As the year comes to a close and many magazines publish their “top” lists of 2009 music, I am forced to look back at my own personal experience of music. Unfortunately, recorded music was a little disappointing for me; however one life concert stands out as the best music performance I have ever seen.
In February 2009, Los Campesinos! headlined at Bowery Ballroom, with Titus Andronicus as their opening act. Los Campesinos!, the Welsh indie pop band that refer to Rousseau’s man in the state of nature and usually sing playfully, yet full of true emotion and angst, at first seemed an unlikely pair for Titus Andronicus. Titus Andronicus, named for one of Shakespeare’s earlier, more gruesome and less known plays, has members that are older, darker and more concerned with existential angst than the angst of failed young love.
Titus opened and infused the space, filled with a young (mostly teen and early twenties) crowd, with energy. Amid the group’s dark and sarcastic lyrics (such as, “..and it’s obvious to me somebody somewhere ,must’ve really done a number on you, and I know because the Fuckers got me too..”) It becomes evident that their music falls somewhere in between the ultimate form of rejection of conformity and the simple therapeutic action of screaming about things in life that are displeasing or troubling. They accomplish both, simultaneously.
Los Capesinos! , are younger. Their sound is more upbeat and catchy. They make statements about God’s inability to help humanity and in one song boldly proclaim, “Shout at the world because the world doesn’t love you, Lower yourself because you know that you’ll have to”. The audience shifted from more aggressive dancing to a more subtle bopping up and down from the first band to the second.
Ultimately, they were appropriately paired. The audience certainly connected with the performers. Perhaps the younger generation gained more comfort in the effects of releasing the stress and energy of all the anxieties of being young: the initial trials of love, assessing society, feeling pressure from authorities. The lyrics of both bands are intellectual, it is evident that the members are well-read, and that they apply the meanings of their studies in a very personal, practical way.
Finally, the most important value of the concert lies in the genuine connection between the artists and their art which transferred to a connection between the art and the audience. Its effect was undeniably invigorating. No audience could be that moved by things they didn’t feel strongly about, but instead of leaving the venue depressed, the audience left refreshed, and soothed by the community and outlet of emotions they just experienced in a very interactive way.
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