Does Live Music Suck? Readers Respond

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From TPM Reader MT

Kind of late in the day, but I thought I would respond to the meme that live music sucks. I think you captured it nicely from the point of view that you never know what will happen and sometimes it can be magical. Kind of like sports, in that regard. I read your piece and that from Channing Kennedy this morning after attending a Lucinda Williams’ concert last night.

Venue matters, and seeing Williams in a 600 seat theatre led to a great night of music, where the audience was in the moment. I heard a few songs last night that truly captured my atttention, and yet when I listened to her live versions on Youtube this morning it didn’t sound the same. Not just the fact that I was listening on the computer, but the magic of a live set was gone. I sawRoger McGuinn play Chestnut Mare, solo with an electric guitar, in a small theatre in Albany in the late 1970s. He nailed it so perfectly that the crowd stood and cheered for a good three minutes. Try to get that off a record.

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