Spring Back To Vail<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t give me any recession shit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s cheaper to be here than in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because Vail Resorts figured out it was better to sell everybody lift tickets cheaper than to sell a few ducats at high prices to the private jet crowd.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s right, an Epic Pass was $579.\u00c2\u00a0 Good every day of the year at not only Vail, but Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin and Heavenly.\u00c2\u00a0 While record labels RAISE prices at the iTunes Store, some industries have economic sense, and realize, especially in a recession, you’ve got to give the public more for its money, not less.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine if tracks at the iTunes Store cost ten cents.\u00c2\u00a0 DEVALUING MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 HOW COULD YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 Well, Vail Resorts just devalued skiing and had some of its busiest days in years.\u00c2\u00a0 People not only showed up to ski, they bought food, they dropped money all over town.\u00c2\u00a0 Like if you lower concert ticket prices people will buy more booze and t-shirts.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming it’s not ten bucks a cocktail and thirty bucks a t-shirt.<\/p>\nAnd in addition to skiing this week, they’ve got all kinds of activities, including CONCERTS!\u00c2\u00a0 Wednesday it was Chadzilla and…\u00c2\u00a0 Who knows, SOMEBODY!\u00c2\u00a0 An 80’s cover band.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew all the cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 If only Mutt Lange could find a moldable act and create an anthem, something everybody knows and enjoys.\u00c2\u00a0 Like AC\/DC’s "You Shook Me All Night Long".\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe Dr. Dre could weigh in.\u00c2\u00a0 What if we had a TV show where acts demoed their best material for a chance to work with real hitmakers, instead of has-beens like Randy Jackson and hacks like Kara DioGuardi.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s demonstrate some real talent.\u00c2\u00a0 But the bottom line is I want more universal music.\u00c2\u00a0 Not Jimmy Iovine music, but something so good, everybody knows it, everybody plays it.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that Top Forty dreck causing people to turn off music radio permanently, but infectious shit like "Satisfaction" and Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy".\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t tell me no one knows what a hit is.\u00c2\u00a0 How come Mutt could do it for not only AC\/DC, but Def Leppard and Shania and even Michael Bolton.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s press-shy, but now that he’s getting a divorce maybe he can finally come out in public.<\/p>\n
But the key thing about watching Chadzilla was the vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 Of live music.\u00c2\u00a0 For far too long the emphasis has been on studio creations.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t feel a record, but you can certainly feel a live show.<\/p>\n
And we felt it tonight, as Chris Isaak showed up to play in a near-blizzard.\u00c2\u00a0 He said he’d been performing for twenty five years, but had never played in the snow. They had to sweep the white stuff off the stage.\u00c2\u00a0 When the percussionist hit the skins, snow jumped off his drums.<\/p>\n
And there was not a single person in the crowd I knew.\u00c2\u00a0 It was only about the music, the experience.<\/p>\n
And rather than being choreographed for public consumption, the same show every night, Chris customized his rap for the evening, referencing not only the precipitation, but activities in the lodges, he personalized "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing"…<\/p>\n
I like Chris.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to explain the magic of his Showtime series, but it was something you couldn’t tune out.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s still working with the same band.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the drummer Kenney, but Hershel Yatovitz, someone who made it in rock and roll DESPITE his name (thank you very much Chaim Witz!)<\/p>\n
Stunningly, people talked through "Wicked Game".\u00c2\u00a0 But it wasn’t about hits, it was about the EXPERIENCE!\u00c2\u00a0 The assembled multitude feeling the sound, bonding with the performers, having a one of a kind time.<\/p>\n
U2’s got a worldwide number one album, but it’s truly about the show.\u00c2\u00a0 As evidenced by the almost instant sellouts of stadiums everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, has the stranglehold of the record companies been a false premise?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe music is something you hear live as opposed to a concoction perfected in a studio. Maybe it’s supposed to live and breathe as opposed to being perfected to the point of sterility.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s why we tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 Auto-tune.\u00c2\u00a0 It was really Chris singing tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no fakery.\u00c2\u00a0 The band laughed about their cold hands.\u00c2\u00a0 But they played on.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying recorded music should be free.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m just saying that maybe the emphasis on the record has been misplaced, and we’re only seeing the light now. Maybe the key isn’t queuing up the track, but going to the gig and not knowing what to expect, being thrilled by the covers, like Chris’ version of Cheap Trick’s "I Want You To Want Me" tonight, and overwhelmed by the guitar licks, the true sound of an acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n
Life is for living.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not something that’s got rules, that has to be done a certain way so a small elite of gatekeepers will approve.<\/p>\n
You know the hit of a live show.\u00c2\u00a0 The great ones are all different.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t the Grateful Dead prove this?\u00c2\u00a0 The music washes over you and not only do you review your life memories, you make new ones, you can’t help yourself, life is unfolding as you’re standing there listening.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re catching the humans, wandering around in all their uniqueness, you’re staring at the blowing snow in the spotlights, you’re telling yourself HOW FUCKING GREAT IT IS TO BE ALIVE!<\/p>\n
That’s music’s power.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you ever forget it.<\/p>\n
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That was one of the most surreal concert experiences EVER! We’re in Colorado, for Spring Back To Vail.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t give me any recession shit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s cheaper to be here than in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because Vail Resorts figured out it was better to sell everybody lift tickets cheaper than to sell a few ducats at high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-ua","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}