter or stories, it can be a letdown.
On the flip side, when an artist is debuting new stuff, there's a different sort of letdown that comes from some of the old favorites being dropped from the roster in favor of the shiny new stuff.
Today was a bit of both. First, I realized that the Ordinary Elephant album that I'm most familiar with is NOT, in fact, their newest one, so most of what they played from the nearly 1 year old "new" album was new to me, not the stuff I hear most frequently. Then, when Wes Collins took the stage, he played 4 songs not on any of his albums - two of which were brand new - which meant that four of my favorites had to be dropped from the set list. I'm sure at some point some of those will come back around, when time allows it, or the crowd is more aligned with one set of songs over another.
It might sound like I'm complaining; I'm not. nearly three hours of awesome music is a lot to digest after a similar experience the night before. My brain is working through the jumble to make sense of everything, and file it all away for proper storage. There's a lot of other background noise cluttering things up, too.
Catching a band during a run of really good shows is good fortune - everyone was happy and energetic and laughing and dare I say entertaining and I feel so fortunate to have been part of it.
On the flip side, when an artist is debuting new stuff, there's a different sort of letdown that comes from some of the old favorites being dropped from the roster in favor of the shiny new stuff.
Today was a bit of both. First, I realized that the Ordinary Elephant album that I'm most familiar with is NOT, in fact, their newest one, so most of what they played from the nearly 1 year old "new" album was new to me, not the stuff I hear most frequently. Then, when Wes Collins took the stage, he played 4 songs not on any of his albums - two of which were brand new - which meant that four of my favorites had to be dropped from the set list. I'm sure at some point some of those will come back around, when time allows it, or the crowd is more aligned with one set of songs over another.
It might sound like I'm complaining; I'm not. nearly three hours of awesome music is a lot to digest after a similar experience the night before. My brain is working through the jumble to make sense of everything, and file it all away for proper storage. There's a lot of other background noise cluttering things up, too.
Catching a band during a run of really good shows is good fortune - everyone was happy and energetic and laughing and dare I say entertaining and I feel so fortunate to have been part of it.
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