A music review for me has to include me in it. From a spiritual perspective, the concert experience has little value unless I am present. Occasionally I've been able to write a "music review" in the sense that almost all music critics write one -- that is, from a critical point of view, an almost third-party analysis of the experience. Such a review tends to draw upon factoids, intellectual examination of the musicians and their rendition of certain songs, and witty observations to make the review both interesting and draw the reader into one's review over another -- to get published, to get web hits, to get recognition. Some reviews are for the sake of fun without a need for accomplishment -- blogs are great for this -- but most still lack the personal dimension of the experience. Even if I was at the same concert, the reviewer's experience is his or her own, and just like any story, the outer facets were exactly the same but the inner ones completely different. I can never know another's experience through their telling of it. But it's usually not interesting to the reader to know how I felt during the music, what insights I had about the Universe, or just how hot I thought the rhythm guitarist was.

I find that I am losing interest in the subjective experiences of others masquerading as an objective news report, because they lack the dimension of the concert experience that I value the most when I am in that space: how am I in relation to this music? To this venue? To these people? Most reviews tend to judge the music and the musicians and certain aspects of their performance. I am losing interest in this "good-bad" dichotomy, as it doesn't do much to illuminate the vibration of the event. Maybe if I have a personal relationship to the reviewer, I can glean some insight as to the experience because their description may likely match my own -- but I still don't get a flavor for the holistic experience.

I took on this line of inquiry tonight watching Vegoose live over the internet (Phil and Trey), realizing that my interest in concert experiences are those in which the atmosphere lifts me up and creates both an inner and outer landscape that is new, fresh, and not a part of my everyday experience. Watching over the internet could not create that same atmosphere, which I imagined was present for those at the actual event (or a good number of folks there, anyway). This caused me to reflect on how I write reviews and describe my experience, and almost always it's personal. Really personal! Because that's my experience.

So, if Trey played "First Tube" better than he did at some other show, it's irrelevant. The height of my own spiritual experience, the universe of insights that come through, the connections I have with the crowd, and the way I experience the relationship between the musicians and the audience -- with me as an integral member -- these are the "barometer readings" upon which the telling of my experience will be based. No way can that telling transport the reader or listener into that show. But perhaps some element of that rich atmosphere gets communicated, and touches them in a way that activates, in the present moment, all the collective experiences they've had that can relate directly to what I am telling. That spark is all that matters to me any more with musical events and live performances. It's the juice of life itself, independent of the form, the appearance, the opinion, and artifice of the mind. These are the performances I seek out and appreciate most.

--Shaggy, 10/29/06