where i've been, where i am, it's the show

i'll preface this by saying i'm not very good at writing about music. i feel like it's one of the most personal things in life. sure, you can throw out catch phrases and comparisons to obscure [insert decade here] bands when describing someone's music. but to actually explain how YOU feel while listening to that music is a whole other thing. and i can't do it, and i don't think anyone can honestly do it.

when i was little, i would drive around in the car with my mom and i would turn the radio up really loud when a song that i liked came on. i'd close my eyes and just listen to it and get goosebumps and hope that my mom felt the same thing. she probably didn't, she'd usually ask if she could put her air supply tape in, that's who gave her that feeling - not whatever i was listening to at the time. but we both understood it, that feeling.

there are very few bands that actually "move" me. i know that sounds cheesy. but there are just so few times when i'm standing in front of a stage and everything disappears. everything is okay. i just feel elated, connected and simply (purely) happy. this is as close to a spiritual feeling that i'll ever get. this is probably why some people compare venues to churches, and musicians to gods. (clapton is god. the beatles are bigger than jesus. etc.)

i don't know what it is, it's not something that really needs explaining. but i don't know what i would do without it. it's why i go to show after show after show. searching for just a few seconds of that feeling. last night cloud cult got me to that place. an almost emotional feeling of being okay, really okay, for the first time in a while. everything else didn't seem to matter.

i'm totally under their spell. i love them. if they told me to drink the kool-aid, i'd totally do it.

here is an mp3 (from ryspace.com) of one of their songs from last nights movable hype show. i am very happy they said yes when i asked them to play this show, and i am very happy that i know jeff who introduced me to them and so many other bands that i now love:

transitor_radio.mp3 - cloud cult (live, 4/17/06 @ movable hype, knitting factory)

Comments

[Amrit]

I clicked on the bookmark for dailyrefill, and I had one line floating through my head, on repeat. Reading it, written as the title of this post, was a perfect -- if disarming -- moment. Cloud Cult were amazing. Well done Jen.

[Katie]

I feel the same way when I write about music. I never feel like I can capture what I'm feeling or thinking.