Uh-oh. After months of counting down the days until a highly-anticipated concert, you arrive at the venue to find that it has completely lost power. Without a generator or any other source of power to get the amps, computers, soundboards, lights, cameras, and any other equipment working, the chances of an unforgettable show are looking slim. Adding salt to the wound is a complete lack of data and wifi sources for your cell phone. The venue has become an electrical dead zone (aside from an overhead light source). What happens?
Option one: you find whoever’s in charge and demand your money back. This is ridiculous. You came for a show and if they can’t give you one, you’re gone. The venue down the street looked pretty enticing already, and it has power. You’ll be able to record every minute of the show from your phone. How could there even be a debate over which to choose?
Option two: you stick around. The event staff will look for candles to light the venue and see what they can do to save the night. Perhaps the artist will feel so guilty they’ll come out for a meet and greet and give everyone free stuff. You’ll use this opportunity to befriend them and inevitably become famous through them, ensuring you never have to worry about your financial future again. They’ll probably make you the godparent to their children, and it will be the beginning of a beautiful story.
Option three: the artist doesn’t depend on electricity to perform, making the previous options irrelevant. When left with only their instrument(s) and vocals to give a show, they remain unphased. And you are given the opportunity to hear their songs as they were originally written, untouched by auto-tune and sound mixers, and without a million phones blocking your view.
If lack of electricity is an artist’s kryptonite, what are they really? A performer, yes. But without strobe lights and laser beams, reverbing microphones and smoke machines, a musician goes back to their roots. To the days before they had access to backup singers and full bands, the times when they performed at whatever venues they could find for audiences who’d talk over their music and only listen when they played covers of already famous songs.
Hidden in this history is the reason they pursued a career in music, despite the likelihood they’d spend their days as starving artists. Despite the fact that they’d wake up every morning only to ask themselves, will it all be worth it? Will the years of practicing for hours on end ever pay off? These past doubts and powerful emotions shine through in minimalist performances, when every raw aspect of the artist’s voice comes out. Without anything to focus on but the artist themselves, you begin to see the person they are outside of the spotlight.
While intense light shows and ornate performances can make for one heck of a night, if you truly want to see an artist perform their music live, you also must be able to see the life that shaped their music.
