What is the ultimate musical experience?

[Duvall]

I was thinking about this the other night while walking. For a given band, what is the ultimate musical experience? Is it listening to one song? To the whole album? Seeing them live?


For some bands, is seeing them live really any better than the album (barring feeding off the crowd's energy).. I'm speaking musically here. While a live event has a lot of soul and connection, there's something personal about listening to a song or album by yourself. Taking the time to mull over the lyrics and not be worrying about getting smoked in the head by a passing crowd-surfer's steel-toed boot.

I haven't seen a lot of live bands, because I lived in a small town (just too far away from Toronto to make a trip really worthwhile), and I now live in Halifax, which is full of local music, but no big bands.

Can anyone share an experience at a concert or listening to an album that would exemplify this "ultimate musical experience"??

 

[_Transparent_]

seeing Stampin' Ground live just after seeing 4 other bands which got better as they went through when you thought it couldnt get better was a great live experience. i knew one song before i saw them and i thought they were so great.

but listening to a song, or songs that you can conect to and then shut yourself off from everything else is a great feeling. when listening to Perfect by the pumpkins i can honestly feel my heart go cold, and my hairs stand on end. its the only song that i can do that with, i just go weak kneed and have to lie down incase i collapse.

 

[Lina]

i definitely agree that from a musical standpoint, a live performance will never surpass the album in quality (unless of course the only good thing about your music is that you can actually pull it off live, as in nile's case). but i have to say, when i saw opeth for the first time at the milwaukee metalfest, and they opened with moonlapse vertigo, which was my favorite song at the time, i got teary-eyed. it was absolutely surreal to see the music that changed my life being performed in front of me.

 

[Soul Forlorn]

For me, the ultimate music experience was playing on stage myself.

 

[_Transparent_]

Originally posted by Lina
i definitely agree that from a musical standpoint, a live performance will never surpass the album in quality (unless of course the only good thing about your music is that you can actually pull it off live, as in nile's case). but i have to say, when i saw opeth for the first time at the milwaukee metalfest, and they opened with moonlapse vertigo, which was my favorite song at the time, i got teary-eyed. it was absolutely surreal to see the music that changed my life being performed in front of me.

well a few hardcore bands ive seen seem to sound better live, especially with the atmosphere, a lot of bands arent suited for a live performance and are dissapointing though as you say. but something like a special last concert ever or a 4 hour concert might be a sort of ocassion people will love and never forget, um like nirvana unplugged in New York, people that saw that say how brilliant and how they will never forget it.

 

[Blackspirit]

The ultimate musical experience for me is when
one of my favourite songs from a band comes on...
Sometimes it just becomes too much...
Either I start crying, or I feel like my chest will
explode, or both! I get goosebumples all over
my body, the hair in my neck rises....
My chest hurts... I just lie down on the floor and listen...
I listen to the fantastic music and dream....
Dreaming I am playing, dreaming I am seeing the
band live... dreaming of something great happening...

Everything is just perfect if the room is all dark,
and you have a few candles lit...
Then you just lie there alone, and you feel total
satisfaction, but you're still all empty.... Beautiful )

I'm probably sounding like a total freak,
but that's just because I am...a total freak!
Music has a great effect on me and my body )

 

[_Transparent_]

Originally posted by Blackspirit
The ultimate musical experience for me is when
one of my favourite songs from a band comes on...
Sometimes it just becomes too much...
Either I start crying, or I feel like my chest will
explode, or both! I get goosebumples all over
my body, the hair in my neck rises....
My chest hurts... I just lie down on the floor and listen...
I listen to the fantastic music and dream....
Dreaming I am playing, dreaming I am seeing the
band live... dreaming of something great happening...

Everything is just perfect if the room is all dark,
and you have a few candles lit...
Then you just lie there alone, and you feel total
satisfaction, but you're still all empty.... Beautiful )

I'm probably sounding like a total freak,
but that's just because I am...a total freak!
Music has a great effect on me and my body )

apart from the candle bit i know exactly how you feel. and then sometimes you feel the urge to shout out and sing at the top of your voice in public, just the music takes over and you think to yourself, this is the feeling i want to have before i die (in a long time away from now obviously) and you feel free and excited.

i also found that after almost getting run over you appreciate music a lot more, it only lasts for about a month though, but it felt great.

