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Live and In Concert

This week's Midweek Music Meme is a great question, and I have a very long answer.

What terrific memory do you have of a concert, and which song meant the most to you, hearing it done live?

As usual, I can't give just one answer to this question. I haven't been to many concerts, but the concerts I have seen have all been awesome. In fact, tonight I'm going to see the folk singer Gillian Welch! I'll have details on that later tonight, but for now I'm going to write about three concerts that meant a lot to me.

In 2000, I was able to attend a concert in Portland featuring three famous modern Scandinavian bands. The previous fall, I had started to gain an interest in modern Scandinavian music, so I was very lucky that three of the groups I knew about and listened to were playing in my home state! Groups like these from Europe don't tour so often, rarely do long tours of the U.S., and VERY rarely come to the Pacific Northwest. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I took it.
I was able to go thanks to the generosity of one of my professors at the time who taught a Scandinavian literature class I was taking. She offered to drive me up to see the concert if there was room in her car for me. There was room, and so she, her daughter, a friend of hers and I all packed into her car and drove up to Portland to see the concert at the Aladdin Theater. We ate dinner at a nearby diner, and then headed across the street to the theater. I had not bought a ticket yet, so thankfully the tickets were not sold out and I was able to get one at the door.

The groups that played were the Finnish fiddle group JPP, the Swedish group Vasen, and Norwegian fiddler Annbjorg Lien and her band. All three groups were incredible, but I think Vasen stood out most in my memory. All the songs were great and I can't really pick one that was better than the rest.

The second concert that I remember very well was none other than BeauSoleil, the world's best known Cajun band. I started listening to them in February of 2000, and it was just my luck that the band planned to come and perform in Eugene that August! I got tickets, and convinced my grandmother to take me. It was an all-day fiddle festival, and the other acts were Darol Anger and Mike Marshall, Vassar Clements, and Mark O'Connor. They were all great, but the band I really wanted to see was BeauSoleil. It was a hot August day, and it was finally starting to cool down when Mark left the stage and they were setting things up for BeauSoleil. After about a ten or fifteen minute wait, the band finally came out and played. They played for about two hours, and the entire concert was just amazing. There was a lot of dancing, and a lot of happy faces for the entire two hours.

They played so many good songs, but I think the one I will remember most is "Jusqu'a La Nuit" from Cajunization. Michael Doucet mentioned that he and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary that night, which made the song extra romantic when they played it. That, and the fact we were outside on a beautiful summer night in the city park, gave the entire moment a special, magical atmosphere. The BeauSoleil concert was one of the best I've ever attended and I'll never forget it.

The third concert that I will always treasure was my first time seeing Natalie MacMaster. As usual, this came about not long after the time I had discovered her. It took place in April of 2002, and I convinced my mom to go with me. As good as Natalie is in the studio, she's even better live! She has so much energy and keeps things fun during the whole concert. I can't really think of any truly outstanding songs because they were all great, but I'd say that the last song and the encore were pretty special because Natalie knows how to get the crowd excited and pumped up. By the end, she had given so much that the audience was exhausted but yet wanted more and more. Natalie is quite the entertainer and I have seen her again last November and am hoping to see her for a third time this coming January.

Well, that was a long response to a simple question. But I love to talk about my favorite music, so I just can't help myself.