October 29th, 2021 was the first time in almost 2 years I attended a indoor concert and I wanted it…read moreto be special. I chose to see PMJB at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for a few reasons. The first being they had excellent sensitivity and precautions in place for Covid-19 as this is a very height risk activity. From requiring negative tests within a few days, masking at all times, no concessions other than water bottles, and even cancelling VIPs meeting the band after.
Another reason is I have wanted to attend a concert at the Troy Savings Music Hall ever since I learned about it's history in a college presentation. Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is one of the most acoustically perfect venues in existence. They won;t even change the wooden seats or other historical features for fear of altering the acoustics. Famous artists from all over the world record there.
Finally, music was a big part of what helped me get through the last few years and I loved the idea of seeing Post Modern Jukebox live in their "Grand re-opening tour", which is a ensemble of various singers and musicians specializing in numerous instruments who sing covers of modern songs in the style of the 1920s-1930s while dressed to the nines in fancy, often sparkling, and always stylish outfits. I had REALLY good seats, only a few rows back from the center of the stage.
The venue is at once tall, wide, and intimate as a setting. I was surprised just how close I got to be to the show. The musicians and the acoustics were excellent.
Look, when a human being is able to master something and then share it with other humans, the experience can be magical.
For me, there is a place we visit deep inside ourselves that is at once our truest self and also our common, communal humanity. We visit it when we get those familiar goosebumps, when our souls vibrate like a struck tuning fork and our feelings fill us and flow from our eyes.
Or when creativity and meaning escapes from us and into the world.
Some would call it euphoria. Others would call it passion. I often call it joy.
I think that many people, especially the creatively and artistically inclined chase this place, seek to live in it as long as they can, and some are capable of taking us along for the trip.
I visit it when I write and am heard by others. When I am with a person I love. When I am doing something I feel down to my bones is something I was designed to do.
On that night, at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, I got to watch a group of people put on a show. Singers, musicians, tap dancers. They took me along to that place.
There was a moment, when one singer was tearing up as she sung Sia's, "Chandelier" "I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist" and I felt it.
Moments like this are special. Music elevates words in ways that I cannot describe, only experience and I am so grateful humans invented it. It has carried me through so much in my life and given me reasons to love life when it gave me reasons to hate it.
For me, an existentialist, there is nothing braver, more beautiful, than a human being standing on the edge of the void, staring into that meaningless world, and instead of giving in, or becoming nihilstic, they put on beautiful cloths, and they dance and sing and through effort and will and creativity they CREATE meaning and they help us feel something truly wonderful.
It is fleeting. You never catch the euphoria. You only ever get to visit it. But that is of course what makes it so precious.
This is why we can sing about living as if, "tomorrow doesn't exist". It doesn't. We know it. We know that we create our tomorrows.
We create our tomorrows because... the show must go on. This tomorrow was made possible by Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and PMJ. If you haven't had a chance to attend a show there, do so. You won't regret it.
