How Often Do You Listen To Live Music??


I suspect there has been a thread about this in the past. But I wonder how many Audiogon listeners actually go out to listen to live music each month. Speaking for myself, I attend at least one Symphony concert each month; as well as going to a non-classical concert or club every three or four weeks.
And while I love listening to my system at home; I find that live music is just much more dynamic - especially in a good room or hall with decent acoustics.
avideo
Prior to moving to Melbourne, Fl (a culturing deprive town) 2 years ago from Long Island, it was almost every day. My friends own a building and turned most of the ground floor as their rehearsal space with recording capabitities (26 x 48 x 12)and with 20 plus muscians we knew there was always some jamming. I still have lots of gear up there. There is also The Spot a graduate student bar at Stoney Brook University just down the road, where live bands and we performed, and there is also Wamboozy a LI music festival that my friend organized and ran. Then there is NYC with all the clubs, just look in The Village Voice for a band to see. There was always live music in my life from the Filmore East in 1970 and beyond. Prior to that my father and his father would play at family gatherings.
i hate visiting huge concert halls and rather listen to the music in small area. i often go by 34th street station and listen to unamplified violinists, guitarists and vocals.
for the rock i also go to the small places since i mostly visit non-commercial rock conserts.
in general i listen to the live music pretty often. usually october and november are the most freequent months that i visit. overall is arround 30...40 times per year.
love to listen to Elliott Sharp, David Torn, John Zorn, Bill Laswel.
Live classical only about 25x per year now... for many years we used to average 50-60 concerts a year (all kinds of ensembles) when times were financially better!
Hey All,

I don't get to live music shows often enough. The last show I attended was Live opening for Jane’s Addiction at Madison Square Garden last year. I went to see a co-worker who did an acoustic one man show down in the village. Before the Garden show I went to see Sting at the Paramount in 1996. I'm really looking forward to my anniversary on Friday, I got tickets for the Dave Mathews Band at the Garden. That should be a great show, I love Dave Mathews. I use many of his recordings as demos for new additions to my system. The best show I have ever witnessed was U2 at Constitution Hall in DC back in 1984. It was intimate, about 7000 people, and every once in a while, it seemed that Bona was singing right to me. I was 16th row orchestra and I’ve never had better seats for a show since. It was great......John
Try to get out every month or 2 but I too find the acoustics and bad mixes tough to listen to. Though, today, I had an experience that almost made me want to sell the system.(not really) I went to buy a few groceries and heard a voice singing opera. I thought it must be from some store but then I saw that this woman (obviously trained) was the source. Across the street and through traffic I heard an almost unearthly voice. I don't attend operas and my exposure is only through recordings but this was unreal. I never knew what the real voice sounded like. So present and piercing almost defying the distance between us. Have to check out a soloist sometime soon.
With a 4 and 6 year old we dont get out too much (extra $40 for a baby sitter) but i play drums in a band 3 or 4 times a month so I guess that counts as being at a live music event.
I am looking forward (in some ways) to the kids getting older so we can start to go to the Austin Symphony on a regular basis like we did pre kids.
Until that time, I will make do with my ever growing stereo system.
Its a great time for Dallas' local music. We went to the clubs quite a bit this past year, and you can see us there this Friday :) I would love to go to Bass Hall for some symphony, but just haven't found the right time.
We've been going about once a month this year. As I get older (in my 40's now), I have less and less tolerance for poorly amplified/mixed/produced performances. I'd simply rather stay home and listen on my system! It sounds a whole lot better most of the time in those cases. Also my hearing doesn't suffer as a result. The last thing we saw like that was Beck playing Beneroya Hall. Now Beneroya is an acoustic wonder, as well as being quite beautiful to look at. And I do like Beck..not only is he an innovative and gifted musician, but he is also a charismatic performer. But this concert was probably the third in a string of pop-music concerts where I turned to my wife and said, "..NEVER again..!!" I hope I've learned. I just don't enjoy the music when I can't make out the lyrics, or distinguish instruments in space. The concerts I'm referring to come off as purely noise to me...and by no means enjoyable noise! We are talking well in excess of eardrum damage levels. And I do like some pretty "loud" music on occasion...someone mentioned Tool, and I do like Filter as well. I must be getting really old as there were a vast majority of younger folks at all these concerts just getting down to...to..gosh, I really don't know what they were getting down to, but a good deal of the eardrum piercing noise is being made by the audience themselves in the form of screaming (we had a screamer behind us at Beck). I just don't get it?! The concerts I've enjoyed the most this year have been mostly acoustic performances. My two favorites have been Gillian Welch, and Patty Griffin, oh, and a great outdoor performance by Cowboy Junkies.
Live classical (symphony, opera, chamber, recital, ballet) about 70 per year clustered as to the typical seasons.
Live unamplified music? Not much...symphony here or there or a jazz band. Rock about once a quarter...

Best the last year or so? Paul McCartney...3rd row seats. wow what a show.

Lenny Kravitz was fun...5th row. 8th row to see Elton John and Billy Joel in 2 months.

Just saw a great christmas concert, symphony. wish my stereo sounded like that!
Love live shows...
mostly hard bands.. Tool, Godsmack, other alternative and
hard rock type music...mostly large arena type shows...
5 to 6 times per year..
Being outside of Phila. we go to a few Jazz cafes and listen to local live talent once a month or so!
That is very enjoyable... no ear ringing for 2 days.
Nice to be close to the music and listen to acoustic...
then go home and see how your sound stage and music position is compared to live music.
Happy listening,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC
I have averaged about one live event a month for the past 2 years. Now that my kids are older, it's easier to get out.