Getting the band back together

Live musical performances are a very special variety of social gathering. People come together around beats and melodies, participating as players, dancers, spectators and listeners. These events can be a great exhalation, a release of massive, pent-up energies deriving from the experiences of all those present.

Having attended many musical performance events in a wide variety of roles—including but not limited to light and sound technician, performer, dancer, listener and reveller—when they involve a lot of fun-loving people and competent show-running, they are far and away my favorite social environment.

Other types of gatherings seldom match the intensity of sensory stimulation alone. But that’s only a surface-level difference. Beneath high decibels and flashing lights and before crowds assemble, mingling heat and breath, people prepared a venue while others waited and talked in lines outside, some casual and others almost visibly vibrating in anticipation.

Before that, artists practiced performance skills and routines for hours and days and weeks and years.

The rare solo performer can lead a willing crowd on a transcendent journey. A group of performers and an engaged audience creates a different dynamic. In other even rarer instances, large numbers of musicians all participate in an orchestra so massive, a stadium fills with players rather than receivers.^*

I responded early this month to a drummer seeking other musicians on an internet message board. He brought his drum kit to the garage I rent last weekend. Cat litter had soaked up most of the oil (was it there when we moved in?) and a hot week had provided opportunity for spring rearranging and sweeping.

We made noise out there for about two hours on a Saturday afternoon, which attracted a guitar-playing neighbor from across the street. Then the three of us made noise for another hour.

As a first foray it was a lot of fun and didn’t sound half bad. At the same time, it was a couple of people and hundreds of practice hours shy of what’s needed to put on a barn-burner.

But it’s all part and parcel. Before a great and wondrous release, one must gather up one’s resources.

A slight chill has returned to the area this week but a packed summer of events and gatherings looms. Are you ready?

* The world record for the largest orchestra currently belongs to El Sistema, Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela. They gathered over 12,000 musicians for a performance in 2021. Guinness World Records awarded them a record for 8,573, which surpassed Russia’s previous record of a little over 8,000.