codes and secret longing

thanks to Rainn Wilson (twitter @rainnwilson) for reminding me of how much I adore this song.



i struggle with live performance videos on youtube. i'm not a huge fan of the Tears for Fears video I posted (though the song, i love) - it was pretty flat. this one though, of Iron & Wine from the Green Man festival in 2008 restores my hope in live music.

I suppose it betrays my reservations about live music in general: i think it needs to be intimate. I mean, if you're really going to make a connection with someone, a performer or perfect stranger or whathaveyou, you have to be close enough to see the cracks in their walls. With some people, Sam Beam for instance, walls seem to be there merely to call attention the cracks in them.

The larger-venue shows I've been to recently (U2, Bob Dylan) left me wanting - not a bad thing, per se, but I get more out of a show at the eBar or Maxwell's because of the immediacy and sense of improvisation or uniqueness to a show there. It's like theatre: anything could happen in a small venue show and it's different every time. The audience of a small show has a different kind of presence than the anonymous crowd at a stadium show: they're real.

Tonight at Maxwell's: Grand River Orchestra and Great Dane. Come out. Be real.