Mission Statement: Lofty Goals

Welcome. This is the first post of this blog, and I’m taking this opportunity to introduce myself, and to let you know what you’re getting.

I have been an avid music fan for most of my life. When I was about ten years old, my mother dragged me along to a Moody Blues concert at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA. “I don’t want to go,” I told her, and complained for the entirety of the forty-five minute drive, the twenty minute walk from the parking lot to the venue’s lawn area, and the half hour before the band took the stage. Then, something happened. The band took the stage, and I was suddenly engrossed, intrigued, and even a little bit jealous. The atmosphere! Ten thousand fans congregated together to experience a group of musicians, fans who knew every word to every song, swaying carelessly to each familiar guitar riff.

Due to the size and layout of Great Woods (a 17,000 capacity, open-air amphitheatre,) my mother and I were rather far from the stage. In a way, this added to the excitement. Due to the stadium-style seating, I had a view of thousands of people, all of whom were there to watch a group of musicians who, from a distance, looked so insignificant. Everything about this experience was so different from anything I had expected. It’s hard for a child of the MTV generation to imagine the power of live performance, after years of watching flashy music video imagery detract from what musicians actually do.

Not to say that the show wasn’t a spectacle-on the contrary-there were video screens showing us close-ups of the band, there were colored moving lights. These were, however, subtle enhancements. They didn’t distract from what the band was doing. This gave the audience the option of just sitting back and listening, allowing the sounds coming out of these wonderful musicians to inspire feeling and imagination, or to look and listen, to experience the audio-visual wonder in its entirety.

Now, that was over a decade ago, and a lot of things have changed. For one thing, Great Woods is now the Comcast Center. Despite the change in name and a few mild renovations (and skyrocketing ticket prices,) the venue is still the same place it was the first time I stepped through the gate. By some twist of fate I won’t get into, I’ve been spending my summers setting up lights, sound, video and set at the Comcast Center for the last five years. Working behind the scenes, sometimes it can be difficult to remain interested in the other side of the curtain. However, I still try to embrace the passion for music that was inspired by a group of aging British rockers so many years ago. This is no easy feat considering some of the turns music has taken in the last decade, but I do my best to give every artist a fair chance. Not every musician can be John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix, but you have to give them credit for trying.

That’s why this blog is here. My intention is to inform readers of the power and relevance that music still has, and-hopefully-inspire you not to write off an artist on first listen. I will do this in a number of ways, from simple, informative concert and album reviews to artist features and biographies, venue reviews and histories. I will also explore lyrics and the commentary within. As for the business aspect of things, I plan to provide, from time to time, information about innovations in the music industry and recording technology. After all, something extremely important to the future of music is the cultivation of young artists. Breaking into the industry, or even picking up an instrument for the first time, can be a daunting task to even the most ambitious individual. If I come across any information to ease that tension, I plan to share it.

If you’re still reading, I hope you’ll keep reading. In return, I promise to do my best to keep my personal tastes and politics from swaying the integrity of this blog, and to provide you with a source of both entertainment and enrichment in the world of music, and the worlds it can create.