In my last post I talked about what a blur my life has become and how I realize that, while life is good, I rarely have truly exceptional days. You know the ones. Those days that act as anchor points in our memories; those days we use as a reference point in discussions years later. My theory is that the fewer of those anchor points you have the more life seems to pass you in a blur. Well, I found myself with far too few anchor points and lots of blur and I vowed to do something about it. When I wrote that I never expected that I would be doing something about it quite as soon as I did.

It has been a while since I’ve been to any concert and a long while since I’ve been to a really good one. And there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like a good concert. Well, last week I went to a great concert. It was Coldplay’s first stop in Atlanta on their Viva La Vida tour.

The concert itself was amazing. In fact, it ranks among the top two or three concerts I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been going to concerts for a long time. It was an experience. In cases like these, the overall experience transcends any single element of the concert.

The artist performing well is nice, but that alone doesn’t make for a great concert. I know this for sure because the last RUSH concert I went to stank. The band rocked but the crowd acted like they were in a movie theater. We were the only ones standing up in our entire section. Talk about a buzz kill! We almost got up and left. In retrospect we should have. Listening to the CD in the car on the way home would’ve been more fun.

The production values can similarly make the concert more enjoyable but I think we’ve all probably been to shows with spectacular lights and sets and gimmicks, and yet they still sucked. Likewise, some of the best concerts I’ve been to offered very little in the way of production value.

So, if not the band and if not the production, what is the ’secret ingredient’ for a good concert? Well, in my opinion, that would have to be crowd energy. I mean, that’s really what makes a concert a concert isn’t it? When the crowd you are in is in a complete frenzy you can’t help but be swept away with it. It is sort of a mob mentality, but with a positive spin.

It would be a gross understatement to say that this show had that crowd energy. There was energy to spare. I saw perhaps a dozen people sit down at all during the entire concert and those were while there were lulls where the band wasn’t on stage. And it was pretty much a capacity crowd at that show which, In Philips Arena, means a little over 20,000 people. I can’t fathom what it must be like to be on stage for an adoring crowd like that. It would have to be the ultimate drug.

When I originally got my tickets I misunderstood where the section was. As a result I thought I would be very close to the stage but I really wasn’t. As it turned out we were around 20 rows from the stage left wing and closer to 35 from the actual stage front. They were still floor seats and those still aren’t bad seats in that venue, but I was a little disappointed when I discovered the mistake all the same. Since the show I found someone else’s shot from the very back in that same concert I zoomed way in and played the ultimate game of Where’s Waldo. Knowing where we were sitting let me find Christy and I in the crowd. Mouse over the picture below to see where we were. Click on it for a larger view.

You can see how I would be disappointed when I thought I would be very close to the stage. That was before the concert started, though. Once it started I realize that our seats placed us pretty close to the middle of the aforementioned 20,000+ person crowd. You know, there is something about standing in the middle of a crowd that size when they are excited. The energy is palpable. I lost count of how many times I got goose bumps. No, I’m not kidding.

This concert was the perfect storm. The band was on, the production was flawless and there were some amazing touches which I’ll get to later and, of course, there was the crowd. Rather they (we) were yelling and shouting or singing along there was a continuous electricity from wall to wall. Ooh! Look. I got goose bumps just remembering it.

update: Though what I’ve written here is primarily about the show on the November 5th, I ended up taking my daughter back to the 2nd show on the 11th. We had AMAZING seats this time. The crowd wasn’t quite as into it, but it almost isn’t fair to expect that sort of magic twice in a row. Even at that, it still was an experience not to be missed. I still got goosebumps, just not as many times and it was still among the best concerts I’ve been to.

The anticipation in the moments before they took the stage was almost painful. They started bringing up these bright lights from behind the curtain and kept them up for what felt like an interminably long time before they started. When they did start they hit “Violet Hill” and “Clocks” in the first few songs which are two of my favorites and it only got better from there.

Fix You was positively amazing. If you can stand in the middle of 20,000 fans singing the chorus of that song (“Light will guide you home and Ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you”) and not be moved then I strongly suspect you don’t actually have a soul. That’s all I’m sayin’. Its not that the crowd only sang the chorus, by the way, but I think even the ushers kicked in during the chorus. I have some video I shot with a point and shoot camera here and here (it stopped recording in the middle of the song for some reason so it is split into two pieces) from the show on the 11th. Check it out for yourself, particularly near the end of the second clip. If you are on high-speed internet I suggest using the “watch in high quality” link below the video.

