Artists Seen
There is no experience quite like live music. A good concert can be a transcendent event. It feels surreal to witness your favorite songs being embodied and performed by a real person. Whether the performance is otherworldy or total garbage, I treasure every concert experience I’ve had. Not only are concerts entertaining experiences, but they are also useful milestones for marking off distinct periods of my life.
I was already well into my note taking habit by the time I started going to concerts, so I have a comprehensive list of every musician or artist I’ve ever seen perform live. The list includes local artists, international superstars, some talented street musicians, and several other types of artists.
By recalling the live music events I’ve attended, I can measure what my music taste was at the time, who was in my social circle, what venue it was held at, whether I was broke or not (concerts are expensive), and many other indicators of life. Over my late-teen years, I’ve used concerts as memory-joggers for what was happening in my life and at the show around the time of each outing. The Cribs concert at U Street Music Hall? I was with my two best friends in a mosh pit composed almost entirely out of 40 something year olds. Indigo DeSouza performing at the Black Cat? I was with a group of friends celebrating a birthday. I can associate a time, place, and feeling with each and every concert simply by reading an entry off the list.
Below is a selection of some of the live music experiences that have defined my life the most thus far:
Wilco: The first concert I ever went to. Looking back, this felt like an introduction to the social freedom of being in high school.
The Cribs: A strange experience, me and my friends being practically the only minors in the venue, dancing with the ex-punk crowd from the 90’s, all grown up with families and day jobs.
Mavis Staples: This woman was 76!!! when I saw her perform and she was still one of the best live performers I’ve ever seen. Mavis is a living legend.
Tyler, The Creator: The most popular artist I had ever seen perform. In a huge venue filled with screaming teens, it was the first time I felt like I had a communal music space that I really fit into. Made several good friends that night.
Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus: I saw these pop stars perform at the “March for our Lives” rally in DC to protest gun violence. It was interesting to see these celebrities, whose livelihood depends on drawing attention to themselves, perform in service of something other than themselves.
Cat Clyde+L.A. Salami: One of my favorite concert memories. It was during a time when I was hitting my social stride in my first year of high school and I was expanding my music taste. I went with some of my favorite people.
Felix Manye Rodriguez: Undoubtedly the greatest street music I’ve ever heard. This man created the soundtrack for one of the most unforgettable days of my life. I had just arrived in Berlin and was exploring the city with 3 friends I had met earlier on the trip, when we came across this guy playing the most exquisite Spanish guitar solos I’ve ever heard. We all sat down on the bridge/plaza he was playing on and watched the sun set over the city skyline.
A$AP Rocky: This performance wins the category for most lit concert experience. A$AP knows how to get people hyped.
Sidney Gish: One of my favorite lyricists. At the end of her set, she asked for a song to play as an encore and all my friends started screaming “IT’S HIS BIRTHDAY!”, so I got to pick the last song she played.
100 Gecs: No concert has ever left me more confused and at a loss of words.
Knife Wife: The first concert I got to go back stage for, because I was a friend of the band. I was getting immersed in the DC music scene at this time.
1 Trait Danger: Probably the worst concert I’ve ever been to, but it was still incredibly fun because of the people I was with.
Stoop Kids+Pip the Pansy: The first concert I went to by myself. A friend bailed at the last minute and I was worried it would be lonely and boring without someone with me, but it was an amazing concert and I ended up talking with the bass player for a while after their set.
Because we are all in a constant state of changing and evolving, I was a different person at each one of these performances. I love going back through these concerts and the corresponding photos/videos to try and remind myself of who it is I was at each show. Although I haven’t been able to add to this list in a long time (I’m looking at you, Covid), I sometimes give in to the comforting nostalgia of reminiscing on a time when I could still enjoy live music with crowds of friends and strangers. However, I think the prolonged absence of live music in this note will itself become a reminder of who I was during the pandemic.
