MBrevard
21 Oct 2003, 09:33
Hi, friends. With the building excitement over the upcoming concerts, I thought it might be a good time to share something with you, something I've wanted to share with you for a while now, but I just managed to put it all together. Hope you don't mind. As always, if you have a problem with longer posts, please skip this or move onto another thread of the forum. :wink:
About ten days ago, I had the good fortune to be able to see some of Meat's second concert in Mexico--you know, the one outside, which he performed for free, the night after the concert now showing on our DirecTV and cable stations.
You've all probably seen audience recordings at one time or another. This one was fairly typical--bad lighting so the faces are washed out; bad sound which is lower then louder, then lower again; lots of audience noises. The person who copied the tape must have left the display menu on, so you have 'Play' in one corner of the screen and the time right beneath it.
So, I was sitting there and watching the tape. Meat and the band began to perform "Couldn't Have Said It Better." I'm enjoying it, as I love watching this song done live. But all of a sudden, I found myself focused on the audience and as I listened to them, I felt gooseflesh rising on my arms and the back of my neck. Tears began welling up in my eyes until they overflowed down my cheeks. And I said to myself, "WHOA!!" and stopped the tape!! I was completely taken aback by how powerful the reaction was and the amount of emotion I was feeling.
I sat quietly for a moment or two, while I calmed down and tried to figure out why this had happened.
You know, I was fortunate to have gotten to hear CHSIB 4 times during the summer leg of the tour. And I've also been fortunate now to have watched it on the DirecTV special. But at none of those times, had I had that reaction. What was going on??
I rewound the tape to the beginning of the song and began to watch it again, trying to figure out what was different here. And it didn't take me long--there was something VERY different happening here for me.
You see, my concerts were very early on in the tour. The album and single hadn't been released. Actually, I think during the first couple, there wasn't even a contract signed yet! And in the particular sections where we were sitting (often with the Cyndi fans, for some reason), I was usually the only one singing the new songs along with the band. In fact, at the end of one of the shows, as we were getting ourselves together to leave, someone in the row behind me, tapped me hard on the shoulder and asked me, "How in the world do you know all the words to those songs??!!" I was more than happy to tell him--and to let him know how great the new album is, of course. :wink:
But I saw little reaction to the new songs--people weren't singing along. They'd either be polite and listen or they'd be rude and talk amongst themselves (which drove me crazy). The audience seemed to come alive again when the old and more familiar songs were played.
I have read some wonderful reviews here and around the net--where people had different experiences at their venues. Audiences were receptive and some were actually singing along with the new songs. After reading those, I felt a sadness inside from not having had that experience, not in any of the venues I attended, from first to last.
So, as I was sitting alone in my room, watching this tape of a concert in Mexico City, done just seven days after the last of my concerts, I began to focus on the audience, and suddenly realized that they were singing along with the song. And they were cheering and yelling during the instrumental sections and at the key parts of CHSIB. And it moved me deeply!! Even on the second viewing, I cried--and quite frankly, I feel the tears there now, as I'm writing this and reliving it--that's how strong a reaction it was!
And I began to realize that something else was working here. There was something else going on beyond the fact that this audience knew this song well enough to sing along.
I know that many of you are new here at the forum. But lots of you are not. Lots of you, like myself, have been here way before the first single, Did I Say That?, was released in Germany. I don't know about you, but I loved that song the very first time I heard it and I took it to my heart. And so many of us here have waited for this album and the various singles and have fought together for them to be successful!! And for some of us, that fight continues!!
This is an album I listen to every day, with great pleasure. But I guess, after a while, as with all things, no matter how much you love something, it just becomes a part of your life. You don't need stop and think about it. You don't need to ponder its importance. It simply is. Does that make sense?
What I had lost sight of was just how MUCH I love this album and the songs on it. How much they have come to mean to me, how much they have brightened my world, lifted my life, and touched my heart. And it wasn't until I sat here, being 'a part' of this Mexican audience and listening to THEM sing along, with the same joy and pleasure and excitement I feel, that all this came flooding back to me!
Now I know that some of you don't feel this way about the album. But I also know that a lot of you DO!! So, I think that YOU are the ones who will truly understand what I am trying so hard to find the words to express.
A good number of you are about to have this experience in person very soon. Others of you will have to wait a while before your chance comes. And then, there are people like myself, who are praying, hoping that Meat will come to their area--for me, that he will come back to California to make up some of those concerts we lost during the first leg. And then, we can have this experience for ourselves.
So, having said this, I began thinking that perhaps, this clip might also be meaningful to many of you. I know that each of us reacts differently to things. I don't expect anyone to react, necessarily, the way I did. But just for a few moments, allow yourself to be in this audience in Mexico and listen to how these people LOVE this song, even before the album was there!
Again a small warning: The sound and picture are bad. The display is on all the time. This was the second big concert for Meat and the band in two days and he had just recently suffered the damage to his throat. If :roll: a certain someone here :roll: has an objection to this being shown, just let me know and it'll be removed.
But for the meantime, I hope watching this will, in some way, bring you the great pleasure it did to me!!