At one point in the show they walked out into the crowd and all the way up to the back corner, about half way up the stadium, where there was a small area cordoned off with a couple of guitars and a mic or two. They played a couple of songs there before returning to the main stage. They were literally playing among the fans, as those in the closest seats were no more than a few feet from them. I thought it was a nice touch.

I think the most amazing moment in the entire concert was during “Lovers in Japan” when movement above me caught my eye. When I looked up there were what looked to be millions of paper butterflies about three inches across and in a rainbow of colors fluttering down from somewhere above the lights. They continued falling for what seemed like 5 minutes though it was probably less. They got so thick in the air at the peak that you couldn’t see the stage. The moment was nothing less than magical. When it was all over I noticed that the entire floor and most of the seats were covered with the butterflies several layers deep. Even though I was expecting the butterflies in the second concert, it was as amazing as the first time.

After both shows it seemed like they’d ended way too soon but, to be fair, they could have played every song they’ve ever written and it would have felt that way at the end. I was a Coldplay fan before going to these shows, but I am a much bigger fan now. Much. Aside from that, though, these shows have reawakened something in me that had been dormant for far too long: my passion for music. That falling off was such a gradual process that I didn’t even realize it had happened. I mean, I’ve listened to music all along but, somewhere along the way it stopped exciting me like it once did. You might say that, after a trial separation, my iPod and I are working on our relationship.

Right after I bought my truck I spend a lot of money and even more time installing a sound system befitting my love of music. I stripped the cab down to metal so I could carefully route the power and preamp outputs. I modified the brackets under the rear seat to provide a couple of inches of additional space for the hand laid fiberglass sub enclosure I was making. I applied soundproofing mats in the doors and carefully tested different speaker positions searching for the perfect layout. In the end I had 7 speakers running on 4 amps, totaling around 2,000 watts (RMS, not peak) and it sounded phenomenal. Lately, that same sound system had spent most of its time playing talk shows and audio books. Such a shame. Well, that is no more. I’ve come full circle and am now back addicted to my music. I’m heating the amps up real regular like now a days.

It is easy to get excited about the exceptionally good song or great artist rather you are a music lover or not. I mean, if you can listen to Elton John and not want to learn piano, if you can listen to Van Halen (pre Sammy) and not want to learn to play guitar, if you can listen to RUSH and not want to learn to play drums, well, I’m just not sure I can trust you. You very well may be a sociopath. I have no proof of this, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t too far from the truth. If you don’t own an air guitar you really should pick one up next time you’re out. note:My apologies to the younger readers among you for picking older examples, but I think those I gave are timeless. Feel free to substitute John Mayer, Coldplay, etc. Whatever works for you. I think you get my point.

The tickets were, um, not cheap to say the least, but SO way worth it. Well, being fair, there were more reasonable tickets out there at some point but I decided that I wanted (a)good seats (b)a day or two before the concert (c)to sold out shows of a very popular band. To get the amazing seats Rachel and I had I paid over $1000 for a lot of 4 then turned around and sold two of them back off immediately. Fortunately I recovered more per ticket for those two than I’d paid per ticket so it left me with two tickets that were marginally less insane. I say all that to say this: The experiences I had would have been a bargain at twice the price.

So I end this week with not one, but two exceptional days to carry with me. I got to experience an amazing concert with my wife and another with my oldest daughter. All that and my iPod and I are close once again. Um, wow.

/g

Note: Check back in a day or two and I’ll have more videos up.

Disclaimer: Cameras weren’t allowed according to the tickets so I didn’t bring one for the 1st show (which caused me physical pain, I might add). Since everyone and their dog brought one in for that show and they didn’t seem to care about them then (the ushers were taking people’s pictures for them) I brought a point and shoot camera for the 2nd show. I would have loved to take my SLR, but I didn’t dare risk it. The pictures from the back of the auditorium or upper side balcony aren’t mine but are someone else’s from the same concert. The pictures from in the crowd are mine. Some of them are crappy camera phone pictures from the 1st concert so quality may be a little iffy.

And some Videos: