Utah, Music And Small Victories

Guess what I did today?

If you have been peeking at my livejournal then you will know.

I went to my first concert ever!

Well, mini-concert. It was an in-store performance. Only 30 minutes or so. I will still think of Tina Dickow tomorrow as my first real concert I think. But this was my first live music experience. In real life. After years and years of listening to live mp3s.

I was sitting at work and decided to check the Spot 11 festival website. And I saw that Utah were playing a little pre-festival performance in Stereo Studio. That’s 10 minutes from where I work. And Utah was one of the bands I had put on my “I might try it” list for the festival. So I figured, why not? It’ll be good practice for my social phobia. It will give me a little taste, a little experience before the real concerts start. And I can practice my minidisc stealth taping.

So I went.

And everything went smoothly. I got there early. Bought some discs for later use and some better microphones that I will try out tomorrow. And then I hung around and waited for the show to start. Watched them set up their equipment. Went around the store and looked at DVDs and CDs.

Then the show started. I didn’t know much about the band. When I looked at the festival program I had checked out their website and downloaded a couple of their MP3s.

They were good live. Maybe it’s just because I was so thrilled at listening to live music finally, but I thought they were very good. Better than I had judged from their MP3s too. I liked their singer, the music was cool. There were some technical difficulties and a constanst stream of costumers, though. So it wasn’t the perfect atmosphere.

But on the other hand it was small and intimate.

And the music… I loved it. I loved the feeling. The physical feeling. The soundwaves. The vibration. When the drums kicked in the first time I was almost forced back. Drums aren’t that powerful when you listen to them through a PC speaker.

It really makes a world of difference. The physical dimension. I’m sure it’s going to be even better tomorrow and Saturday, at the real concerts.

I’m going to have to look at the program and see if I can go listen to Utah again. I would like that. They’re cool.

I bought one of their CDs. They had a stack of EPs that they were selling. They seemed really nice. I should have asked them to autograph the CD I got. They were doing it for others. I just got nervous. Stupid social phobia. Oh well.

The recording went fine as well. There was no security at all, so it was good practice. I guess I can’t expect it to go that well at the real concerts. But now I have made my first live recording. Now I have this on my concert list.

The quality isn’t outstanding of course. But it’s adequate. Good enough to listen to. I haven’t listened to it all yet. At one point I was walking around in the store to get to a better position to take some pictures. And I forgot to mind the microphone, so that’ll probably be messy. But it makes me happy that I am a taper now, haha.

And it makes me happy that I have experienced live music. And it makes me want more. Much more. Music has been a very important part of my life the last decade or so, it’s only going to get more important.

I’ll show you the pictures now. They aren’t too good. Like I said the other day, I still haven’t mastered indoor photography with the new camera. And the venue was hard, it was cramped and I’m not the kind of guy who will push his way to the front. So the pictures were taken from afar and from bad angles. Still, at least I did get some taken. These are the things I want to remember, my small victories. I have had some good ones lately. The reception at work. The cinema. The parade. Today. And festival coming tomorrow. I’m doing sort of okay, aren’t I?

But here are some pictures.

Stereo Studio. Computer games, movies and music.

Utah, the rising stars.

A good day, today. I hope tomorrow will go well too. My first real concert. With my former classmate Tina Dickow/Dico. If I can avoid problems then that should be a brill time.

Oh yes, Mew have been added to the Spot festival. Oh my. Mew is one of my favourite bands. I would love, love to see them. Unfortunately they play at 0:45. That’s late. I will be tired. Mentally and physically. And the place will be packed, they are easily the biggest name of the festival. I can’t even be sure I can get in. So, I might skip that. I will have other chances to see Mew. In proper concerts, where I can buy a ticket and know for sure that I can get in. I think I’d prefer that. But I’ll see how I feel Saturday night. If the other concerts have gone great and I’m high on musical energy then I might give it a go anyway.

The plan is still to see Tina Dickow on Friday and then Peter Sommer + Carpark North on Saturday. Utah and Mikael Simpson being likely posibilities. And then I’ll see.

Wish me locke.

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