So We Caught A Show Last Night

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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I happen to have taken a little trip out through this week with my darling to get away from the hullabaloo, and she surprised me with show tickets. So I was fortunate enough to see The Prominence, a Gallente/Amarrian progressive rock and blues band I used to love in my youth, last night. The little venue we caught their show at was probably a third of the size that they played in their heyday, but their guitar work was as sharp as ever and their new drummer fits surprisingly well given he’s a good fifteen years younger than anyone else in the band.

Even today, trying to broaden my cultural experience by hearing so much in the way of different music, I still gravitate back to that era and style when I really want to sit back and just listen to music. My gratitude to @Melisma_Ramijozana for getting us tickets. It wasn’t the best of weeks, but that show really picked up my spirits and brought me back to when I was a young man at seminary.

That music always challenged me to think, to really peel apart and examine what I was hearing and why it sounded the way it did, even when it wasn’t trying to be exceptionally complicated. Time signature changes, polyrhythm, avant garde additions of different and rare physical instruments would spice up the music and invite you to more deeply understand the nuts and bolts of music to appreciate the entirety of its composition. And the lyrics, while sometimes disaffected with life, weren’t cynical like so many of their peers. It never left me feeling hopeless, even if it spent time meditating on the point of being and the nature of spirituality.

Also, I love when they would launch into a jazzified, rock version of an old blues standard, jazz classic, or hymnal. It was always amazing the way they took old songs you may have heard a million people play a million ways, they would take it and play something that sounded like they’d written it yesterday. They got to play a lot of material from their newer albums as well, which feels just as inventive as when they’d started all those years ago. It seemed like fame just sort of noticed them at some point and then, even after it had moved on, they kept going as if nothing had changed. They always were truly playing music for the sake of playing the music, and I think I appreciated that most of all.

In any case, it just had me thinking, what are you all listening to in your end of the cluster? Is it different to what you were listening to when you first got into music? How does your music make you feel?

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I don’t think I have heard about The Prominence before but I will go and check it out.

As for what I listen to: I am a massive fan of The Hu. It’s a band that combines traditional Vherokior throatsinging with modern rock. In general I tend to enjoy traditional Matari music from all the tribes, but I am always curious about learning about the music from other cultures.

Aside from that I love classical music, which sometimes surprises people. Seeing (or rather: listening) to all the individual instruments come together to create auditory art is always something that wake up emotions in me.

And finally there is rock - of all shapes. It is what I listened to when I was young and it is still what I enjoy this day. It brings up memories from the past that can make me both smile or cry. And it can still make me dance like there is no tomorrow.

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That sounds fascinating! Does The Hu only play in the Republic or can I catch them elsewhere?

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They have been touring in the Federation. I can try and set up a gig if people are interested.

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I don’t suppose I care for music in the conventional sense, per - se.

So I guess this takes some explaining , which I don’t mind doing. :grin:

My owners family was Ni - Kunni , and from age 6 they had me trained as a Wind Dancer.

You might think a dancer would be into music , and I was ; In the sense that I was really into dance , and the music served a practical and utilitarian purpose in the dance.

In that context , I would get carried away with the music , as I was literally acting out the music. Dance is music made physical and visual .

I like the many pieces written for the Wind Dance in the sense that , and as I said , I relate to those pieces as physical steps , movements , and gestures , and VISUALIZE the music , rather more than HEARING it , if that makes any sense ?

On Mishi IV they don’t have birds , they have , rather , many species of flying reptiles. I hear that birds are melodious chatterboxes ? It’s the same with flying reptiles.

My well - to - do owners had several Pterodactyl feeders and one of my tasks as a little girl was to maintain these feeders . Some of these species are carnivorous scavengers , and so they were fed with the scraps and garbage from the butchers. That could be a rather nasty chore sometimes. Other species eat nuts and seeds though , which isn’t bad.

Anyway , to get to my point , when the flying reptiles loitered around the feeders they would form a kind of natural orchestra , honking , cackling , cawing , chirping , and singing to each other.

I loved to sit and listen to them.

I Love the Ammatar Mandate and the Amarr Empire , but for some reason I just adore Minmatar technology.
The clanking , clinking , tinkling , hissing , thumping , roaring sound of Minmatar ships , especially Reapers and Bellicose , are a kind of music to me.

And , finally , I Love Church music because , just as with dance in the former case , it serves a practical and utilitarian purpose in the ritual of the Church.

Excessively emotional . Often I cry , or for a moment I even have warm , fuzzy , feelings for those Minmatar Republic folks. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::laughing:

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Piano and cello duets.

Acapella quartets.

Electrosynth bands.

Achuran anime pop music from Sukuuvestaa.

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I really like the traditional cultural music of some of the Minmatar tribes. I mean, not Thukk rock or anything - that’s far too loud - but the melodic, soulful songs that often inspired them. There are some that are more folksy with intricate harmonies and others that are more jazzy and instrumental but rely on the players all getting into the same mode and improvising together.

Both are often songs about lost lands and lost loves and, perhaps, it is something I identify with at a deeper level. Who knows?

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I’m glad the show was able to offer you a much-deserved pick-me-up. I’ll certainly endeavor to procure more such tickets in the future.

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You’re amazing, you know that?

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Oh, there’s a lot of music I’m listening to. And a lot of it is different from what I were listening to, when i first got into music.

Music is in many regards like a sister to her brother language. Melody, harmony, rhytmn, metre, timbre… they are found in all music, all over the cluster. And music is especially great to communicate what touches us most deeply, emotionally - it is itself striking those chords inside us. If executed well, music can fill my heart with joy, it can make me weep in sadness and it can lull me to calm sleep. It covers the full spectrum of human experience, there.

I greatly appreciate this ability of music to enable us to communicate without the bounds of language. And I think one can barely underestimate its potential to bring humanity together and have us advance towards unity.

As to what kind of music I mostly listen to? Church music is certainly on top of the list. I especially enjoy some of the most ancient chants. I also love to listen to religious music from all over the cluster. But I don’t shy away from music that is meant to mainly entertain, either.

For example, I love the Gallentean chanson and some chanteurs are at the top of the list of my favourite musicians. That’s not saying I don’t find enjoyment in some forms of Matari and Caldari music either - quite the contrary is true, but I won’t list all the single styles that I like.

Suffice to say, if the music makes good use the qualities I ascribed to music in general above, chances are I will find some merit in it - and also enjoy listening to it.

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I am equally fond of piano and cello duets. Also, I adore the opera.

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