Philip Glass story.
When i was younger (teen years and beyond) i would characterize myself as stoic. If i went to a concert, maybe i would stand with the rest, but i wouldn’t dance or cheer. In fact, i still don’t know how to cheer. Any attempts i made always seemed fake or poorly pretended. My wandering spirit would think i look ridiculous and i didn’t want that.
When i was younger living in yuba city, the newspapers would report ‘rolling stones performed in San Francisco last week’, or ‘the cars played in Sacramento, and their performance was pretty dry’. Basically i was never in the loop as to who was performing and so i missed out on seeing real life concerts until my late 30’s.
That was when the internet started taking off and i finally had ways of seeing what bands were playing, and even to get tickets.
I would go the extra miles for a Philip Glass concert. My goal was front seat tickets, and off the 10 Philip Glass concerts I have attended, all but 2 were in the first few rows.
But sitting in the first few rows comes with an obligation… at the conclusion of a concert, you are expected to stand, clap, cheer all in the hopes that the artist would perform a encore.
I’m pretty sure if ph peeked through the curtains and saw me there sitting while everyone else was cheering he’d skip the encore. So for Philip Glass concerts a stand, clap, pretend like I’m cheering, if their’s an encore then great.
One day, while at work, i was listening to las infants terribles. This is the album version of an opera i have seen several lines. I had my headphones on, the Walkman was turned loud, i guess i wasn’t working that hard i was really enjoying the music.
The thing about this album or opera, is that the music it loud, the singers are loud, the piano players are banging on the piano and then suddenly it stops.. All’s you can hear is the ringing from the piano base, and you know it’s over. I jumped up, started clapping, was getting ready to cheer, yell, wahoo when in realized. I’m at work listening to a cd. Phew, nobody laughed.