A Sunday Evening House Show

Most of the music I listen to — e.g., ambient, shoegaze, synthwave — is perfectly suited for being introverted, for drawing inward and living inside my head(phones). As such, it was refreshing to step outside last night and attend a house show, crammed into a living room with friends and strangers to watch a trio of excellent singer/songwriters — Jenny Hietbrink, Karen Choi, and Nick Dahlquist — sing songs and tell stories.

It was a good reminder that a) some of my favorite musical experiences — midnight shows at the Cornerstone festival, my roommates and I hosting punk shows in our basement, playing concerts with my own band — were communal in nature, and b) that while I deeply enjoy the headphone experience of reducing the world to just me and an enjoyable album, music comes alive in a way unlike any other when it’s shared with others.