Do We Have The Right

Can Carol and I claim Ray LaMontagne as our own?

Do we have the right?

This thought crossed my mind at the concert we attended last weekend. Ray L is a singer songwriter of immense talent and sensitivity. He is forty years old.

Carol discovered him a few years back and immediately fell in love with him. Through exposure and in time, I fell in love with him as well. His music is gorgeous, his words are thoughtful and thought provoking, his soul is out there for all to dig.

We have been to three of his concerts now. Maybe more. My memory is not to be trusted.

We have been surprised by the number of very young people who attend these concerts. I know in my mind because I am an elder statesman, I feel like my peers are the people Ray appeals to. So I have been surprised at the youth in attendance.

And disgusted with them. Many of Ray's songs are quietly emotional; he often brings them down to a whisper. We saw him up in Maine or Vermont or Colorado or Alaska -  I can't quite remember where - in a small and funky place.

The youth talked, laughed and distracted right through the most sensitive parts of his most sensitive songs. We were disgusted.

Saw him somewhere else. Again in a funky place I think, maybe; anyway and that audience seemed more respectful. We were not horrified.

Last weekend the concert was at the Bank of America Pavilion right on Boston's waterfront. A super cool place to experience music. It is a wide open and temporary tented facility. Fascinating. Although it was goddamn cold and we were not dressed for it.

I was frozen like a Klondike bar. Carol, more cold blooded (warm blooded?) than I, was still able to move her limbs. Although I could be wrong about that too.

The audience sucked. There was a large contingent of the young in attendance. They never stopped moving during the concert. There was a constant stream of people walking through the rows, up and down the isles and back again. In between songs, conversation was non stop and loud.

That's when the thought hit me - Carol and I are twenty years older than Ray LaMontagne - are we really his audience? Or is his audience this young and disrespectful, irreverent bunch of superficial jerk offs?

The thought only lasted a second. Music is universal. We are his audience.

Things have changed. (Here we go) when I was a kid, booze was not sold at concerts. You had to get loaded before you got inside. No pizza, ice cream, tacos, subs or any other goddamn thing were available. The only time you left your seat was to go to the bathroom. And you made the trip as quickly as you could because you couldn't wait to get back to the music.

The music was secondary to this audience. The kids were constantly up getting beers, bringing back whole pizzas, going to the bathroom and, oh yeah, staring numbly at their goddamn "smart" phones. They are distracted; not plugged in to the music.

What a fucking waste.

Our society is becoming more superficial at an exponentially increasing rate. You can't have a conversation with someone under a certain age without them stopping to tweet or check their goddamn text messages. What is being lost is connection, the human element.

Music is sacred.

As a kid I got drunk and I got high before concerts. Beyond destroying a few brain cells and compromising my health and driving drunk, nothing else was subtracted from the experience. I used to get mad when my friends tried to say something to me because the music was loud and I had to turn away to concentrate on what they were saying. Practically had to read lips.

Music was not sacred to this bunch. I think that worship has been lost to a large extent. And I gotta believe Ray LaMontagne does not appreciate the noise and distraction at his shows.

He is an old soul.

Carol and I have claimed Ray LaMontagne as our own. We refuse to let go. But I now realize that we have to work harder to catch him in the right setting.

The big show carnival thing doesn't support the beauty of his music. At least in smaller, funkier settings we have a chance of facilitating the flow of his magic directly into our souls unimpeded.

A chance.

Enjoying music should not be a calculated thing. It should flow, it should be natural, it should be joyous.

We had many joyous moments at Ray's concert on the water in the tent with the kids. But there were a lot of distractions and annoyances as well.

A lot.