Like so many revelations of this type, the joy of doing something only became apparent when it was time to plan the opposite. Phish announced their summer tour and there was a potential conflict. The Oregon shows would be right after Northwest String Summit. I would have to choose. See my favorite large band or be exposed to smaller bands?

While seeing Phish will always be an important part of my life, I have found myself gravitating towards finding newer bands. There’s nothing about the experience that’s not better. Most obviously, the shows are a lot cheaper and the venues can be much more interesting; my Anna Tivel obsession has led me to discover the Seattle Living Rooms series, a small venue in the rural suburbs that has some science fiction props, and a tiny house around the corner from where I see shows all the time that occasionally has concerts. I know some cities have bad small venues, but Seattle’s are mostly really good. The incongruity of suddenly getting searched going into the MGM last Halloween was enough right there to remind me that I love the smaller events.

The net result of this is that shows just seem lower stress. It seems funny to think of attending a concert as a high stress activity, but just obtaining a ticket to some events can be an act of frustration. By the time you’ve navigated the travel, dealing with getting in, the expensive parking, and the crowds, you’re needing a lot more out of the music than you would if you were just going to your bar downtown. As a result, expectations start to get out of control. People will get into a headspace where they want to bash the concert if it isn’t one of the top three musical memories of their life and others – those who don’t like the band or are just sick of the constant hype over it – will be more than willing to jump in. Once a band gets big enough, there will be the fights over the quality of the show, if the great experience you had that night really was all that compared to this other night five years ago. The Internet has done many great things, but it can also make attending large shows somewhat toxic.

It’s not just the fan experience that is different. The band is also in a healthier headspace. When you have 15,000 people a night coming out to see you, you have to put up barriers. Everyone will want something from you, be it an autograph, a discussion of how a concert changed their lives, or free tickets to the next night. People can try to the best of their abilities to stay friendly to their fans, but the sheer numbers can make that impossible. Just as a fan can become jaded over a song they’ve heard 58 times, it can get old for the musicians to hear the same old lines from excited fans over and over and over again. Tell a musician playing a club that one of their songs has changed your life and you tell all of your friends about it is a lot more exciting for them. Sure, part of it is the need to maintain an Internet/social presence to have any success in the 21st century, but it’s much more exciting to hear people inspired to your music when it hasn’t become the ritualized encounter that you have a few hundred times a day.

Of course none of this would matter if there were always a direct correlation between size of the venue the band is playing and the quality of their music. Fortunately, that’s not always the case. One of the advantages of the fracturing of the music scene is that there are tons of bands out there for any taste. Sure, there’s a ton of crap out there that has to be waded through to find anything interesting, but that’s what word of mouth from like-minded fans is for. If you are looking for leads, start with a band that you like on YouTube and look for similar videos; usually you’ll get a band’s more popular songs that way which is a good way to start. Go to small stages at festivals and always try to arrive for an opener when attending shows that group together similar bands. Yes, you’ll hear a lot of drek that reminds you why exactly they’re playing the smaller stage, but the discoveries will be worth it. Not only do you get to break out of the trap of listening to the same bands over and over again, but there are incredible discoveries out there. I love having Pepper Proud’s delicate “Scene Opaque” and The Lil’ Smokies’ upbeat “California” and The Blackberry Bushes’ “Salt Creek” in my life (and iTunes directory). Wild Rabbit’s “I’m Okay” has become a favorite exercise song and Absynth Quintet’s Telepathy With Glowbugs is an incredible album. That doesn’t even mention my new favorites of Shook Twins and Fruition who are growing fast enough to start to be leaving this category.

And that’s the final joy of seeing the smaller bands. Sometimes you get the joy of seeing them start from nothing and grow and grow. You can always be that guy, the one who can talk about how you saw them back when they were playing bars, when their old favorites were brand new songs. If the pure reasons don’t work for you, go see smaller bands so you can be that old jaded guy down the road. Do so to expand your horizons. Do so for the relaxed vibe. Regardless of why, we’re in a golden age right now with tons of bands for any musical taste toiling in obscurity. Find them and bring their works back for the rest of us to hear. Sure it might be weird to make decisions like blowing off Phish at Bend to see who is playing the Strummit (although I might have finally found a way to do both), but you can’t meet your next obsession unless you leave yourself open to the process.

*****

David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capital Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at http://www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html and he’s on the board of directors for The Mockingbird Foundation. He now tweets and has a daily update on the Phish Stats Facebook page

His book This Has All Been Wonderful is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, and his Create Space store.