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

Jump in front of some cars (or do you call them autos?) and revitalize that feeling.

 

[_Transparent_]

Originally posted by Oyo
Jump in front of some cars (or do you call them autos?) and revitalize that feeling.

well i didnt do it on purpose before, and im not stupid enough to do it on purpose , but if im desperate i'll do it for you.

 

[my dying groom]

I had a sort of 'ultimate musical experience' after I'd been sent into a deep psycho-abyss. These words were chosen as a 'prelude' while taking a walk: 'Let's stay here for a while.' A serious breakdown followed and in my desperate search for adequate music I stumbled over many awesome bands, but I especially love(d) Katatonia's BMD, which exactly features the same fucking words and similar scenery in the song 'Day'! These music-filled and wine-drenched nights completely changed the way I listen to music and perhaps even my taste in music.
However, a recent great musical experience was the Opeth gig at the Wacken Open Air in August. I almost got teary-eyed, too, but was more in the mood to bang my head
There are two reasons why that wasn't 'ultimate' though:
a) too short (45 minutes or something)
b) Oscar Dronjak needs to die!
(Hammerfall played at the same time and dared to be louder than Opeth, the acoustic parts got interrupted by eunuch cries)

Sorry for long post

 

[terrymx]

i like to listen to opeth at specific nature setting, give a more epic feeling. like during walking in a path of autumn tree, when it's snowing and windy, or when it rain softly. it depend of the song you listen to. if you're imaginative it's good.

 

[Blackspirit]

The acoustic parts in Opeth's "The Drapery Falls"
makes my heart shiver....
I think I need to lie down on the floor again! >P

 

[_Transparent_]

Originally posted by terrymx
i like to listen to opeth at specific nature setting, give a more epic feeling. like during walking in a path of autumn tree, when it's snowing and windy, or when it rain softly. it depend of the song you listen to. if you're imaginative it's good.

yeah i love walking and listening to music, i went to the park and walked around it 3 or 4 times without getting bored, and without realising till i got home i was knee deep in mud, not sure how it happened. its so great to walk listening to opeth/katatonia, just walking anywhere and not even thinking, just walking.

 

[my dying groom]

its so great to walk listening to opeth/katatonia, just walking anywhere and not even thinking, just walking.

Agreed!

 

[Kem]

Ah, I have often thought about this. My ultimate music experience would be seeing Iced Earth and Opeth live, together, in one place. They would play in a huge clearing of a forest, with lots of people there. Of course, I would have to be up the front They would start warming up at dusk. Iced Earth would take the stage first and Opeth would play last, when the night is most darky dark. That would be my ultimate music experience (And you'd have to see them with all your friends and hopefully, a special someone who I am yet to find).

 

[Useful Idiot]

I've always wanted to go to a lake at night sometime with some of my friends who enjoy Opeth and listen to all their albums but I haven't gotten a chance to do so yet...I have a feeling that would be a sort of "ultimate musical experience".

 

[_Transparent_]

Originally posted by Useful Idiot
I've always wanted to go to a lake at night sometime with some of my friends who enjoy Opeth and listen to all their albums but I haven't gotten a chance to do so yet...I have a feeling that would be a sort of "ultimate musical experience".

well i always wanted to walk around with opeth playing on a ghetto blaster, so i could listen to it really loud, cant really when people are home come to think of it i dont listen to growling/heavy music at home unless its really low and the doors closed. i left still life downstairs once, and when my brother saw the cover, he was like you listen to devil worshiping music bla bla, and i had to get hassel trying to say it wasnt. anyway where was i

 

[Demonspell]

Opeth demands intimate listening, as appealing as subjecting the ignorant masses to them is, nothing beats Opeth on a cold winter night in a dimly lit room with headphones and your mind in a state of complete meditation...

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

I so know what you're talking about Demonspell.

 

[HoserHellspawn]

Originally posted by Useful Idiot
I've always wanted to go to a lake at night sometime with some of my friends who enjoy Opeth and listen to all their albums but I haven't gotten a chance to do so yet...I have a feeling that would be a sort of "ultimate musical experience".

A big Opeth marathon campfire, with a massive stereo dragged out to the edge of the wooded lake and powered by a small generator (hehe). Bring your indulgant substance of choice and come on out!