nothing beats a live performance

There are some truths I cling to fiercely, and two of the more fun and experiential ones that I love go something like this:

Beer tastes better on tap.
Music is better experienced live by a band that knows how to play live.

Last night, I had the absolute pleasure of catching Switchfoot live, as their tour swung in through Hartford. To put it bluntly, they rocked the place hard and had a great audience. The Webster Theatre may not be in the greatest part of Hartford and its standing room only, but it keeps you close to the band and the music was loud. Having never seen Switchfoot in concert before, I was hoping for a good show; after all, they had to live up to my experiences of shows like Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Counting Crows, Korn, Billy Joel, The Dixie Chicks, and countless Dave Matthews Band performances. Switchfoot blew my expectations out of the water! They fed off the crowd's energy, had some interaction, played awesome renditions of many of my favorites, and the music was loud (I know I said that already). Their warm-up band, Copeland, wasn't too bad either, but their was that obvious difference between the rookie and veteran tour performances. Copeland's music was loud and the songs were good, but to me it sounded like they were overcompensating with volume because the whole time it sounded like blown out speakers in my ears (that kind of scratchy, peaked noise). I would have attributed it to the large speaker in a small space, but I didn't get any of the same during Switchfoot's set.

More importantly than the technical aspects of the show, there is just something spiritually uplifting for me when I experience my favorite bands live - well maybe not all of them, Korn is a bit harsh for spiritual nourishment. Being in a crowd, singing along at the top of my lungs, cheering the band, and just letting myself experience the music - the sound, the feel, the emotions - it all just invigorates you and recharges your soul. Even the temporary partial-deafness after the show is worth it. I could have milled around in the crowd after the show to pick up some merchandise or my official bootleg CD (Switchfoot has been recording the first few songs and giving them away at the end of the show), but I had to get back and there's a site out there where people are making the bootlegs available online (again legally, Switchfoot even mentioned and encouraged it in their newsletter). I might still order some tour schwag from their site, it was an awesome show and worth a t-shirt.

Cheers!