Author: Bob Ross

6 years. 50 shows. 10 000 unique website visits. 1 EP. 1 album. 12 singles.

We sure like to measure things don’t we? We’ll slap a number on just about anything you can imagine. And it’s no exageration – see for yourself: go ahead and Google ‘how many grains of rice will fit inside a New York City subway car’ and there will be an answer or a path to one. It’s because we have these little mental number labels attached to the rice and the subway car, each one has a length and width and depth that can be used to calculate their volume. And then it’s just high-school division.

There are many situations where that’s a good, useful, and even necessary thing. For example it makes sense to use a phrase like ‘the subway car is bigger than the grain of rice’. We just need to compare their labels and let the numbers tell the story. We can say things like ‘I can’t afford that TV’ because it describes a situation that can be measured – the number of dollars needed to buy the TV is greater than the number of dollars available to me at the moment. Or we can pin a number label on how many goals a sports team will score against a rival team, and bet money on the outcome of the game. These are all examples of clear and measurable things.

Now, cut scene: there’s a young woman at the rock show, listening to the band on stage. She’d never heard of them before. They’re some local underground band playing in a local underground bar. They’re pretty good, and she’s just bouncing and swaying along with everyone else, when suddenly it happens;.the band plays a song that resonates with her so much she gets goose-bumps, wide-eyed and jaw-dropped as she absorbs this unexpected experience. And when the song is over she’s like ‘what the fuck just happened??’ 

The live music experience. That’s what just happened. It’s a combination of music being performed in real time by real human beings you can see right there in front of you, mixed in with the lights and the atmosphere, and the the connection created with all the people around you with whom you’re sharing the experience. Experiencing the experience.

How can you put a number on that? How do you quantify an emotion? An experience? Can you imagine trying to come up with an equation or formula for that? Let’s see…take the decibels the music playing at and multiply by the square root of the wattage of the Marshalls? Then add the coefficient of the tempo? Times the number of people in the bar? That’s just being silly, of course, but it does illustrate the point; how can you ever measure such an ethereal but profound effect?

We think you just can’t. You have to experience it. There’s no other way and it’s meaningless to even try to compare one experience to another because they are each separate and unique. That’s the whole point. It’s no wonder the word experience is both a noun and a verb, it is it’s own thing.

And from the band’s point of view, it’s incredibly humbling. It puts the wind in our sails to keep doing it (spoiler alert: it sure ain’t for the money!), and validates our belief that people still appreciate and seek out good music played with passion, integrity and skill. You see, a band writing a song is a lot like one hand clapping, it needs ‘the other’ to be complete. The song needs a listener to complete the circle and it isn’t really finished until it finds one. Publishing music on a streaming platform like Spotify or Apple Music is pretty cool, and super convenient for the listener, but it’s rather like a postponed applause. The reaction is delayed, and the experience is a just a little bit diminished because of it. Live shows put the listener and the musicians in the same space at the same time. The reaction is immediate, and often the bar is small enough that it’s inevitable you’ll run into the band and you can literally just hang out. It’s literally the perfect circle.

If you’ve been out to local indie shows around town you know exactly what we mean. If you haven’t we highly recommend you do. There are plenty of shows to choose from in every genre. It’s almost certain there’s a “What’s happening in town tonight” Facebook group for where you live that will list them all. Pick one. Chances are good you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Here in the Ottawa area, we’re thrilled to carry on the live music tradition at PandaFest III on July 19th, 2024 at Dominion Tavern in the the heart of the ByWard Market. Then on August 9th we’ll be at the White Water Rocks – Summerdaze 2024 festival in Westmeath, Ontario banging out some tunes along with Evil Creek, Beyond Driven, Ginny and the Re-Arrangers, and so many more! Ticket info for both events in the event links above! Go!

We sincerely hope to see you all at one of the upcoming shows, and if we’re not playing we’ll probably be rocking out right beside you cheering on of the many amazing bands here in town.

Until then, rock on and peace out!