Concerts

I LOVE going to see live performances. The first concert that I can recall going to was an outdoor show by Andy Pratt. I took the T to Government Center with my dad to see the free outdoor concert. Many people have not heard of Andy Pratt but he had this great song called Avenging Annie. You can listen to it here:

I must have been around 7 or 8 years old. Since then, I have seen many, many shows. I was lucky to have parents who liked  lots of “cool” music and were willing to take my sister and I to lots of concerts. I put “cool” in quotes because I grew up in the 80s and my husband would argue that there really was no good music in the 80s. I definitely saw my share of true 80s bands; The Go Gos, The Thompson Twins, The Fixx, Flock of Seagulls, and The Motels just to name a few. But I also got to see some bands/performers (like The Police and David Bowie) who were popular in the 80s but have had staying power. 

When my husband and I were excitedly awaiting the arrival of our first baby, I definitely feared that I would be a long time before we would ever go see another live show. I was determined to try to get my fill and catch a few great summer performances. That summer we saw Norah Jones at the Bank Boston Pavilion and James Taylor at Great Woods. I know both of those places probably have different names now, but those are the names that are stuck in my head. I just can’t keep up with all the name changes.

So living on the Vineyard with 2 new babies made it very hard to get to many shows. But I was determined to figure out how to start going to concerts once again. The summer after my youngest was born I convinced my husband that we should bring our daughters to the Newport Folk Festival. His brother lives in Newport, so we’d have a place to see and I was seriously in need of hearing some great music. Since then we’ve made it an annual tradition and we have been to the festival the last 6 years. 

Last summer was probably one of the busiest concert seasons for me in a long time. In addition to the Folk Festival (with great artists like The Avett Brothers, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, The Swell Season, and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings), I got to see a bunch of great shows at Nectar’s (the local club on Martha’s Vineyard). The 2010 summer line-up included Assembly of Dust, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Arrested Development, and Donavan Frankenreiter. The highlight for my daughters was getting to see two performances by The Vineyard Sound (an all-male summer vocal group). My husband is not a huge fan (a story for another time), but girls were smitten for sure.

I am hoping that this summer is as chock-full of good music. In the meantime, I’ll keep listening and musing….