If you’re a fan of live music, chances are you’ve spent many long nights in clubs, bars, ballrooms, or arenas, often into the wee, wee hours. When you’re in your 20s, it’s awesome and there’s no place you’d rather be, even when you get puked on by your pal as a result of that bouncy Commodore dance floor. In your 30s, getting sloshed in a live music venue until 2am is still acceptable if it’s the right band. If you’re in your 40s (like me) or older, with little kids at home (like me), the only person puking on you at 2am is your cranky toddler with Daycare Flu, and your late night rock-a-thons have taken on a completely different meaning.
So what is a live music fan to do once they hit the wall of domestic exhaustion? How about this idea: bring the live music home. Don’t even leave your house! Imagine seeing your favourite artist from the comfort of your living room La-Z-Boy at the most civilized hour of 7pm, while surrounded by your closest and now also completely lame friends. This serene scene is possible. It’s called a house concert.
Here’s what you do: figure out a way to contact your favourite artist and… just ask them. Even some of the largest names in the business will do private house concerts if you and your friends are willing to pay. You’d be surprised. A lot of artists like playing shows at 7pm, too. House concerts don’t really work for bands (unless you live in some sort of punk rock squat on Mitchell Island), but they’re great for singer-songwriters and acoustic-based groups.
Last week, my wife organized our first-ever official house concert on the front lawn of our home, starring Juno Award-winning roots band the Good Lovelies. It wasn’t easy. First we had to confirm a date with the band (a Monday night), send out the invitations, count up the RSVPs, organize enough chairs, set up some food, drink, and the sound system, as well as tarps and tents in case of rain. All of this required two full days worth of driving around the city picking up and dropping off heavy stuff.
About 75 invited people showed up, a mixture of friends and neighbours and their kids. All the adults contributed the suggested donation of $20 (kids were free), and all proceeds went to the band. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time, it didn’t rain, and the Good Lovelies strolled away with a fairly good payday. The concert on the lawn could be heard all over the neighbourhood, and that attracted plenty of looky-loos. That’s fine, but if you’re going to hang out and watch more than two or three songs at a house concert, you too should contribute to the cause, which some wander-bys didn’t.
That minor gripe aside, house concerts seem like the perfect solution. They build community, support artists, and best of all, if you’re old and exhausted like me but still love the live tunes, you don’t even have to leave your house. And nobody puked!
