Another week, another concert

So last week I wrote about how in the 90's I reverted to music of the 60's and 70's. But it isn't true to say that I didn't like any of the current music of my teenage years. There was one band that I really loved - U2.

Seeing U2 live has been on my bucket list for as long as I've had one, and in 2006 I managed to get to their Vertigo concert. It was fantastic and as we left, my best friend commented that now I could cross that one off my list. My reply however was "but I want to go again!"

Tonight was that opportunity. With a bunch of friends, I headed to see the amazing 360 tour. The thing with a U2 concert is that you just know it is going to be spectacular, they do not disappoint, and the "claw" at the centre of this tour is unbelievably cool. The crowd were amazing. Several times Bono stopped singing and took ouut his ear pieces to hear the sound of the people and you could tell they had a brilliant time.

Sorry to keep using the word amazing but it really was just the epitome of amazing.

The Eagles - Part Two

When I was a teenager, grunge ruled. Cool equated to baggy pants, flannelet shirts, loads of eyeliner. I was not cool. Grunge was not and would never be my world. It isn't that I don't appreciate it, it is just not what lifts my spirit ... which I guess was the point, but I was never a depressive teenager.

So faced with all that angst I just retreated 30 years and found the 60's and 70's. When rock was young, when melody and lyrics were as important as each other. The music was beautiful sometimes massively complex, sometimes deceptively simple. My CD player was filled with the Beatles (I prefer them to the Stones - feel free to engage me in discussion as to why), Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Cat Stephens, The Doors, Daddy Cool, the list goes on. I can pretty much recite all 18 minutes of "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie, give me a movie soundtrack from the era and I will sing along. I was definitely a teenager in the wrong era.

Now there is only one problem with my music tastes, it doesn't really make for many live music opportunities, but last night I got to live the dream, I saw the EAGLES!!!

The Eagles have long been one of my favourites. Made up of enormous talents, the sum of their parts is so much greater. They manage to tread a line that could almost end up country but stays so cool and unique, you couldn't imagine anyone else quite pulling it off.

They have a truly amazing catalogue of songs and even played some of Don Henley's solo stuff, however the moment I was most waiting for (and it is a cliche, I do know) was the first notes of Hotel California. It is such an iconic song, it must be a difficult choice for them about where they put it in a set. Last night it was the third song and they began it with the long trumpet intro. It was unbelievably good live - I actually shed a tear it was that good, but also because for me that song is my special car song that I listen to with my Dad and it was phenomenal hearing it with him.

A friend of mine is a massive Eagles fan, so I rang her and held the phone up so she could hear it down the line. I think she was thrilled, but I couldn't hear her over the roar of the crowd. I was sorry that my phone battery was dying and I couldn't let her listen to the rest of the concert.

I went to the concert with Mum and Dad - it was my Mum's first rock concert! What an introduction to the concert scene. It is one concert I will never forget.

Dance like no-one is watching

I love to dance and I generally dance with partners. I also love music and have days worth on my iPod organised into playlists by mood. It is rare for me not to have music playing if I'm home and some days the music really speaks to me. I find myself dancing, swaying and spinning to the music, almost unconsciously by myself about my lounge room.

There is something almost indescribably about how good it feels to lose yourself in movement to the music. I cease to think about anything, except for how my body feels responding to the lifts, the lows, swells and hits in the music. I dance for the feeling, not for an audience, I dance in response to how the music makes me feel, I dance for me.

I feel as graceful as a ballarina who has trained her whole life. Goodness knows what I look like, it doesn't matter. It is the experience of being swept away, abandoning myself to the music.

Today has been a dance day, even in the course of writing this blog a couple of good songs have played and pulled me away from the computer. It is a joy that I hope to continue to experience my whole life. And now if you will excuse me, the music is playing and I need to dance to this song.