January 31, 2016

Grateful Dead

          The time is 3:45 p.m. We have to catch a 4:00 p.m train to Penn Station and we’re still in my friend’s driveway. Now, if we miss this train, we miss the show, so we drove like wild people to the station. We made the train by the skin of our teeth. We’ve been waiting to see the Grateful Dead ever since middle school. I remember in seventh grade when my friends and I would always hang out in my garage and work on our bikes, we were always fascinated with the electric guitar. When we were shown the Grateful Dead from my older brother, we loved it at first listening. We knew if we ever had the chance, we would go to a Grateful Dead concert. Though their was a change in this concert, John Mayer was the lead singer for the show.
          Before this concert, I’ve never been to Madison Square Garden, but I always wanted to. This was a perfect opportunity to knock out two birds with one stone. When I say that this venue was huge, I mean huge! The concerts I go to are only the size of two story houses, so you can imagine the excitement that was running through me: I loved this venue. The vibe that was created within the venue was euphoric. The smell of drugs and beer lingered throughout the venue. When we got to our seats within Madison Square Garden, we noticed that we didn't have the best seats and we were afraid that the music would be faint. Nope! The drums and bass throughout the concert had my seat vibrating. We knew going into the concert that there was going to be a lot of older folks there, but we didn't mind because we were all enjoying the great vibes. When we got to our seats, we also introduced ourselves to our seat neighbors that were sitting in front and behind us. Even though they were in their late 30's and early 40's, we all shared an awesome, unforgettable time.
          Grateful Dead rarely interacted with the audience, which was a little disappointing. Nevertheless, this didn’t take away from a once in a lifetime experience. When the band came out, I noticed that John Mayer was dressed different than all the other band members. All the orginal band members wore a T-shirt and jeans, while John Mayer wore an orange button-down shirt with a golden rolex, jeans, and moccasins. Honestly, I think John Mayer looked more comfortable on the stage than anyone else. Throughout the concert, all the band members stood besides the drummer, and my friends and I stood with them the whole concert. Many of the songs they played throughout the night were a lot of their classics and some of them sounded like they were written just the other day. I absolutely loved this show! I’ve wanted to see this band since 7th grade and the fact that I actually saw them in person was an indescribable experience. One thing I do wish the band would improve was the lights. The lights can affect everything within a concert. Iit would've been really cool to see a psychedelic light show while I was there.
          The instruments that were used throughout the show consisted of drums, bass, piano, organ, and two electric guitars. While I was there, I was wondering why they had rugs on the stage. That seemed to be a strategy to get rid of all the wires that were placed all over the ground. I was very surprised that they didn't use bluetooth connections on their guitars and bass. They all used wire connections, which gave an authentic feeling to it. Another factor that impressed me was how beautiful the vocals were. I thought that John Mayer was going to ruin the sound of this amazing band, but infact he enhanced it. When the band was doing their sweet guitar solos with Mayer’s voice coming in and out of the solos, it made me feel like I was in the music.
          Going into the show, I had high expectations for the rest of the band, but had doubts that John Mayer could pull it off. I thought no one could match the original band's vocals, but I was wrong; I loved the vocals. I fell in love with a lot of bands while I was in middle school, but never had the ambition to go. After this concert, I’m going to at a lot more band-oriented concerts. It was unbelievable and a life changing experience. The next band I'd love to see is AC/DC; that's been on the list for years.

--Bryan Olsson

Madonna

         On September 17th, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, I was lucky enough to see the best performer of all times, the Legend and the Queen of Pop Music, Madonna. I have to admit I am not a true, diehard fan of Madonna. I don’t know all her lyrics by heart, and I don’t listen to her music on a daily basis. But anyway, I was very excited to find out that tickets were still available because to see Madonna live was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
         As I mentioned earlier, the performance took place at Madison Square Garden, the historic venue, one of the most famous arenas in the world that fits twenty thousand people. It wasn’t a surprise that the tickets were sold out in a heartbeat. I have never attended a concert on such a huge level. That’s why at first I was shocked to see that many people in one place. The audience was extremely diverse: different age groups, different nationalities, approximately equal amount of men and women. There were many happy couples, some gays, mostly in shape and attractive, and groups of young girls everywhere. Everybody was extremely excited, anxious and having a great time dancing, screaming and singing loudly along with Madonna. Looking around, I could tell that not too many people spent time picking a special outfit for the night. Most of them were dressed very casually, jeans and tee shirts. Even though there were thousands of complete strangers around me, the atmosphere of the place itself, the audience, the positive vibes made me feel as if I was part of something epic that was about to happen. And I wasn’t wrong. What an experience that concert was! Everybody knows that Madonna is one of the best performers in the world, but until you see her live you really have no idea how good she is.
          It wasn’t just a concert; it was a theatrical spectacle in which music is combined with dance, costumes, and acrobatic tricks performed by dancers. Madonna brought us to the different worlds changing the stage set up at least four times. She was quite aggressive and provocative in the first section of her show that was filled with religious and Asian motifs. Madonna was dressed up in a red and black samurai kimono while her dancers were wearing geisha costumes at one point and white ruffled panties and bras as part of a sexy nuns outfit later. But Madonna can’t stay the same for long. She showed us that she could be romantic and flirtatious wearing the Flamenco- style dress during the Spanish/Mexican inspired part of the show. The party -like atmosphere was created in the third segment of her performances when she appeared wearing a flapper dress covered with thousands of crystals and long fringed gloves. During the whole show, Madonna didn’t stop dancing. And I have to say she was as good as her professional dancers, who were probably half of her age. She was quite open and personal with the audience trying to interact with people by asking questions and suggesting them to sing along. She even brought a random guy on stage and made him a part of the show.
          Even though the choreography, shocking costumes, videos and theatrical elements seemed to be very important during Madonna’s performance, her voice played a very important part as well. The quality of her voice was changing from song to song. It varied from a thin, high-pitched voice to a more deep, velvety and warm version of it. I was truly amazed by her singing live and dancing at the same time. The Rebel Heart Tour represents two completely different sides of the singer: Rebellious and Romantic. She admits this herself saying: “I might be cynical about love, but I’m very romantic.” She says that true love is her favorite subject. All kinds of different instruments were chosen to support her vocals: electric, bass and acoustic guitars, drums, keyboard, synthesizer, ukulele, tambourine and many others. Madonna even played an acoustic guitar (“Who’s That Girl”), an electric guitar (“Burning up”) and ukulele (“True Blue”) herself.
          Overall, the concert exceeded my expectations and defiantly became a memorable experience. Madonna is really the best entertainer, who catches your attention from the very first second and doesn’t let you go until the very end. She completely owns the stage and the audience, while enjoying the whole process and having fun herself.

--Daria Greenlee