do you hear what I see?

Something I've come to realize about myself over the years is that I am a very visual person. I discovered in college that I learned best by seeing things written down on paper, as opposed to hearing it spoken aloud. I'd remember reading specific sentences and even know approximately where they were on a page, but I could convince myself that a lecturing professor said the complete opposite of what he actually said. Knowing this, you'd think I'd learn to take really good notes and play to my strengths ... but alas, my laziness usually won out over my desire to be a good student. How I managed to graduate with a decent GPA, I'll never know.

A more recent example of this trait of mine (and the thought that triggered this post), is the way I tend to describe the concerts I go to. I have been going to quite a few of them as of late, and when people ask me how they were, I go into great detail about what the venue was like, who was in the crowd, how the stage was set up, and what the performers looked like, or what they wore. The music itself usually gets a much shorter description. Sometimes as concise and vague as, "It was good." It's not that I don't enjoy the music at a concert. I love music! And that's the reason you go to a concert in the first place. I guess it's just that visual images make more of an impression on me than aural. The experience of going to a concert involves all of the senses, and though the focus is on what you hear, my most trusted sense is my vision, so that's what really sticks with me. It's only in those rare instances when the emotions evoked by the music mesh perfectly with what my other senses are experiencing that the music itself leaves a lasting impression. Or perhaps it's just because I am not as good with descriptions of sounds as I am with images. What's that saying? "Talking about music is like singing about architecture"? I think I may have that wrong. But I believe that statement is very true.

On the topic of how one experiences a concert, I've also realized that my experiences are shaped largely by outside influences. For example, last night, Jillybean and I went to the Sufjan Stevens show at the Riv. The crowd there seemed to be very young - much younger than I would have expected, actually. There were several groups of high school aged kids around the area we were standing, and I realized afterwards that they ended up giving me a slightly lower opinion of the concert than I might have had otherwise. There was a kid to one side of us who was shouting annoying requests between each song. There was a girl next to me who kept bumping me with her purse in the same spot on my shoulder over and over again (though this could have been anyone, not necessarily a teenager). And THEN. Then there was the kid behind us, who will, in my memory, always be known as the "Oh My God!" guy. Let's just say he was VERY EXCITED to see Sufjan. So much so that between every song, he'd shout "Oh My God!" like he just couldn't believe that Sufjan Stevens was right there in front of him. Seriously, you'd have thought he was having an orgasm each time he said it. Oh, and his breathing was erratic and very heavy. I know because I could feel it on the back of my neck through the entire show, whipping my hair into my face, even though he was a couple feet behind me.

And those are the things that I'm going to remember most about that concert. Those people in the crowd, the butterfly costumes that the band was wearing, and the fact that for most of the show, all I could see of Mr. Stevens was the end of his guitar and the tip of his wing (too many tall people).

But the music was very good. :)