Here it is... (http://www.conubic.com/real/TOCconcert.html)
Thanks for allowing me to go on a bit today, friends!
Much love to you all,
MB
xxx
About ten days ago, I had the good fortune to be able to see some of Meat's second concert in Mexico--you know, the one outside, which he performed for free, the night after the concert now showing on our DirecTV and cable stations.
You've all probably seen audience recordings at one time or another. This one was fairly typical--bad lighting so the faces are washed out; bad sound which is lower then louder, then lower again; lots of audience noises. The person who copied the tape must have left the display menu on, so you have 'Play' in one corner of the screen and the time right beneath it.
So, I was sitting there and watching the tape. Meat and the band began to perform "Couldn't Have Said It Better." I'm enjoying it, as I love watching this song done live. But all of a sudden, I found myself focused on the audience and as I listened to them, I felt gooseflesh rising on my arms and the back of my neck. Tears began welling up in my eyes until they overflowed down my cheeks. And I said to myself, "WHOA!!" and stopped the tape!! I was completely taken aback by how powerful the reaction was and the amount of emotion I was feeling.
I sat quietly for a moment or two, while I calmed down and tried to figure out why this had happened.
You know, I was fortunate to have gotten to hear CHSIB 4 times during the summer leg of the tour. And I've also been fortunate now to have watched it on the DirecTV special. But at none of those times, had I had that reaction. What was going on??
I rewound the tape to the beginning of the song and began to watch it again, trying to figure out what was different here. And it didn't take me long--there was something VERY different happening here for me.
You see, my concerts were very early on in the tour. The album and single hadn't been released. Actually, I think during the first couple, there wasn't even a contract signed yet! And in the particular sections where we were sitting (often with the Cyndi fans, for some reason), I was usually the only one singing the new songs along with the band. In fact, at the end of one of the shows, as we were getting ourselves together to leave, someone in the row behind me, tapped me hard on the shoulder and asked me, "How in the world do you know all the words to those songs??!!" I was more than happy to tell him--and to let him know how great the new album is, of course. :wink:
But I saw little reaction to the new songs--people weren't singing along. They'd either be polite and listen or they'd be rude and talk amongst themselves (which drove me crazy). The audience seemed to come alive again when the old and more familiar songs were played.
I have read some wonderful reviews here and around the net--where people had different experiences at their venues. Audiences were receptive and some were actually singing along with the new songs. After reading those, I felt a sadness inside from not having had that experience, not in any of the venues I attended, from first to last.
So, as I was sitting alone in my room, watching this tape of a concert in Mexico City, done just seven days after the last of my concerts, I began to focus on the audience, and suddenly realized that they were singing along with the song. And they were cheering and yelling during the instrumental sections and at the key parts of CHSIB. And it moved me deeply!! Even on the second viewing, I cried--and quite frankly, I feel the tears there now, as I'm writing this and reliving it--that's how strong a reaction it was!
And I began to realize that something else was working here. There was something else going on beyond the fact that this audience knew this song well enough to sing along.
I know that many of you are new here at the forum. But lots of you are not. Lots of you, like myself, have been here way before the first single, Did I Say That?, was released in Germany. I don't know about you, but I loved that song the very first time I heard it and I took it to my heart. And so many of us here have waited for this album and the various singles and have fought together for them to be successful!! And for some of us, that fight continues!!
This is an album I listen to every day, with great pleasure. But I guess, after a while, as with all things, no matter how much you love something, it just becomes a part of your life. You don't need stop and think about it. You don't need to ponder its importance. It simply is. Does that make sense?
What I had lost sight of was just how MUCH I love this album and the songs on it. How much they have come to mean to me, how much they have brightened my world, lifted my life, and touched my heart. And it wasn't until I sat here, being 'a part' of this Mexican audience and listening to THEM sing along, with the same joy and pleasure and excitement I feel, that all this came flooding back to me!
Now I know that some of you don't feel this way about the album. But I also know that a lot of you DO!! So, I think that YOU are the ones who will truly understand what I am trying so hard to find the words to express.
A good number of you are about to have this experience in person very soon. Others of you will have to wait a while before your chance comes. And then, there are people like myself, who are praying, hoping that Meat will come to their area--for me, that he will come back to California to make up some of those concerts we lost during the first leg. And then, we can have this experience for ourselves.
So, having said this, I began thinking that perhaps, this clip might also be meaningful to many of you. I know that each of us reacts differently to things. I don't expect anyone to react, necessarily, the way I did. But just for a few moments, allow yourself to be in this audience in Mexico and listen to how these people LOVE this song, even before the album was there!
Again a small warning: The sound and picture are bad. The display is on all the time. This was the second big concert for Meat and the band in two days and he had just recently suffered the damage to his throat. If :roll: a certain someone here :roll: has an objection to this being shown, just let me know and it'll be removed.
But for the meantime, I hope watching this will, in some way, bring you the great pleasure it did to me!!
Here it is... (http://www.conubic.com/real/TOCconcert.html)
Thanks for allowing me to go on a bit today, friends!
Much love to you all,
MB
xxx