Thank you for the music

Hello,

Whilst I am bored absolutely mindless as my ill computer downloads flash player so that I can watch Home and Away, I am writing this on Notepad as its too ill to have figured out how to download Office just yet.  I am hopefull that it will be sorted soon.  Technology has not been good to me this week after my computer contracted the Trojan virus after I was stalking Noel Feilding, one of my favourite past times.  I was killing time before Bon Jovi on Saturday.

Anyhoo, this week has been extremely exciting for me - I have seen three concerts in 5 days, 4 concerts in 5 if you count the live music down at the pub.  This might sound all a bit lame, but here is the thing, I love live music.  I am obssessed by it and by those who are lucky enough to be able to make it. A friend once said that he thought that out of all the people he knew that I had attended the most concerts.  I was excited by that.

Since I was a wee lass I have loved music.  My parents will happily tell stories about how I used to walk around the house singing Otherwise Fine - apparently the only words I knew of Outlook for Thursday by Dave Dobbyn.

When I was about 17 I went to my first big concert - I don't really count New Kids on the Block when I was about 12 or 13....  At 17 I saw the Cranberries and cued for hours to get in and be near the front of the poor section.  Since this time a fair chunk of my spare cash has gone on feeding my addiction.
And just like any addiction there are rituals that go with it.  And I feel some of them go back to some primal instincts, bear with me, we will get there....

The rituals are exciting, finding out when tickets go on sale, in the early days queing for them - not anymore, its all done over the internet.  I believe that at one point I may have even called Ticketek for them at home.  But before that point, you would find out who wanted to come and sort out all the arrangements.

And then there is the waiting and the excitement once you have the tickets.  The day dawns for the concert and you decide what to wear.  For an ill fated Christina Aguleira concert my sis was contemplating assless chaps, I don't have the figure to pull them off and sadly she was ill with morning sickness so refused to play.

On the day you que some more and make friends with the people around you.  And here is when the primal bit comes in and where I begin to feel like I belong.  When you are in a crowd of 65,000 people and you are all anticipating the same thing, the air crackles.  And when the act walks on the stage, the place erupts.  And then the energy goes nuts. Imagine if you will 65,000 people moving and singing in unison.  Its pretty amazing. I find it exhilarating and arousing and like any addict search for that feeling again and again.

Over the years I have grown addicted to this feeling of belonging, of excitement and of the thrill of singing my heart out to some pretty varied bands.

Various people have been there with me.  I stood in the pissing rain at Bruce Springsteen with my parents.  It cleared when he came on and a soggy crowd boogied to Born to Run.
I have been sunburned at The Big Day out - for about 5 years in a row with my sis.  We have sweated it out in the boiler room to Dizzy Rascal, gone nuts to Rage Against the Machine, asked What the Time is with Shihad and danced our butts off to the Violet Femmes.
Her and I stayed out late for Guns and Roses cause Axl Rose is an insomniac.  We went on different nights to see Justin Timberlake and it was discussed so much that her infant son when asked where his Aunty Nicca was said that she had gone to Justin's house, cause I had said that I was going to see Justin that night.

Recently, I have been out with my London peeps.  K and I have seen a fair few together and will be seeing Roxette in November, having seen the Bare Naked Ladies last night. This weekend we are taking a trek to Milton Keynes to see the Foo Fighters and then next week we are seeing Weezer.

At home I have a tradition that just about every year for the last 10 years I have seen the Feelers play.  It started one Wednesday night when as an 18 year old I saw them open for Matchbox 20, and since then I have seen them at a variety of venues, the most common being Mangawhai Tavern, where I spend my holidays.

I guess it comes down to this.  I love music and my soul responds to it.  Music brings me to tears, it puts a smile on my face, it will take me right back to a moment and it will make new moments for me.  I tend to fancy a man on stage.  I wish that I could make it, but instead I have talent for remembering every word and and being able to sing it back.  I can dance reasonably acceptably as well so love feeling music move me.  So this month is pretty exciting for me and I just wanted to share that...