#takeapoll

ThinkKit Day Two:  Take a Poll

It sounds like a simple question:  What's the best concert you've attended? But it seems to torture its respondents.

I polled 10 people, myself included, and received answers ranging from Phish to Ben Folds, Michael Buble to Nine Inch Nails, Green Day to Carrie Underwood. Some chose to include venue information, others explained why the concert deserved the label of "best," but no one could give just one answer. Some of the people I polled seemed distraught at needing to pick just one saying, "Oh man, that's hard" or "I can't pick a favorite, but..." Others didn't think twice about creating a small list of two, three, sometimes four concerts.

By definition, best means "of the most excellent or desirable type or quality" leaving no room for the title to be shared. So, why is it so hard to pick the best? 

Because there are so many factors to take into consideration. Live music is an experience, and each concert is concocted of its own recipe of the elements -- venue, shared crowd experience, musicality, sentiment, special effects, crowd interaction, style, genre, etc. -- with some of the elements varying at different concerts of the same musician or band. For example, a handful of the people I polled specified a particular show by a band either mentioning the venue or something special that happened on stage during the concert.

So it's not just about the face-melting bass drops, shredded guitar solos, or movie-quality special effects. In fact, I've found that shared experience and sentiment might be the most weighted factors when answering this question -- respondents told heartfelt stories about seeing bands on their last tour as they were just falling in love with the music or sharing transcendent experiences with fellow concert-goers in the smallest of venues.

As a concert "veteran" with hundreds of concerts and a handful of music festivals under my belt, it was incredibly difficult to choose which was the best. For me, it was a very small, intimate concert at the historic Southgate House in Newport, KY in the fall of 2010. Andrew McMahon (lead singer of Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin) sat hunched over a piano accompanied by his acoustic guitarist/back-up vocalist. In between songs, he shared stories about the songs' inspirations and meanings. I have a hard time putting into words how that concert made me feel. I've never felt more united with a group of strangers. To borrow words from a favorite book, I felt infinite.